{"id":639618,"date":"2026-04-30T02:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T02:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/639618\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T02:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T02:24:09","slug":"mens-tennis-meets-arizona-state-for-ncaa-opener-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/639618\/","title":{"rendered":"Men’s Tennis Meets Arizona State for NCAA Opener Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

UCLA starts its 2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championship journey Friday at the University of San Diego’s Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center. The Bruins (17-7) take on Arizona State (17-10) in the opening round, with first serve scheduled for 10 a.m. PT. Fifteenth-seeded San Diego (20-5) faces off with UC Santa Barbara (18-7) at 1 p.m. Advancing teams meet Saturday at 12 p.m. Tickets are available HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW LIVE

\nSan Diego (VIDEO & STATS<\/a>) provides lives coverage of matches played at Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center. Additionally, in-match updates for home and road contests can be found on the UCLA men’s tennis X account<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NCAA Tournament Appearances: 48th

\nOverall Won-Lost Record: 128-43

\nAppearances Unseeded: Fifth

\nRound of 16 Appearances (Last): 44 (2025)

\nQuarterfinal Round Appearances (Last): 40 (2025)

\nSemifinal Round Appearances (Last): 27 (2018)

\nFinal Round Appearances (Last): 12 (2013)

\nNCAA Championships (Since 1977): 4 (1979, 1982, 1984, 2005)

\nNCAA Championships (Total): 16 (1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1960, 1961, 1965, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1982, 1984, 2005)<\/p>\n

UCLA IN THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

\nThe UCLA men’s tennis program has qualified for the NCAA tournament 48 times in 49 years since the format was adopted. The Bruins have collected 16 NCAA team titles, including four since the changeover in 1977. They have also been one of the last 16 teams standing 44 times. UCLA holds a 128-43 record in NCAA play. UCLA is 68-5 against Arizona State. The programs have never met in NCAA tournament play. They most recently faced off March 22, 2024, when the Sun Devils posted a 4-2 victory at Los Angeles Tennis Center.<\/p>\n

LAST TIME OUT

\nFourth-seeded UCLA advanced to the Big Ten Tournament semifinal round before falling to top seed and eventual champion Michigan State (April 24) at Libbey Park in Ojai, Calif. The Bruins rolled to a 4-0 victory against fifth-seeded USC (April 23) in the quarterfinals, where Aadarsh Tripathi<\/a> overcame a 0-4 third-set deficit to beat Jack McCarthy 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 in clinching fashion on Court 4. Cassius Chinlund<\/a> and Rudy Quan<\/a> added singles wins. UCLA nabbed the doubles point versus Michigan State and Tripathi again won in singles play, but the Spartans controlled the top courts and sealed their championship-match berth on Court 5. Tripathi was named to the Big Ten All-Tournament Team.<\/p>\n

IN THE RANKINGS

\nTeam (April 21): No. 21 UCLA

\nSingles (April 21): No. 36 Emon van Loben Sels<\/a>, No. 52 Spencer Johnson<\/a>, No. 87 Rudy Quan<\/a>

\nDoubles (April 21): No. 34 Spencer Johnson<\/a>\/Emon van Loben Sels<\/a>, No. 54 Rudy Quan<\/a>\/Aadarsh Tripathi<\/a><\/p>\n

TRIO SELECTED TO ALL-BIG TEN TEAMS

\nSpencer Johnson<\/a>, Rudy Quan<\/a> and Emon van Loben Sels<\/a> were recognized April 23 by the Big Ten Conference, which announced its year-end men’s tennis awards. Quan and van Loben Sels, who was also named a Sportsmanship Honoree, were voted onto the All-Big Ten First Team. Johnson made the All-Big Ten Second Team. Quan earned his second first-team designation in as many years, while van Loben Sels was elevated from his second-team status a year ago. Johnson’s selection marked a first in his career. The sportsmanship award, which is presented annually to one player from each member team, was also collected by van Loben Sels in 2025.<\/p>\n

MORE 2025-26 AWARDS

\nEmon van Loben Sels<\/a> Named Big Ten Co-Player of the Week<\/a> \u2013 April 1

\nChinlund Voted Big Ten Freshman of the Week<\/a> \u2013 March 25

\nQuan Deemed Men’s Tennis Player to Watch in Big Ten<\/a> \u2013 Jan. 9

\nJohnson Named Big Ten Player of the Week<\/a> \u2013 Oct. 22, 2025<\/p>\n

MILESTONE WATCH

\nWhen Aadarsh Tripathi<\/a> beat Jack McCarthy to clinch a Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal-round sweep of USC, the senior reached 100 career wins across singles and doubles matches (now 49 singles, 52 doubles). Tripathi was the third Bruin to achieve the milestone in 2026. Junior Spencer Johnson<\/a> accomplished the feat (now 54 singles, 53 doubles) in a 4-1 win against USC (March 13). Johnson and doubles partner Tripathi took down McCarthy\/Andrin Casanova 6-3 on Court 1 to reach the mark. Redshirt junior Emon van Loben Sels<\/a> hit triple digits (now 53 singles, 65 doubles) in a 6-1 victory at Purdue (March 8). He joined the club in doubles play, teaming with Gianluca Ballotta<\/a> to beat Nikola Jovic\/Maj Premzl 6-4 on Court 2.<\/p>\n

MR. CLUTCH

\nRedshirt junior Emon van Loben Sels<\/a> has developed a reputation for thriving late in close matches, with that most recently illustrated in the Bruins’ 4-3 win at California earlier this season (Feb. 1). With all eyes on Court 3, where van Loben Sels squared off against Timofey Stepanov, the Bruin saw his 5-2 third-set lead turn into a 5-6, 15-40 deficit. The next three points would go the way of van Loben Sels, as well as seven of 11 in the tiebreaker to give UCLA a team victory. This followed the example of his thrilling 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3 Court 2 triumph over Ohio State’s Alexander Bernard that sealed another 4-3 result in the 2025 Big Ten Tournament championship match. This also snapped the Buckeyes’ 76-match home winning streak. For his career, van Loben Sels has clinched eight wins to lead all current Bruins.<\/p>\n

FALL RECAP

\nThe NCAA Championship individual draws included four Bruins, with Spencer Johnson<\/a> and Rudy Quan<\/a> earning singles spots and Johnson\/Emon van Loben Sels<\/a> and Quan\/Aadarsh Tripathi<\/a> qualifying on the doubles side. At the ITA Southwest Regional Championships, Johnson and Quan reached the singles final to ensure their berths. Johnson\/van Loben Sels punched its ticket the next day, winning the event’s doubles title. Quan\/Tripathi secured a spot in the ITA West Sectional Championships doubles final to join the field. Four of van Loben Sels’ team-high seven singles wins (7-4) came against nationally-ranked players. Johnson\/van Loben Sels went 7-2 in doubles play to lead UCLA, while Quan\/Tripathi finished the year 5-2.<\/p>\n

2024-25 IN REVIEW

\nThe Bruins (19-9, 11-2 in Big Ten play) won 17 of their final 20 matches, highlighted by an improbable run to their program’s first Big Ten Tournament championship. The team capped its run to the title by beating host and top-seeded Ohio State in a 4-3 thriller that snapped the Buckeyes’ 76-match home winning streak. Unseeded UCLA went on to reach its first NCAA Championship quarterfinal round, beating crosstown rival USC at Los Angeles Tennis Center to get there. It was a breakout campaign for Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player Emon van Loben Sels<\/a>, who was also voted the ITA Southwest Region’s Most Improved Player and Player to Watch going into 2025-26. Rudy Quan<\/a> manned the top singles spot in a majority of the team’s matches en route to Big Ten Freshman of the Year recognition. Alexander Hoogmartens<\/a>, Spencer Johnson<\/a> and Aadarsh Tripathi<\/a> each earned All-America recognition for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n

WHO’S BACK?

\nThe Bruins return four of their top six singles winners and a quartet of doubles standouts from 2024-25, led by Emon van Loben Sels<\/a>. The ITA Southwest Region’s reigning Most Improved Player and Player to Watch led UCLA with a 24-9 singles record and a 23-10 doubles mark. A pair of All-Americans in Spencer Johnson<\/a> and Aadarsh Tripathi<\/a> also return. Hampered with an injury that kept him out for much of dual-match play, Johnson still finished his sophomore campaign 17-7 in singles play and 15-5 on the doubles side. Tripathi logged a 22-12 doubles showing while going 14-10 in singles. The Big Ten’s newest Freshman of the Year, Rudy Quan<\/a>, is back after turning in a 13-8 singles mark. He spent most of his debut dual-match campaign on the top singles court. Rounding out the list of regular contributors returning to the Bruins is Gianluca Ballotta<\/a>, whose 15-9 doubles record was boosted by an 10-2 performance in Big Ten Conference contests.<\/p>\n

WHO’S NEW?

\nCassius Chinlund<\/a>, Andy Nguyen<\/a>, Bengt Reinhard<\/a> and Will Steinberg<\/a> join the Bruins for 2025-26. Redshirt freshman Chinlund (Los Angeles, Calif. \/ ICL Academy) makes his dual-match debut after sitting out the 2025 dual-match campaign. The former top-ranked USTA junior singles player won the Boys’ 18 singles title at the 2023 Easter Bowl in Orlando, Fla. Junior Nguyen (Long Beach, Calif. \/ UC Irvine) joins the fold from UC Irvine, where he was voted Big West Freshman of the Year in 2024 and collected all-conference honors for both singles and doubles \u2013 including first-team nods in 2024-25 \u2013 each of his two years. He attended Millikan High School before becoming an Anteater. Freshman Reinhard (Fulda, Germany \/ Privatgymnasium Schwetzingen) swept Germany’s singles and doubles national titles for the 14-and-under age division. He went on to achieve runner-up status in each for the 16-and-under category. Steinberg (Santa Barbara, Calif. \/ Dos Pueblos HS), who joined the team in March, played on the top singles court all four years of his high school career.<\/p>\n

BRUINS ON TOUR

\nFormer UCLA standouts continue to be household names in the professional ranks, with Maxime Cressy<\/a>, Marcos Giron, Mackenzie McDonald and Jean-Julien Rojer turning in notable results across the Grand Slams and on the ATP Tour in recent years. Giron is currently No. 76 in the ATP singles rankings. He rose to a career-high spot of No. 37 after claiming his first ATP crown by knocking off fellow American Alex Michelsen at the 2024 Hall of Fame Open. Giron reached the BNP Paribas Open singles fourth round and the Australian Open singles third round in 2025. He knocked off world No. 5 Casper Ruud during his run in Indian Wells, Calif. McDonald, who opened 2023 by beating top seed and defending champion Rafael Nadal in three sets at the Australian Open, represented the United States at the Davis Cup Finals in Uzbekistan and achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 37 the same year. Rojer collected his fourth Grand Slam title at Roland-Garros in 2022, teaming with Marcelo Arevalo to defeat Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek in the final. Rojer won three ATP championships with Arevalo in 2023 and another alongside Lloyd Glasspool in 2024. Cressy picked up his first ATP Tour championship and saw his singles ranking reach a career-best No. 31 when he beat Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan at the 2022 Hall of Fame Open in Newport, R.I. An ATP doubles title followed for Cressy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he teamed with Fabrice Martin to take the 2023 Dubai Open’s top prize. Cressy stepped away from the tour in 2025 due to an ongoing lower back injury and is currently an undergraduate assistant coach for the Bruins.<\/p>\n

MORE MARTIN MILESTONES

\nThe 2025-26 season marks head coach Billy Martin<\/a>‘s 33rd year at the helm of the UCLA men’s tennis program and 43rd since joining the staff of friend, mentor and fellow UCLA Athletic Hall of Famer Glenn Bassett. Martin, who passed Bassett to became the program’s all-time leader in head-coaching wins during the 2019 season, is the longest-tenured active coach at UCLA. He holds a career record of 693-182 (.792) as head coach. Martin guided the 2005 Bruins to the program’s 16th NCAA team title and 24 of his squads have finished in the top five at the season-ending NCAA Championships. UCLA has collected 15 regular-season Pac-12 titles and five conference tournament (four Pac-12, one Big Ten) championships under Martin. Mackenzie McDonald (2016), Marcos Giron (2014) and Benjamin Kohlloeffel (2006) have claimed NCAA singles titles on Martin’s watch, while UCLA has become a frequent landing spot for doubles champions of late. In addition to 1996 winning pair Justin Gimelstob\/Srdjan Muskatirovic, three of the most recent seven titleholders \u2013 Maxime Cressy<\/a>\/Keegan Smith in 2019, Martin Redlicki\/Evan Zhu in 2018 and McDonald\/Redlicki in 2016 \u2013 have called Westwood home. Martin’s decorated career as a Bruin expands to his playing career, as he helped the 1975 team to an NCAA team championship before going on to capture the singles crown in his lone season before pursuing a professional career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UCLA starts its 2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championship journey Friday at the University of San Diego’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-639618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}