![\"(Karla](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/B.sp_.mten_.wrap_.3.23.26.KCF_.jpg\")
Redshirt junior Emon van Loben Sels prepares to serve the ball. Van Loben Sels picked up a pair of singles victories over the weekend. (Karla Cardenas-Felipe\/Daily Bruin staff)<\/p>\nGianluca Ballotta gripped his ankle and writhed in pain on the heat-charged asphalt.<\/p>\n
The wounded senior was unable to place any weight on his leg.<\/p>\n
But Ballotta returned to the court just a few minutes later, using his racket as both a cane and a sword.<\/p>\n
His mobility was impaired and assistant coach Wil Martin repositioned him along the court between points.<\/p>\n
His attack ability was also limited, with redshirt junior Emon van Loben Sels traversing the length of the court to cover for his doubles partner.<\/p>\n
But Ballotta\u2019s will to remain on the court never subsided.<\/p>\n
No. 24 UCLA men\u2019s tennis (11-3, 5-0 Big Ten) extended its win streak to six this weekend after defeating Wisconsin (11-5, 2-4) 6-1 on Friday and Nebraska (9-8, 1-5) 6-0 on Sunday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. The weekend opened with a display of tenacity from Ballotta, who finished doubles play against Wisconsin despite an ankle injury that left him in a boot post match.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really was incredible,\u201d said coach Billy Martin. \u201cI didn\u2019t want him to do it unless he really wanted to, and he did. Give credit to Emon, too, for covering 99% of the court. But it was a gutsy effort \u2013 there\u2019s no doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Ballotta and van Loben Sels extended their doubles record to 8-1, the pair\u2019s winning effort was not enough to secure the Bruins\u2019 doubles point.<\/p>\n
But the moment served as a catalyst that inspired the group\u2019s response, said No. 119 sophomore Rudy Quan.<\/p>\n
Redshirt junior Emon van Loben Sels prepares to serve the ball. Van Loben Sels picked up a pair of singles victories over the weekend. (Karla Cardenas-Felipe\/Daily Bruin staff)<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Ballotta) probably shouldn\u2019t have played on it, but he chose to play because that\u2019s how bad he wants to help us succeed,\u201d Quan said. \u201cIt just helped motivate us in a sense that, \u2018He\u2019s willing to put his body on the line, so why not we do the same?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Quan completed an undefeated weekend on the singles front, defeating Wisconsin\u2019s Patrik Meszaros with a 10-point tiebreaker and final scoreline of 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (10) on Friday before trouncing Nebraska\u2019s No. 81 Nikolay Sysoev 6-2, 6-1 on Sunday.<\/p>\n
It marked the latest pair of winning efforts in a series of successful singles matches from the sophomore, who has won nine of his last 10 outings. Quan said his Friday play was subpar whereas his Sunday performance reflected his brand of tennis.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday (Sunday) was a new day for me,\u201d Quan said. \u201cNo need to try and make major adjustments. Playing with confidence ultimately helped me throughout the whole match today.\u201d<\/p>\n
No. 33 van Loben Sels swept the weekend as well, defeating Badger Ferdinand Kloesters 6-3, 6-2 and Cornhusker Jeri Lassila 7-6 (5), 6-3. The 2025 Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player is riding an eight-match singles win streak this season and is undefeated in dual-match conference play.<\/p>\n
Despite his success, van Loben Sels said his focus last weekend was to refine his craft.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been making some technical changes on my forehand, my serve, my backhand, too,\u201d van Loben Sels said. \u201cThe season\u2019s long, and I just have to keep improving and keep chipping away at new things that I can work on so that I\u2019m good to go for the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
A line down from van Loben Sels, junior Andy Nguyen pushed his win streak to four this weekend, defeating both Wisconsin\u2019s Edouard Aubert and Nebraska\u2019s Niels Van Der Sijs in straight sets.<\/p>\n
Nguyen\u2019s recent efforts mark his longest series of consecutive wins since transferring from UC Irvine last summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am seeing exactly what I expected to see from Andy Nguyen,\u201d Billy Martin said. \u201cHe\u2019s a very dangerous player, and he\u2019s finally starting to play like Andy Nguyen and not being nervous about being here. \u2026 He\u2019s calming down, relaxing and playing within himself now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gianluca Ballotta gripped his ankle and writhed in pain on the heat-charged asphalt. The wounded senior was unable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-556863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}