WESTWOOD, Calif. - Not even warm California sunshine could change the outcome everyone has grown to expect in men's tennis' cross-coast rivalry.
For the eighth time in the nine meetings between two of the nation's top programs, Duke was no match for the UCLA Bruins. While last month's 5-2 defeat to UCLA at the National Team Indoor Championships was viewed nationally as an upset, it didn't surprise anyone when the second-ranked Bruins (14-2) again triumphed 5-2 over No. 3 Duke (9-3) at the Los Angeles Tennis Center six days ago.
The Blue Devils entered the match with the third-ranked doubles combo and three of the top-45 singles players in the nation, while UCLA couldn't boast even one singles players in the top 50. But none of that mattered when the two teams took to the court, as the Bruins swept the three doubles matches and won four of the six contests in singles.
Afterwards, there were no answers, only excuses, for Duke.
"It could have been different with Pedro [Escudero]," Blue Devil coach Jay Lapidus said. "We're a totally different team with him in the lineup. He makes us very tough for other teams to match up with."
Escudero, Duke's preseason No. 1 player, missed the first nine matches of his senior season, but he returned from his injuries triumphantly a week ago yesterday in a three-set win at No. 3 singles in the Blue Devils' 6-1 victory over Princeton, which kicked off a disappointing 1-2 California road trip for Duke.
Escudero came out sizzling against Princeton as he won his first set at love, but he struggled through the next two sets before finally putting it away in a third-set tiebreaker. Lapidus said that the long match, combined with a rigorous practice Monday, caused Escudero's arm to swell up and prevented him from playing Tuesday against the Bruins.
His teammates sorely missed him.
Duke defaulted the No. 3 doubles match when Michael Yani was struck by a ball in the eye, while UCLA's Jean-Noel Grinda and Jean-Julien Rojer guaranteed the Bruins the point for doubles when they rattled off four consecutive games to defeat Duke's duo of Ted Rueger and Andres Pedroso, 8-4, at No. 2 doubles. On court one, Ramsey Smith and Doug Root-previously ranked third among the nation's doubles teams-blew three break chances in three different games to dump a frustrating match, 8-6.
"It was one of those days," Lapidus said. "Doug was missing returns on break points and they were coming up with big shots, so it was a combination of both. When you miss one or two on break point, you start to see a domino effect and it becomes easier to miss more."
Despite losing all three doubles contests, the Blue Devils evened the match score at 1-1 when Porter Jones raced through his match at No. 5 singles with a dominating straight-set victory. After Marko Cerenko dropped his match at No. 6 singles in two sets, Pedroso again pulled the Blue Devils into a tie with a remarkable second-set rally over Grinda.
Down 5-2 in the second set, Pedroso ripped off five consecutive games, celebrating his 6-4, 7-5 win by raising both arms jubilantly in the air after a a Grinda backhand sailed wide to complete the comeback.
But it wasn't there for Duke's top two players. Root, who squandered six of the critical nine break opportunities in his doubles match by failing to put the service return into play even on four second serves, saw the dominoes continue to fall as he lost four straight games in the first set and four out of five in the second set of a 6-3, 6-4 steamrolling by Brandon Kramer at No. 2 singles.
Smith jumped out to a 3-1 first-set lead over Jong-Min Lee, but Lee gave Duke's top man trouble all day on his serve as Smith was broken six times in a 4-6, 2-6 defeat. Smith did erase five match points in the final game, but Lee closed out the match and the Blue Devils with a blistering cross-court return winner off of one of Smith's toughest serves of the day.
"Ramsey got off to a real quick start and got up on him early, but the way Lee returns and counters, it's really hard to solidify breaks," Lapidus said. "It's hard to attack him and of our guys who could play him [Root and Smith] are attackers, so it's hard for us to match up with him."
Thursday, the Blue Devils dropped another disappointing match to Pepperdine (13-0). Although the 13th-ranked Waves entered undefeated and having defeated UCLA on Feb. 1, their mediocre national ranking made Duke the early favorite.
Yet, again without Escudero, the Blue Devils dropped four out of six singles matches and all three doubles matches in a 5-2 defeat at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center in Malibu, Calif.
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