Redlicki No. 1 in Latest Oracle/ITA Rankings
November 16, 2017 | Men's Tennis
TEMPE, Ariz. โ UCLA men's tennis player Martin Redlicki has been elevated to the No. 1 spot in the Oracle/ITA Division I Men's National Singles Rankings, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced Wednesday. The senior is the first Bruin to lay claim to the top men's spot since Mackenzie McDonald was rewarded for winning the NCAA singles title on June 1, 2016.
Redlicki, who began the fall campaign at No. 24 in the nation, played on the ITA's two largest fall stages to begin his final season. In October, the Boca Raton, Fla. native won five matches en route to the final round of the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla. There, he dropped the title to North Carolina's William Blumberg, who jumped from No. 5 to No. 2 in the newest rankings.
Closer to home, Redlicki next took on a stacked field at the November Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in the California desert. There, he dropped first sets in the Round of 16 and quarterfinal stages, but was able to recover for a semifinal berth. His run would end in the tournament's final four against Mississippi State's Nuno Borges, who is slotted at No. 4.
Of Redlicki's nine fall wins, four came against current members of the Oracle/ITA Singles Top 10. In fact, of that quartet, none of No. 4 Petros Chrysochos (Wake Forest), No. 6 Thomas Laurent (Oregon), No. 8 Alfredo Perez (Florida) or No. 9 Alex Knight (Michigan) was able to crack the Bruin for even a set.
Last season, Redlicki posted a 29-9 overall singles record and a 24-7 doubles mark. He set his previous career-high singles ranking of No. 20 in the Sept. 13 preseason list. He ended his junior season a First-Team All-Pac-12 honoree and was named an ITA All-America selection for doubles with Evan Zhu. The tandem of Redlicki and Zhu was also named the Pac-12 Doubles Team of the Year after reaching a season-high No. 3 in the Oracle/ITA Doubles Rankings.
Two other Bruins were also included in the latest edition of the singles rankings. Senior Logan Staggs jumped to No. 55 after starting the year at No. 75. He went 8-4, playing in the same tournaments as Redlicki, as well as the ITA Southwest Regional Championships. Freshman Keegan Smith, meanwhile, made his debut in the rankings at No. 108. He went 12-3 and captured his first tournament championship at the Jack Kramer Club Collegiate Invitational earlier this month.
