Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

After all of the talk regarding contributing productively to BN, I kinda feel inspired to at least make an attempt to do so.  And since I know there are plenty of people who know way more about football (especially UCLA football) than I do, and since the US Open just wrapped up (congrats to Nadal on his Career Grand Slam), I thought I'd check out our tennis teams and see how they've been doing in 2010.

For relatively new BN peeps like me, here's a background on UCLA Tennis.

Ladies first, of course:

Women's tennis won its first NCAA championship in the sport for UCLA in 2008, led by the play of NCAA tournament's Most Outstanding Player, Riza Zalameda.  The team has been coached for the last 14 years by Stella Sampras Webster, who as many know is the older sister of the great Pete Sampras.  Although, UCLA Women's Tennis recently won its first (hopefully of many) NCAA championship, it has been on the cusp for a while, finishing in the Top 5 nationally on many occasions (1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008).

As for the Men:

The UCLA Men's tennis program has produced a staggering 16 NCAA Championships (second only to our great Men's Volleyball team with 19 Championships) in providing a large chunk of the hardware that has led us to be #1 in NCAA Championships.  Our most renowned players include Jimmy Connors, who won 8 Singles Grand Slam titles and 2 Doubles Grand Slam titles in his career, and Arthur Ashe, the first African-American to represent the US team in the Davis Cup, one of the founding members of the ATP, and who won 3 Singles Grand Slam titles and 2 Doubles Grand Slam titles.  Our most recent Men's Tennis championship was in 2005.

Now for the 2010 update on our former alumni who were at the US Open after the jump.

This info was what I could compile from a combination of the UCLA Athletics, the ATP and the WTA websites.

Women's Tennis Alumni:

                                             Country               Singles/Doubles   Current Ranking     Highest Ranking     Years at UCLA

And for the Men's Tennis Alumni:

                                             Country               Singles/Doubles   Current Ranking     Highest Ranking     Years at UCLA

In regards to our current UCLA tennis programs, both the Men's and Women's seasons start January 2011.  In the meantime, per the official site, congratulations are in order as several of our players have been selected to compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-American Championships, which will be held Oct 2-10.  The Women's will take place locally at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.  The Men's event will be at the University of Tulsa.  Here's the link to the official site.

Anyways, I tried to make the info as informative and concise as possible.  I've appreciated the updates regarding our UCLA players in other pro sports in the past.  So, I thought it'd be nice to see what UCLA tennis players are doing.  Hope it helps! 

And, of course, especially as its my first fanpost, I would appreciate any formatting help that a BN moderator feels necessary. 

ps. I did also read the BN: 101 posted in the archives from earlier this year and found it amusing that one line states...

But if you're new and if you haven't made a FanPost before, your FanPost on tennis probably isn't going to be received very well.

but I am hoping that this is a worthy enough contribution regarding UCLA athletics to be accepted.  Thanks for your patience!

(And now that I've finally finished this...  I can get back to reading all the great UCLA football posts!)

(I can also better appreciate all the time everyone puts in to doing all of the frontpage and fanposts... so thank you again!)