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UCLA’s Chris Surapol (left) with Georgia’s John Isner at the Ralph Lauren All-America

The dog days of summer are now officially over, especially for the UCLA tennis squads, who awakened from seasonal collegiate hibernation to find themselves mired in a pair of briar patches.

The men traveled to Tulsa, Okla., to play in the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Tennis Championships, while the women stayed relatively local with the Riveria/ITA All-American Tennis Championships. The women played matches all over Southern California, including Pacific Palisades and even a few qualifying matches in the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Both championships had names that were mouthfuls, and both gave the Bruins wake-up calls that, although not especially needed, provided both teams with opportunities to work out their kinks.

“We’re at a disadvantage because we just started school, while other schools have had one month to prepare,” men’s assistant coach Jason Sher said. “We really only had a few days of practice.”

So abrupt was the nature of the Bruins’ start this year that the 2006 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Player of the Year, and current-ranked No. 1, Ben Kohlloeffel, neglected to play at Ralph Lauren.

In addition, only junior Riza Zalameda saw the main draw in Pacific Palisades, falling in three sets, 6-1, 1-6, 6-1, to the fourth-seeded Zuzana Zemenova of Baylor. Zemenova lost the next day to Shadisha Robinson of South Florida.

Among the first day’s fallen was freshman Yasmin Schnack, who felt her performance in a loss to DePaul’s Beatriz Csordas was atypical.

“I was nervous because I wanted to do well, especially for my school,” Schnack said. “(Csordas) is a good player, but I could have (beaten) her.”

Despite many players ending up on the cutting-room floor, senior Chris Surapol advanced past three qualifiers to the third round of the main draw of the men’s tournament.

“This experience, especially for (Surapol), was huge. ... He won his first rounds pretty convincingly,” Sher said.

To qualify, Surapol knocked out Luis Diaz Barriga of Texas, Jarmaine Jenkins of Clemson and Martin Siegwardt of Georgia State. He built up momentum by downing Barriga in twelve of the last thirteen games, after Wednesday’s initial deficits of 1-6 and 0-4.

Surapol then dominated Yale’s Brandon Wai to start Thursday, and got past an injured Matko Maravic of Michigan, setting him up against the defending tournament champ, top-seed John Isner of Georgia.

“Most people, when playing someone like (Isner), are going to be intimidated,” Surapol said after Friday’s match. “I’ve played him before, even though it was a long time ago. I didn’t realize that there would be that much pressure on the first set.”

Isner dominated the first set, 6-2, but Surapol battled back and settled down in the second set, leading for a brief period before losing 7-6 on an epic 13-11 tiebreaker.

Still, both Surapol and Sher were in good spirits after the match. Surapol joked about Isner’s exceptional serve, “I thought it would go over my head.”

Sher said of his senior, “Everything (in the match) was favoring Isner, but (Surapol) put up a great performance.”

Isner advanced to the final, where he lost to Tulsa’s Arnau Brugues.