Men' Tennis Young this Year
10/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Oct. 10, 2011
WACO, Texas - By Jerry Hill - Baylor Bear Insider
You will definitely need a program to tell who the Baylor men's tennis players are this fall.
In addition to last year's senior trio of John Peers, Jordan Rux and Sergio Ramirez, who held down the top three spots in the singles lineup, senior Kike Grangeiro is out with an eye injury, senior Julian Bley is sitting out this semester and sophomore Dennis Lengsfeld transferred to Auburn.
Junior Roberto Maytin and sophomore Robert Verzaal are joined by a talented freshman class of Mate Zsiga, Lars Behlen, Robbie Korth and Marko Krickovic, with Diego Galleano coming in January.
"It's definitely a youth movement," Baylor coach Matt Knoll said. "You can feel a different level of enthusiasm than what we've had in the past. And I think some of that, frankly, is just due to their chronological age. You get a bunch of guys that are 18 or 19 and haven't been away from home, and it's just a little different. It's been fun for me, and I think it's perked everybody up and got everybody excited."
Ranked as the No. 3 freshman nationally by ITA, Zsiga was listed as the top player in the 16-and-under division by the European Tennis Association in 2008 and was ranked as high as the No. 7 junior player in the world by the ITF in April 2010.
"My goal is absolutely to play in the top three in the lineup," Zsiga said. "And I think I can do it if I'm playing well, I'm playing relaxed, I can do that."
Knoll said the influx of freshmen will keep the Bears at a level that has seen them advance to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals for the last nine years in a row.
"The biggest thing is they're athletic," Knoll said of the freshmen. "I think the second thing is they love tennis. We've had a period now where we haven't been having team practice, and these guys just all show up every day. They're like gym rats, if you will. They want to be out here. When they're not supposed to be out here, they're out here. They just want to be around the courts and hitting balls. That's a wonderful situation to be in for a coach, to have guys that just love the game and want to get better."
A returning All-American in doubles, reaching last year's NCAA quarterfinals with Peers, Maytin was 43rd in the ITA preseason singles ranking and became the first two-time doubles champion at last month's Baylor-HEB Invitational. This summer, he lost to Peers in the final of a $10,000 Futures tournament in his native Venezuela, won a couple doubles championships and also played in a Davis Cup tie against Paraguay.
"He had a huge summer. I think he may have had the best summer of any college guy that returned," Knoll said of Maytin, who also teamed with Peers to reach the semifinals of a $50,000 Challenger in Tulsa, Okla. "That's got to give him a lot of juice, a lot of energy. I think it's up to him. He certainly is in position to play high in the lineup here."
"It's always fun to come back to my country and play some tournaments there and play Davis Cup," Maytin said. "I think I'm playing better right now. I just want to get ready for the season and do better than I did last year."
Showing the future is now, Zsiga upset top-seeded and 17th-ranked Costin Paval of Oklahoma in the quarterfinals of the Baylor-HEB tournament and then beat the third-seeded Maytin in an all-Baylor singles final, 6-1, 5-7, 6-1.
"It was really hard, because in the five matches I had played before I was really emotional and yelling after every point," Zsiga said. "It was really tough to control this, because I didn't want to do this since he's my teammate, he's the best player on the team. . . . I have a lot of respect for him. I just tried everything I could to win, to show that I'm a good player."
The faces change every year. But the expectations are the same for a Baylor tennis team that is the reigning Big 12 champion and NCAA quarterfinalist.
"I think your margins are always tighter when you've got younger guys," Knoll said. "The ironic thing is we had new guys last year, even though they were older. So it's a similar kind of challenge. But I think the thing that's maybe a little different about this group is we had a full recruiting cycle with them. So they had more of a chance to feel the love for the program. They came in feeling a little more connected than a transfer would. And I think the enthusiasm that they've brought in has been great."
Later this month, the Bears will compete in the ITA Regional in College Station, Texas, with a chance to qualify for the ITA National Indoor Championships Nov. 3-5 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
