Despite youth, MacTaggart displays veteran skills

IU freshman Josh MacTaggart doesn’t overpower anyone on the tennis court.
His serve is of average velocity compared to his Hoosier teammates, and he rarely surprises anyone with his strength. At first glance, he looks more like a runner or a swimmer than a tennis player.

But don’t be fooled — MacTaggart is the real deal. He went from being an unknown kid to being a ranked singles player in only a few months during the fall season.

While there are many things on the court that the freshman cannot yet do, it is what he can do that separates him from so many other players.

MacTaggart places the ball in a place that his opponent doesn’t want it. He almost always gets the ball back over the net, forcing the player on the other side to make a mistake. He gets inside his opponent’s head because of his unique style of play.

But above all else, MacTaggart competes.

He detests the thought of losing and, for that reason, he rarely does.

The United Kingdom native is 18-5 in singles play this season, including a Big Ten Singles championship and a run to the semifinal of the ITA Regional in the fall. He’s playing at No. 3 singles for the Hoosiers, one of three freshmen in the early season lineup (Isade Juneau at No. 5 and Alexander Van Gils at No. 6).  

“Most players look in the mirror and they see a forehand or a backhand, but Josh sees someone who is trying to win,” said IU coach Randy Bloemendaal. “In a skill sport there are people — especially young men — that sometimes forget that it is a one-v-one sport. They put in their heads that it is a performance sport, and it’s really not. You’re competing against the other player, and I think Josh does a tremendous job of recognizing that he is a competitor first and a tennis player second. That really separates him from a lot of the players out there.”

A typical match for MacTaggart goes something like this: He jumps on his opponent early, usually by winning the first two or three games, and MacTaggart lets him know it. He yells “Let’s go IU!” after a big point, and the frustration becomes visible on the face of the enemy.

MacTaggart’s opponent usually becomes so upset during a match that he yells something at the young Hoosier or runs to grab an official from another court, certain that MacTaggart is trying to cheat on balls close to the line.

Nothing his opponent can do will faze MacTaggart — he’s seen it all. After all, he heads into every match with the same game plan. Whether or not he executes that plan doesn’t really matter; he’s never going to stop trying.

“I try to get a good start and then keep the tempo the rest of the match,” MacTaggart said after Saturday’s match against Butler. “I sometimes struggle to do that but just keeping the tempo is important.”

When Bloemendaal was recruiting MacTaggart, he looked past his on-court ability at the time and thought more about the type of player, and competitor, that he had the potential to be.

The second-year coach recognizes that there are skills MacTaggart has yet to master. But the most important thing, he says, is the fact that the freshman is comfortable with the skills he does have.

“He’s got good feet, great hands, and his competitiveness is like that of Andy Murray, where he is very tenacious on the court and he wants to beat you any way he can,” Bloemendaal said. “I really think it is less about the skills and more about competing.”

After watching one of MacTaggart’s matches, it becomes easy for the average onlooker or even the most avid fan to wonder how good he could be if he had a dominating serve.

But as Bloemendaal explains, it is much more complicated than that.

“A weapon sometimes becomes almost like a burden. It kind of complicates the game,” he said. “The skill usually comes far before learning how to use the skill comes. It’s kind of like a basketball player that’s dominating inside and you give him a mid-range jump shot. Does that make him a more effective player?
"Yes, it makes him a better skill player, but is he more effective? And that’s kind of where we’re at with Josh. We want to add things to his game, but we want to build him in the best way — the way that will make him the best player he can become.”