Doubles teams providing backbone for rising squad

For senior Santiago Gruter and junior Jeremy Langer, familiarity breeds collective fortitude.

“It just helps you deal with some of the pressure situations or some of the mental situations on the court,” Gruter said of playing with his three-year doubles
partner, Langer. “Knowing that you have another person helping you out through those tough times that you can experience during a match is just somewhat reassuring, especially if you’ve played for a long time.”

This chemistry has led to solid doubles play from the No. 43 IU men’s tennis team so far this season. The Hoosiers (9-3) have secured the doubles point in all but two of their matches by winning at least two of three doubles matchups.

The doubles point was instrumental in the Hoosiers’ 4-3 Jan. 28 win against then-No. 43 Brigham Young University and put the Hoosiers in position for upset bids against No. 12 Kentucky and No. 24 Oklahoma. Ultimately, IU would come up short against the Wildcats and Sooners, losing both matches 4-3.

Against the Sooners on Sunday, Langer and Gruter defeated the nation’s No. 24-ranked tandem, Ionut Beleleu and Costin Paval, 8-2. Sophomore Josh MacTaggart and junior Stephen Vogl won 8-1 at No. 2 doubles against the No. 38-ranked duo of John Warden and Lawrence Formentera.

Both IU pairs were unranked at the time of these upsets but have moved into the latest doubles rankings, which were released Monday. Gruter and Langer came in at No. 31 and Vogl and MacTaggart at No. 42. Sophomore Isade Juneau and junior Will Kendall have been playing the No. 3 spot for IU and remain unranked.

IU coach Randy Bloemendaal said the skill sets of Langer and Vogl, which he said feature good serves and volleys, transfer most naturally to doubles success. However, he said the main ingredient that makes IU’s doubles teams effective is the way the players complement each other.

“I think it’s more about the chemistry and working together more than it is any sort of direct translation,” Bloemendaal said. “I don’t know if it’s as much physical as it is sort of the guys coming together as a team.”

Vogl said his playing style contrasts with Langer, making them a tougher team to play against.

“He works very well for my game,” Vogl said. “He’s more of a finesse player and I’m more of a power player, and between the two of us, our doubles works really well together.”

MacTaggart, normally a patient baseliner in singles who picks opportune moments to finish off points, said he has to change his mentality and court positioning during doubles matches.

“You’ve got to be a lot more aggressive in the doubles, obviously, because the points are so short,” MacTaggart said. “Normally it’s just the serve and returns are so big so I try and step up a bit more but hopefully I don’t step back too far and coach gets on my back for it.”

In the scheme of a seven-point college match, one doubles point may seem fairly insignificant. However, Bloemendaal said since the point occurs at the beginning of the match and forces one team to play from behind, it’s more important.

“Teams start looking at it, like okay, say you’ve got one lock on the court; you’ve got one position where they’re like, ‘I don’t think we can win that position,’” Bloemendaal said. “You win the doubles, they’ve got to win four of five matches to win the match. That’s a lot of pressure.”

Bloemendaal said improving in singles play is what could ultimately improve the Hoosiers’ national ranking the most, but that the doubles point may decide who wins between two evenly matched teams.

As for the players, they said they enjoy the dynamic of having someone else on the court — someone else to share the pressure of a match, to celebrate great shots with, to win with.

“I always liked team sports as a kid so I’ve always preferred doubles just because there’s another guy on the court,” MacTaggart said. “I tend to not get too down on myself because I’ve got (Stephen) to build me up when I get down. And the same with him, when he gets down, I try and build him up. We draw loads of energy from each other and just try to go from there.”