Indiana men’s tennis head coach Jeremy Wurtzman set a goal for his team to get better after every tournament over the course of the preseason.
After four tournaments over consecutive weekends, the Hoosiers were on course to achieve that. However, a two-week break in between the Louisville Invite and Big Ten Individuals proved costly to the players who had grooved into their peak performances.
Doubles pairings of Vikash Singh and Jagger Saylor, Ilya Tiraspolsky and Patrick Fletchall, and Carson Haskins and Michael Andre won their matches against Michigan State, Northwestern and Purdue, respectively. Only Tiraspolsky and Fletchall advanced in the winner’s bracket after the first round.
Wurtzman said being able to compete against some of the country’s best players on a weekly basis was a blessing. Every five or six days, each player on the team had the chance to grab a handful of high caliber matches before returning to Bloomington for the week. The break in competition at the end of October slowed their schedule.
“Some guys were a little worn out, and others unfortunately got a bit injured during that time,” Wurtzman said. “We needed to reset mentally and physically.”
Even though the team relied heavily on match play during its practices leading into Big Ten Individuals, Wurtzman said they still came out flat Thursday when the tournament began.
Tiraspolsky was the exception, winning well-fought matches against players from Michigan State and Northwestern. Tiraspolsky fell in a tiebreaker to the eventual champion, Michigan sophomore Gavin Young, in the semifinal round.
Tiraspolsky also teamed up with senior Patrick Fletchall to win three doubles matches before falling in the semifinals, claiming the Hoosiers’ most successful doubles performance of the weekend.
Tiraspolsky has been a silver lining this fall, and Wurtzman said his play in both singles and doubles is at a very high level.
Redshirt freshman Michael Andre has also gained valuable experience that he missed out on during the spring. Andre sustained an ankle injury early in the season, so Wurtzman said pressure-free preseason tournaments have allowed him to regain his confidence. Wurtzman said Andre wants to succeed, but he is still going through the learning experiences of a first-year player.
“That’s why we play these matches in the fall, so you can pull from them in the spring,” Wurtzman said. “The players will be able to think, ‘I’ve been in this situation before,’ and, ‘I know how to get through this.’”
Although Andre has yet to play a full season at Indiana, Wurtzman said he is an established leader with a strong competitive drive. He said he is confident in his second-year players’ ability to lead the team to success.
Wurtzman said he hopes his players will make the most out of their offseason and participate in individual tournaments to maintain the high levels of competition they worked to build over the fall.
“They have to be motivated to get better and stay in great shape,” Wurtzman said. “Two months is a long time to either get better or possibly not be playing as well as you are right now.”
A schedule has not been released for the regular season, but the Hoosiers will look to begin play in January.
