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The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Men’s tennis opens Big Ten slate against UM, MSU

The Wisconsin men’s tennis team will have one thing in common with both of its opponents this weekend: 7-0.

The Badgers are coming off of a doubleheader from which they earned two 7-0 victories. Wisconsin’s first match-up of the weekend, Michigan, will be riding the momentum of a sweep of their own against the Badgers’ second opponent, the Michigan State Spartans. However, despite the common thread, each team will present Wisconsin with different challenges.

The Wolverines are 8-4 overall and 1-0 in Big Ten play. Blazing the trail for the young squad is returning captain Evan King. The junior is 18-6 overall from the No. 1 singles court so far this year and has earned Big Ten Conference Athlete of the Week. Last year against the Badgers, King helped his team to a 5-2 victory over the Badgers. King was pitted against former Wisconsin player, Marek Michalicka. The match was extremely close, as every set went to a tiebreaker and the pair was the last off the court.

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This season, the Badgers have been attempting to fill Michalicka’s spot while simultaneously dealing with several injuries including the number two singles returner, Billy Bertha. So far, head coach Greg Van Emburgh has been rotating Fredrik Ask and junior transfer Alexander Kostanov in at the first singles position. Ask is 12-6 overall and Kostanov is 8-8.

“Evan King has been as high as top five in the country; he’s a great player,” Van Emburgh said. “I’m sure we are going to have our work cut out for us, but I think we need to approach it being loose and I think we definitely have the potential in those spots to challenge him.”

As a junior, King is the oldest member of his team. He is backed by a young group of four sophomores and three freshmen. The Wisconsin squad is of similar build, having graduated a lonely one senior just a season ago. Despite the youth, Van Emburgh believes the match will be won with caliber of play and attitude, not age.

“I think it’s all about who is going to be confident at that particular day and time, and I think we’ve had a lot of improvement with our guys,” Van Emburgh said.

The Badgers will see a much more seasoned team in the Michigan State Spartans in its second match on Sunday. Overall, the Spartans are 11-7. In conference play so far this year, Michigan State has been swept in both of its matches. In their first Big Ten match of the season back in February, the Spartans fell to No.3 Ohio State 7-0. Several non-conference matches later, Michigan State had another chance to tally a win in the Big Ten standings but was again denied, as the Spartans were defeated 7-0 by Michigan.

Sophomore Aaron Pfister anchors Michigan State from the No. 1 singles spot. He is 20-4 overall but, like his teammates, he is 0-2 in conference play. Last season when the Badgers met the Spartans, Pfister was in the fourth spot and took Ricardo Martin to three sets and won. There were several other close matches in Wisconsin’s 4-3 win over Michigan State, including the battle between sophomore Petr Satral and the Spartans’ Austin Brooks. The pair split the first two sets and Brooks won in the tiebreaker 10-8.

Line up changes due to injuries may prevent Satral and Brooks from meeting again this year, but Satral is still confident that with the right players in the lineup, the Badgers will be successful again.

“We really just put in the strongest players,” Satral said. “When some guys are injured it can happen that we are a little bit weaker. But we have a really good team, we have a really good 12 guys, so I think it doesn’t make a difference.”

Last weekend in their doubleheader against UW-Whitewater and the University of Illinois at Chicago, Wisconsin had success despite different lineups for each match. Junior Bertha did not make an appearance due to injury, so Kostanov anchored the singles courts in the first match then Ask took over the one spot in the second match against the Flames.

“I think we are just looking forward to putting the best guys on the court that are ready to play,” Van Emburgh said. “Hopefully they stay injury free and we can only take it from there.”

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