If you gaze at a typical list of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association men’s tennis rankings you’ll notice the dominance of southern schools. To many it might come as a surprise to find a doubles team from Wisconsin ranked in the top 10.

It doesn’t surprise David Hippee or Alex Kasarov.

“I think we expected it,” Hippie said. “I definitely didn’t, myself, expect to be top 10 pre-season, but I felt we would end up there based on what we did last year.”

The number-eight preseason ranking comes as an honor and serves as a testament to the great 18-4 season the duo put together last season. However, they are not about to rest on their laurels.

“I believe after an 18-4 season, we finally got into the place where we deserved [to be], said Kasarov about the ranking. “We’ve got to keep it up though — take it one match at a time.”

The added pressure of such a lofty ranking doesn’t seem to bother them either.

“There is a little more pressure. I feel like teams come out more psyched up to play us; we kind of have a target on our backs,” Hippee said. “I mean, if you get a win against us you are probably going to be in the rankings. I definitely think it is added pressure, but at the same time it is good.”

Both of the guys enjoyed great success in both doubles and singles before reaching the university level, but struggled at first to adjust to the step up their level of play.

“I thought I was actually ready to play when I came right away,” commented Kasarov, a Bulgarian native. “But after I saw how high the level was we decided with the coaches to red-shirt. It took me six to seven months to adjust to hard courts because back in Europe I mostly played on clay.”

Hippee echoed similar sentiments.

“On the Division I level it takes time to adjust, I mean I struggled in singles and doubles my freshman year. It takes time to be ready to play at this level, especially in the Big Ten.”

For both players, adjusting to each other proved much easier than adjusting to the level of college play. Minus one short hiccup they have been playing together for the past two seasons.

“I think we have good chemistry on the court,” said Hippee of his relationship with Kasarov. “If we aren’t playing well, or if he isn’t doing something I can yell at him, get in his face, and he takes it. It fires him up and vice-versa too. We can communicate out there and don’t take criticism personally.”

Their games also seem to be well suited to each other, as last year’s record — the third best in school history — indicates.

“I just think we are both big strong, tall guys, with big serves, and we both cover the net well,” Hippee said.

“Dave is the one that actually is more intense in leading the team,” Kasarov noted. “I think what I am missing in my return, that’s where he comes in and steps up and keeps us into games.”

In life off the court the duo’s relationship might be even stronger than on it.

“We have probably been friends from the day he got here,” Hippie said. “He came to Wisconsin for the first time and he hung out with me and I took him out with friends. We have been hanging out ever since.”

Kasarov is thankful for the friendship and guidance that Hippee has provided since he came to Wisconsin.

“Dave has just been a great influence for me,” he said. “He helped me a lot to adjust to the American type of life and to American culture. He was actually the first player I saw on the team when I came in January ’01. He came and picked me up in a car with one of our ex-teammates, and we have been hanging out ever since.”

They hope their teammates can learn from the examples they set through their success.

“I hope we are good examples, setting a good example for the team,” said Kasarov, “We got a bunch of new guys; hopefully they will be able to step it up this season.”

Hippie also sees the way they play as something his younger teammates can learn from.

“If you watch the doubles and even the singles, you watch me and Alex, firing it up, being loud, yelling,” he said. “I think that has a big influence, especially on our team because we have a lot of younger guys.”

The pair is confident that if they keep playing their game they will be successful.

“You have to take one match at a time and keep swinging on, and keep winning those matches because I know it is possible to win every single match,” Kasarov said.

With that type of attitude it doesn’t look like they will be falling from the rankings anytime soon.