Sophomore men’s tennis player Ward Bortz exemplifies the saying, “It runs in the family.”
The Brookfield, Wis., native inherited his tennis skill from his father, who was a player at the University of Missouri.
“My father being a tennis player had something to do with me getting into tennis,” Bortz said. “When I was about five years old, he took me out [to the court] and we started playing.”
Will Bortz, a freshman at UW, played alongside his brother and was a competitive player at Marquette High School in Milwaukee, though his tennis career ended when he entered college. Though Will had more natural talent, Ward’s love for the game propelled him to greater success.
“[Will] was always really talented, but he never really liked [tennis] that much,” Ward Bortz said. “He was good and so he just kept playing. I wasn’t as talented, but since I liked the sport I played it all the time.”
Before Bortz entered Marquette High School, he excelled at many sports, including baseball, golf and basketball. At Marquette, however, he found that his tennis skills surpassed his skills in other sports and he decided to focus on his tennis career.
Bortz won the 2001 and 2002 WIAA Wisconsin Division I Singles Championships after entering both tournaments as the top seed. He was the 17th Wisconsin high school tennis player to win consecutive state individual titles. In 2001 he defeated his current Badger teammate, Jordan Raemisch, in the finals to win the title.
The high school standout finished his senior season with a 19-match win streak, compiling a spectacular four-year prep mark of 90-3.
After an impressive high school career, Bortz made the transition to college tennis. The decision to attend the University of Wisconsin was not a difficult one.
“It is just a really good school; I wanted to go to a good academic school,” Bortz said. “Growing up in Wisconsin, I had a lot of reverence for UW athletics, and that continued with me as I chose schools.”
In his freshman year with the Badgers, Bortz notched a 12-19 record as a singles player with an 8-12 record in dual play. During the dual season, Bortz led the Badgers in singles victories. Though he did not reach the .500 mark in singles, Bortz posted a 9-5 overall record in doubles, going 7-2 in the dual season.
This year, Bortz plays in the fifth slot in singles and the third position in doubles. After a strong start, Bortz recently experienced some adversity when his regular doubles partner, Lachezar Kasarov, broke his arm. In Kasarov’s absence, Bortz has adopted Jordan Raemisch as his new doubles partner.
Bortz suffered a setback over the weekend, losing in both singles and doubles in the Badgers’ Big Ten season opener against Northwestern. The sophomore, however, knows that tennis is a forgiving sport, and he will always have a chance to battle back.
“The important thing with tennis is you can be playing poorly and figure things out and then start playing well,” Bortz said. “You can lose the first set bad, and then if you can refocus and figure out what you need to do, you can come back and win.”
Regardless of recent results, Bortz knows that the key to victory is a calm, confident mindset.
“In every match there are going to be parts where it is tight, whether you are winning easily or it is the closest match, and the most important thing is to think that you are going to win the next point, and think you are going to win the match,” Bortz said. “You need to be confident and under control, not nervous, and think you are going to win the next point whether or not that actually happens.”
