The Wisconsin men’s tennis team comes into the 2004 fall season with many new faces. Last years squad was littered with upperclassmen contributors, but this year they are going to have some new bodies fill out the lineup card.
A talented freshman class looks to help fill the void left by the seniors that have graduated. And the time is now for them to step up and contribute. Coaches say they don’t have the luxury of a slow learning curve.
“We’re expecting a lot out of this freshman group,” head coach Pat Klingelhoets said. “We lost a lot of people [from last season]. We need a lot of new people in the lineup. We feel that all three of our recruited freshmen are going to be contributing in some way or another. We are just trying to get as much development out of the team as we can this fall so they are really ready to go in the spring.”
Faces are not the only thing that has changed over the summer. Gone are some people who may have had the physical talent, but did not have the intangibles or that extra drive to bring them to a different level. Klingelhoets looks forward to building on the improved interaction between members of this year’s squad.
“I think we will have a better chemistry this year,” said Klingelhoets. “I think we will also have a team that is willing to grind it out and just compete a little bit harder out there. The last couple years we’ve had some guys that had pretty big games and pretty big shots, but weren’t willing to work their tails off out there and compete real hard at times — that’s what we need — and that’s what we think we’ve got, especially in these freshman.”
There were some team members that struggled with injury problems last year, particularly junior Alex Conti and sophomore Lachezar Kasarov. Conti is still having problems with injuries and the coaches do not know what he will be able to do this year, but Kasarov is fully recovered from his injuries and a lot is expected of him.
“[Lachezar] is recovered 100 percent from his injury, and we’re expecting a lot out of him,” Klingelhoets said. “He is a guy who was in the lineup for us last year. He is a little bit behind right now because the injury put him back and so on, but we’re expecting a lot out of him this year.”
Lachezar along with his older brother, senior Alex, will travel to Chattanooga, Tenn., this weekend to compete in the ITA All-American. They are the only two Badgers making the trek to Tennessee.
Coach Klingelhoets is hoping to get the brothers some work, as both of their games are a little rusty at the moment.
“We would like to see [Lachezar] really try to get it going,” Klingelhoets said. “Unfortunately he didn’t get to play a lot last weekend. He played a match and then hurt his knee. So we didn’t get that good of a look at him. We’re hoping he can get a couple of matches under his belt, just kind of get things going a little bit.”
Alex also had a knee problem, which restricted his action over the summer.
“Alex is a little bit rusty,” Klingelhoets said. “He wasn’t able to work a lot this summer because of his knee, just rehabbing it. He is a little bit behind right now. This is an opportunity to try to get things going.”
