The Wisconsin men’s tennis team (3-6, 0-3) travels to Iowa (7-1, 0-0) this Saturday for their fourth Big Ten match of the season.
The Badgers have struggled as of late, dropping both matches in the state of Michigan last weekend. The team was able to muster only three victories over the two matches.
But they will try to change that all this weekend when they head to Iowa City. The Hawkeyes have been hot so far this season, dropping only one match to Western Michigan 4-3.
The Badgers will try to steal one from the Hawkeyes in their unique Recreation Building, which causes problems for many opponents.
“The biggest thing [for us] is getting used to the courts down there,” head coach Pat Klingelhoets said. “It is really a tough place to play. It is kind of a rec building with real fast courts. The lighting isn’t very good.”
If there has been one bright spot lately, it has been the play of Jeremy Sonkin. The freshman has won six out of his last seven matches.
“[Jeremy] is playing great,” said Klingelhoets. “We are really, really happy with him. He has just been playing real solid.”
Even though the team has been struggling lately, Klingelhoets has been happy with the singles play. But doubles play remains another story.
“I think most of our guys are actually playing really good singles right now,” said Klingelhoets. “Our biggest concern right now is our doubles, which are not playing where we need to be playing. That is kind of a point of emphasis this week.”
However, Klingelhoets does not believe it is time to make changes in the doubles line-up quite yet.
“We are going to leave the combinations the way they are this weekend and just kind of see how that plays out,” said Klingelhoets. “If it doesn’t play out well this weekend, we’re certainly going to start looking at maybe changing some things up here.”
Although he hopes to knock off the Hawkeyes this weekend, Klingelhoets knows the Badgers are going to have to play some of their best tennis of the season on Saturday.
“We really have got our hands full this weekend with Iowa,” said Klingelhoets. “They are extremely tough in there, and we are just going to have to play a hell of a match if we are going to have a chance to win the match down there.”
