After starting the season 10-2, the Badgers men’s tennis team has been besieged by several significant injuries and has lost its last seven matches, including six straight in B1G play.
Wisconsin, now ranked No. 75 in the nation, will try to get back on track this weekend when it plays host to the No. 58 Purdue Boilermakers on Friday night and the No. 56 Indiana Hoosiers on Sunday afternoon.
“[The Purdue match] comes at the perfect time,” senior Alexander Kostanov said. “We play at home so we cannot complain about anything, or make any excuses, which will allow us to focus and will allow us to beat them.”
The most notable injury affecting the team has been to senior captain Billy Bertha. Back problems have kept him out of the lineup for the past three matches.
With only six players available, the practices have taken on a different feeling and have served a new purpose.
“You obviously want to make sure that you have enough guys available for the matches so I’m not pushing them as hard if they’re injured,” Wisconsin head coach Greg Van Emburgh said. “It’s getting towards the end of the season so you want to make sure you’re staying on course while being injury free.”
And while the injuries have been changing the Badgers’ practice structure, it hasn’t exactly interfered with the team’s doubles’ play. So far this season, Wisconsin has won the doubles point in five of seven matches in Big Ten play.
“The injuries haven’t affected our doubles that much because we’ve won a lot of doubles,” freshman Oskar Wikberg said. “There are only seven guys on the team to begin [with] so we practice with each other all the time so [the new doubles pairings] haven’t made a big difference. In singles, however, it is a little different because with Billy injured, everyone has to move up a spot, which makes it more difficult to win.”
The Badgers have a 57-18 all-time record against Purdue and have won the past 10 meetings with the Boilermakers.
“Last year, we won at their place,” Kostanov said. “We were down 3-0 and came back to win 4-3 so we know that it’s going to be a strong match, but we also know that we’re going to be stronger than them.”
That type of confidence going into a match is something that the Badgers have lost since the beginning of the season – and they admit that if they’re going to make any noise in the postseason, then they’re going to have to get it back.
“We were off to a great start and had some great wins,” Van Emburgh said. “But, we’re playing a young group and when you lose a little confidence. Sometimes it’s tough when you have a strength of schedule like us where eight or nine of the teams in the Big Ten are ranked, but we have to get it back.”
Wikberg supported coach Van Emburgh’s statement pointing to when the team lost two matches in a row against Michigan and Michigan State earlier in the season.
“That’s where we lost the confidence,” Wikberg said. “We have to get back to being confident, that’s the key moving forward.”
If the Badgers are able to get some of their confidence back in Friday night’s matchup, they’ll look to use it heading into Sunday’s match against a very talented and deep Indiana squad.
“They’re a good team,” coach Van Emburgh said of the Hoosiers. “They’re pretty solid with good depth and good players so we have to go out there and be confident and execute our opportunities when they’re there in order to win some tennis matches.”
Indiana freshman standout, Sam Monette, holds a record of 25-5 record this season, including a respectable 2-3 against nationally ranked opponents. Monette and his partner, Isade Juneau, are the ranked No. 21 in the nation for doubles.
“It’s not easy to get back on track [against the Purdue and Indiana] but hopefully we can bounce back and get on track with some wins,” Van Emburgh said. “I told the guys that from here on out that we’re not going to have an easy match and you have to be ready to go and believe that you can beat these teams.”
