With a heartbreaking loss to No. 11 Illinois, the men’s tennis team opened its Big Ten season just barely missing out on a 1-0 record.
In a 4-3 decision, the Badgers had their fair share of ups and downs. Wisconsin had a strong showing in the doubles, ultimately winning the doubles point. Head coach Greg Van Emburgh switched up the doubles teams again for the last couple of matches, pairing up senior Moritz Baumann and junior Marek Michalicka, reincarnating the No. 11 doubles team.
“I think we’ve been looking at the right time to be able to put them back together and today seemed like the right time,” Van Emburgh said. “I think they’re ready to commit to playing with each other again. It wasn’t like they got in an argument or anything, but just felt like they lost a little bit of their mojo and now they seem to have gotten it back.”
Although they gave up the first game point to the Fighting Illini’s No. 68 doubles team of senior Marek Czerwinski and freshmen Stephen Hoh, Baumann and Michalicka sealed their first game point with an ace leading to the eventual win.
Michalicka noted his excitement at being paired up again with Baumann.
“I’m happy that we’re back together and especially that we won the match. It’s always up to coach, who he wants to play, and it’s just like back to our old teams as when we started the season. It worked, so hopefully we’ll play next time together.”
With momentum on their side, the Badgers hoped for the best in the singles games, but were just unable to finish strong.
As four of the singles matches went into the third set, only sophomore Patrick Pohlmann was able to walk away with a win.
In three of those three-set matches the Badgers won the first set, still possessing momentum and forcing the Illini to fight from behind.
For Pohlmann, the other losses came down to confidence.
“We lost three out of our four three-set matches and in tennis it’s all about confidence. You’ve got to close out the matches by showing more confidence to our opponents, maybe overplay it and don’t show that we can get weak at different situations. It’s more about acting on the court and trying to show the opponent that you’re the better player,” he said.
Van Emburgh simply seemed at a loss for words as to why they were unable to close out the matches.
“Not only did we have all the momentum out of doubles, we won the first at one, the first at two, the first at three and the first at six, so I don’t know what else you could want to try and win a tennis match.”
Despite the struggles, Michalicka boasted a perfect day, with a win in doubles and a win in singles pushing him to a perfect 11-0 singles record.
For Michalicka the record is not what is important; rather the confidence that comes from having such a strong record allows him to take more risks.
“When you go into a match you just try and focus and try to think about the match; what’s going to happen, how he’s going to play, what you have to do to win the match,” Michalicka said. “I mean when you are 11-0 of course you’re more confident on the court. Sometimes you go for some shots you would not go for usually. When you just feel good about it, you just take the risk. If you are winning, usually you just take it and it’s the right shot.”
While confidence is certainly a driving factor for the players, it doesn’t go unnoticed.
Van Emburgh noted that it was Michalicka’s determination and his confidence that helped him to earn the No. 25 ranking nationally.
“He’s just such a competitor. When he puts it out there on the court, you know. Dennis Nevolo hasn’t lost a lot of tennis matches — he’s a top player who’s No.1 junior in the country coming out of juniors — and [Michalicka] goes out there and basically just takes it to him from the start; takes care of business, plays with a lot of intensity, is very vocal and he just worked him. He got up 5-2 in the second, Nevolo came back, put his best tennis on the line and [Michalicka] didn’t blink an eye, went back to work, was confident in what he could accomplish and took care of the match.”
