Men’s Tennis team prepares for post-season
By Chelsea Reber | MAROON WEEKLY
As finals start to creep up on students, the Texas A&M men’s tennis team has a few finals of its own. The 10th ranked Aggies finished their regular season last Friday with a match against TCU. The Aggies swept the Horned Frogs 7-0 ending their regular season with a record of 21-5 and 5-1 in Big 12 Conference play.
The men have now won 14 of their last 15 matches of the season going into the Big 12 Championship followed by the NCAA Championship. Coach Steven Denton has high expectations for his team and keeping them aggressive in their game is a priority.
“We have seen some things that our guys are working on as individuals and as teams. Being more aggressive is generally on of those things that we are going to spend a lot of time on,” Denton said.
With only one senior on the team this year, the Aggies are a young team with a lot of growing potential.
“Our younger players have really bought into our system and it is very exciting. I think A&M tennis is certainly on the upswing,” Denton said.
Although young, the Aggies are not inexperienced. Junior All-American, Austin Krajicek, is currently ranked sixth in the nation and completely dominating his competition. He is 17-4 on the season in singles play and 5-1 in conference. He is 13-4 against nationally ranked competitors on the season.
Krajicek had to make some adjustments in his game from the fall season. It mostly relates to Coach Denton’s take on aggressiveness and the importance of it in his players’ games.
“I had a little trouble last fall, I had some tough draws and bad breaks. But this semester I’ve committed a lot more to working on my serve and trying to put pressure on the other guy when I get the chance. I think that changes the way the match goes and I don’t let a lot of guys get into a rhythm,” Krajicek said.
The Aggies are also led by a sophomore from France, Alexis Klegou. Klegou redshirted last season because he came to Texas A&M in the spring. Even though just watching for a semester was hard for him, Klegou took a lot out of his redshirt season.
When the Aggies played at Baylor last year, Klegou drove up to Waco to watch the match. A controversial call started quite the banter between Klegou and a Baylor fan, which all took place in French.
“I’ve been keeping that in my mind and could not wait to play Baylor the next year,” Klegou said.
It was definitely enough motivation for Klegou and his teammates when they hosted Baylor this year and upset the ninth-ranked Bears in a 6-1 victory on April 7.
“It was definitely my favorite moment this year and I think most of my teammates would agree,” Klegou said.
The men post a 17-1 record on the year at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center, and if you have ever been to a home tennis match, you know why. At a school, where football and basketball are the two sports on everyone’s minds, men’s tennis holds its own.
Texas A&M led the nation in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association attendance race in the month of March with 3,015 fans coming out to support. A&M boasts the second-best total attendance record (4,984) this season behind top-ranked Virginia (7,944) and the top total attendance among all Big 12 Conference schools.
“It is awesome for us,” Kraijcek said. “It’s not like 80,000 people at a football game but it is definitely a close atmosphere and you get 400 people in here and it’s great! When the 12th Man comes out, it makes it fun for us players. Other teams that come here aren’t used to that and they really struggle with it sometimes.”
Even Coach Denton realizes how big of a thing the 12th Man really is and how important the support of this school and the community means to his players.
“It means everything,” he said. “I mean obviously tennis is one of the smaller sports on the grand scheme of things. The state of Texas has also been a football, baseball, basketball state and for the fans here locally and the tennis aficionados in the community, for all of them to be excited about this team helps the guys feel better and feel special. It makes them want to work that much harder.”
The Aggies will head to Austin on Thursday, April 29 to start the Big 12 Championship Tournament, where a little revenge of their loss to Texas will be on their minds. More importantly, their support for each other will be tremendous.
“It is a great pleasure to have teammates and play with other guys who are supporting you. It is a beautiful thing about college tennis,” Klegou said.