Alabama Men’s Tennis Standout Edson Ortiz is Back Where it All Started this Week in Orlando
5/22/2021 3:01:00 PM | Men's Tennis
The Crimson Tide graduate student opens play in the NCAA Championships singles draw Sunday at 3:30 p.m. CT at the USTA National Campus
ORLANDO, Fla. – For the first time since his rookie season, Edson Ortiz is in Orlando, Fla., racquet in hand, ready to compete.
Ortiz played in the first collegiate match at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., back on Jan. 21, 2017, when the Crimson Tide took on Michigan. He remembers the team being very excited about playing in the brand new, state-of-the-art facility.
He doesn't, though, remember much about the actual match, only that it was short and Alabama came out on the losing end.
"I think we were out there for an hour and a half, maybe an hour and 45 minutes," Ortiz said.
It wasn't his first match for the Crimson Tide, he'd played a pair of matches at home prior to the trip to Florida, but it was his first road match after joining UA for the spring semester just a few weeks earlier. And while he doesn't remember many details about playing the Wolverines, he does recall the lesson he took away from the loss.
"That match really opened my eyes to what college tennis was all about," Ortiz said. "I remember thinking, 'oh, man, there are some really good teams out there, some really good players.' If we wanted to compete with them, we had to put in a lot of really hard work."
That hard work paid big dividends, with the Crimson Tide advancing to the round of 16 at the NCAA Championships the next season. A year after that, he and his teammates would avenge the Michigan loss in the opening home match of 2019, notching a 4-3 win over the then No. 23-ranked Wolverines.
"It was a great feeling to come back and beat a team that absolutely destroyed us two years before," Ortiz said."
Now, 80 matches and four and a half years later after that first match at the USTA National Campus, Ortiz is back for the first time since that eye-opening match against Michigan, playing in the NCAA Championships singles draw.
"I've grown a lot over the years since I was last here not only in my game, but in how I approach matches overall," Ortiz said. "I'm able to see the flow of the match better and make better decisions throughout. Most matches come down to four, five or six key points. The moment I learned how to play those points better, I started to win more matches and bigger matches."
One of those big matches came in his last time competing at the Alabama Tennis Stadium, upsetting then No. 51 Giovanni Oradini in a three-set barn burner while also notching a 7-6 doubles win with partner Alexey Nesterov. His matches clinched the doubles point and the overall match with then No. 15 Mississippi State.
"That was so special, for us to be able to come together like that and get that win in my last time playing on that court," Ortiz said. "It was one of the best days of my life."
On Sunday, Ortiz opens his NCAA singles run against No. 46 Andres Martin from Georgia Tech at 3:30 p.m. CT. In addition to playing in the team portion of NCAAs in the last three championships, he also played in the doubles draw in 2018. Now, as his career winds down, he finds himself playing for a national singles title, sporting the highest individual ranking of his career at No. 43.
"It's very cool that I'm here, wearing the script A and competing against the best players in the country," Ortiz said. "I'm just going to go out there and enjoy every point and every moment."
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