NET NEWS, Volume 15
5/23/2021 7:58:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Hello from the "City Beautiful" aka Orlando, Florida.
Orlando may be best known for Disney World and Universal Studios, but it's also known for attracting around 60 million visitors every year, who come for the warm climate, the world-famous theme parks, the shopping malls, the golf courses, and this week, the 2021 NCAA Men's and Women's Tennis Championships. The team, singles and doubles national champions will be crowned this week at the USTA National Campus located just about 15 minutes south of the Orlando airport in Lake Nona.Â
The USTA moved south from New York to Central Florida and opened the doors of their new home of American tennis in January 2017. The 63-acre facility features more than 100 courts for all ages and playing levels, hard and clay court surfaces, video cameras for player development, family courts for kids learning the game, new pickle ball and paddle tennis courts, six indoor courts, USTA player development for touring professionals and the collegiate facility that features 12 courts set up much like the ones at Alabama with 6 courts on each side and seating for fans up above. Really impressive and well run, especially in this unique year. Championship tennis is back and we're grateful to be part of the tournament draws for our third consecutive season.
Following our grueling and heart wrenching 4-3 loss in Waco at the NCAA Regional, our squad traveled back to campus and took a few days off to decompress. It's always a strange time of year as the spring semester has ended and we typically return to school to pack up our things for the summer. This time, however, many of the guys were clearing out their lockers and saying goodbye, or rather, see you later. Remember, we had honored 10 individuals (9 players, 1 team manager) on Senior Night back in early April so the Bama chapter for many was about to end. One fortunate occurrence that kept the team together a bit longer, however, was the vaccine. The majority of the guys stayed in town and received their second shot of the process, but once that was done, the farewells unfortunately began.Â
A few guys, however, jumped back on court to practice and prepare for the individual championships. Edson qualified for the singles portion, while Patrick and Riccardo were selected for doubles. Alexey jumped in for the week-long training block and the group of four got their bodies and minds right for the road ahead. This was Edson's first trip to the singles championship after having qualified for doubles back in 2018 with Mazen Osama. Riccardo was also making his first NCAA appearance while it was round 2 for Patrick. Last time out, which also happened to be here in Lake Nona, Patrick reached the doubles final with Mazen and the pair recorded a historic finish to the 2019 season.
After a couple solid days of practice, sharpening our tools with drills as well as match play against opponents from other schools, we're ready for the tournament to begin. It has been nice to be able to have conversations once again in person with players and coaches from other schools (masked up of course) which is something that didn't exist much in this year of COVID. The Florida sun and breeze has been enjoyable, thankfully without love bugs in the air but rather much larger flying objects like the plethora of airplanes descending upon the runway of nearby Orlando International Airport.
Edson "El Toro" Ortiz will kick off the Crimson Tide championship push with singles on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ET against Andres Martin of Georgia Tech. Patrick "Flying Finn" Kaukovalta and Riccardo "Rise and Shine" Roberto face off against UCF's Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Paval on Monday with the match time yet to be determined. The scheduling for doubles can't be released until the first round of singles has concluded since there are a few players that have qualified for both competitions.Â
On an 'off-the-court' note, our spring semester team GPA was released this week … 3.68. What a super effort in the classroom by the guys with Rudi Christiansen, Gabi Diaz-Freire, Vincent Rettke and Zhe Zhou all recording 4.0s. Tremendous commitment to being organized and focused on the academic end while also doing the same in between the baselines.
You can watch live stats and streaming with links provided at rolltide.com. If you're in the area be sure to reach out to me and we can get you on the pass list. Having Alabama fans in the stands would be a huge treat. I'll review the season after this tournament concludes and officially ends the 2020-21 academic year.
Until next time, game on and as always…
Roll Tide!
George
George Husack
Head Men's Tennis Coach
The University of Alabama
