Alabama
Oregon
Riccardo Roberto is Ready to Lay it All on the Line for Alabama Men’s Tennis as NCAA Championship Play Begins Saturday
5/7/2021 7:01:00 PM | Men's Tennis
The Crimson Tide opens the NCAA Championships against Oregon in Waco, Texas on the Baylor University campus at 11 a.m. CT
WACO, Texas – It's still tennis. It's scored the same, the lines and dimensions are the same, the racquets and balls don't change. But as Riccardo Roberto can tell you, playing tennis on red clay can feel like a completely different game.
The Alabama men's tennis senior grew up playing on red clay in his native Italy, hanging back on the baseline, sliding and volleying through the slower pace that clay dictates. So when he arrived in Tuscaloosa in January of 2018, the gears had to shift.
"It was a tough transition for sure, a challenging one," Roberto said. "But for me, I like to take adversity and flip the situation around. For these four years, I've working hard on it every day to change my game and change my mindset."
Red clay lends itself to being a little more conservative and longer rallies as well as sliding on the court which makes it easier to move. For Roberto in particular, his game was well suited to clay because of the spin he put on the ball.
With all the changes he needed to make in the mechanics of his game, the biggest shift was in the mindset he needed to be successful, becoming more aggressive and leaving the comfort of the baseline and coming to the net.
While he earned a steady spot in the Crimson Tide's singles lineup early on, Roberto continued to work on his doubles game. He started out playing sparingly between Nos. 2 and 3 in the lineup. As he became more comfortable on the hard courts, he started playing a bigger part in Alabama's lineup, until this season, when he combined with big Patrick Kaukovalta and secured a spot playing at No. 1.
"I think doubles, this year, it's a combination of everything I've been working on, but I also think it's playing with great friend of mine," Roberto said. "I also started enjoying it more and I learned how to move better over the years and it just became easier and easier. It's a lot of fun now."
His progress became evident in the fall when he and Kaukovalta began playing together. Early in the Southeastern Conference portion of the dual match season, the two staged a comeback on the road at South Carolina, knocking off No. 44 Daniel Rodrigues and Connor Thomson, 7-6, coming back from multiple match points to win it in the tiebreaker, 8-6.
Roberto also enjoyed a big weekend in early March when he led Alabama to a pair of SEC wins, posting a huge singles win against Kentucky's Joshua Lapadat (No. 123) in straight sets. He and Kaukovalta also came back from being down 40-0 at match point at No. 1 doubles to force a tiebreaker against Cesar Bourgois and Gabriel Diallo, eventually winning the match and securing the doubles point for the Tide on the way to upsetting the No. 15-ranked Wildcats. That same weekend, against Vanderbilt, Roberto and Kaukovalta picked up another win at No. 1 in a tiebreaker, giving UA the doubles point. In singles, Roberto downed Jeremie Casabon 6-7, 6-3, 6-1.
For her efforts that weekend, he was named the SEC Player of the Week.
He was also instrumental in a pair of senior weekend wins, securing singles victories to help lead the Tide over then No. 15 Mississippi State at home, in his last regular-season home match, and then at No. 9 Ole Miss.
"Senior Night was such an amazing experience, playing at home for the last time with these guys and everyone stepping up and giving their all," Roberto said. "That was a really nice night for this team, there was a great vibe and everyone was ready to compete."
Coming in the NCAA Championships, Roberto and Kaukovalta are ranked No. 23 in the nation and earned a spot in the NCAA Championships doubles draw.
"That has been our goal, to make to NCAAs in doubles," Roberto said. "We set that as a goal pretty early on and we felt like it was something we could do."
But before he heads to Orlando, Fla., later this month for doubles, Roberto and his teammates get the team portion of the NCAA Championships started Saturday at 11 a.m., in Waco, Texas where they take on the Oregon Ducks at the Hurd Tennis Center on the Baylor University campus.
"We just want to go out there and compete 100 percent for every point," Roberto said. "That's what I expect of myself and what everyone expects of each other, to give it our all and hold nothing back."
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