(Photo: Mason Kern/WCSN)
The Arizona State men’s tennis team is in the midst of its first season back since being discontinued in 2008 for financial reasons. The squad maintains a 13-7 record after 20 matches. The Sun Devils went on an eight-match winning streak earlier in the season that featured a tournament championship victory and ended with a ranking at No. 13 in the nation.
Senior captain Michaël Geerts is a large reason why.
Geerts is the lone senior on a team composed of a plethora of young, international talent. This is his first–and last–season of NCAA collegiate tennis eligibility. Although his time in an ASU uniform may be short-lived, he has already left a lasting legacy on the program.
Hailing from Belgium, Geerts was studying at the University of Brussels working on his economic science degree prior to his recruitment to ASU. He was simultaneously playing tennis on the International Tennis Federation Professional Circuit; having been ranked as high as No. 435 in the world in singles play during August of 2016 and No. 390 in doubles in April that year.
“I think the beginning of the season was a little tough,” Geerts admitted. “We had a lot of great teams coming here to Tempe and of course I had a lot of really great opponents too. I was struggling a little bit in the beginning, then I think I had a few really good matches, especially over the No. 2 (Mikael) Torpegaard.”
Transitioning is simply a tough thing to do.
This teams’ middle name is transition. Transitioning from not knowing each other to becoming a team, transitioning from international life to the United States culture, transitioning from international to collegiate tennis.
One would think that this first season back would be a time for rebuilding–the Sun Devils think otherwise.
Head coach Matt Hill went beyond the borders of the U.S. in search of top talent and he brought back the No. 5 recruiting class in the country.
Considering the talent on the roster, Hill and Geerts alike set lofty expectations on the senior prior to the season. Despite the recent success, he still feels like more needs to be done.
“Coach (Hill) and I at the beginning of the season made up a certain goal for myself and for the moment I haven’t reached it yet,” Geerts said. “So that means I still need to keep working.”
Hill on the other hand thinks his star senior captain should be proud of the work he has done to this point.
“I think Michaël is pretty tough on himself,” Hill said. “He wants and expects to be in the top-10 in the country… I’m really pleased with what he’s doing. I think he really has to anchor his confidence around the body of work that he’s been producing, rather than one incident here or there. I think that’s the biggest thing for us with him, not the tennis, but him staying on the process.”
Geerts has a sufficient body of work through this point in the season.
The aforementioned victory over the No. 2 player in the country Mikael Torpegaard came in a 4-3 loss against then-No. 4 ranked Ohio State on a neutral court in Southern California. Geerts has been named Pac-12 Player of the Week twice this season and has attained three victories over nationally ranked opponents.
Geerts also boasts the best overall winning percentage on the roster. He is 12-3 in his last 15 matches, however his last two losses have been a little uncharacteristic of the ASU senior captain, as he’s lost singles matches in the team’s 4-3 loss at Utah and 4-3 win at Washington.
In the Oracle/ITA Division I Men’s singles rankings, Geerts has been ranked in each week’s update. He debuted at No. 51 on Nov. 15, and after being ranked as high as No. 35 on Mar. 20, he now finds himself ranked No. 49 as of April 3. Freshman captain Benjamin Hannestad also finds himself in the updated rankings at No. 66.
“I think the most important thing is to win as a team,” Geerts said. “College (tennis) is all about winning those team matches not really individually… But, yeah, especially Ben (Hannestad) and I are doing really well, as well as the rest of the team. We’ll just try and keep it up for the next few matches because there are a few tough ones coming up.”
The aforementioned tournament victory came in the midst of ASU’s eight-match winning streak. The Sun Devils were tapped as the No. 1 seed heading into the 70th annual Blue Gray Tennis Classic, and defeated the likes of Boise State, Fresno State and Alabama to clinch some hardware.
Geerts clinched the overall championship match with a singles victory of Alabama’s Mazen Osama. Geerts returned a volley with a forehand, and Osama hit the ball straight into the net, prompting the Sun Devils to charge and dog-pile the sprawled out senior.
The Sun Devils also participated in the BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge in which they were tapped as the No. 1 seed yet again. They would defeat Southern Methodist and Tulsa en route to the championship match, but fell 4-3 to perennial powerhouse and Pac-12 opponent Cal.
“We’ve been focusing on (Geerts and Hannestad’s) leadership and the intensity of the sessions,” Hill said. “I feel like when we were playing some of the top-10 teams we were really excited and really preparing well for those, and then when we played some of the other teams that maybe aren’t ranked as high we weren’t as engaged in the training.”
The doubles play for the Sun Devils was a real point of concern early on. They failed to clinch the doubles point in the team’s opening three matches–all of which ended in losses. This prompted Hill to make some changes in the doubles pairings as the squad was still tinkering with team chemistry.
Geerts now finds himself paired with freshman Tim Ruehl. The pair has gotten off to a successful start together, and the doubles of the entire team has improved greatly.
“He has so much experience,” Ruehl said of Geerts as reported by The State Press. “It’s easy to play with him. He makes you really like to play.”
Geerts’s former doubles partner, sophomore Makey Rakotomalala has a new partner in freshman Andrea Bolla and the two find themselves in the national doubles rankings this week.
Rakotomalala and Bolla were slotted at No. 86 in the latest Oracle/ITA Division I Men’s national doubles rankings as of April 3. This is the first doubles ranking ASU has featured this season since Hannestad and Ruehl posted a No. 53 ranking on Nov. 15.
In terms of the rest of the season, Geerts desires to qualify for the individual NCAA’s. The next three matches will be a real test for ASU as they get into the thick of conference play. The Sun Devils hold an overall record of 13-7, 2-2 in conference Pac-12 play. With schools such as USC, UCLA and Arizona on tap, the Sun Devils will have to figure things out if they want to head into the 2018 NCAA Division I Men’s tennis championships on a positive note.
No. 37 ASU defeated the No. 41 Oregon Ducks 4-1 in its last road trip to the Pacific Northwest. They also defeated the unranked Washington Huskies 4-3.
“We’ve got USC, UCLA and the last one against UofA,” Geerts said. “Everyone knows that’s big for us.”
Considering Geerts’ senior status, the ASU captain is doing everything he can to leave his mark on the program before he departs for professional tennis. Because he is a transplant along with a majority of the roster, the adjustment period has taken some getting used to. Now that the rust is gone, he is ready to finish the season strong, and motivate the guys coming after him to achieve their best.
“I really try to give them my experience over the last few years when I played on the pro circuit,” Geerts said. “When I leave I hope they think I was a great player and that I was always motivated to play for ASU. I’m pretty sure they will do the same next year and the years after.”
