ASU Men’s Tennis: Hill building new team through international talent

(Photo: Rob Werner/WCSN)

Being the country’s largest university by enrollment, Arizona State’s student population is made of a diverse cross-section of nationalities.

Its newly-reinstated men’s tennis team is perhaps the best example of this, a melting pot representative of not only the school, but the country more broadly.

ASU’s team was disbanded in 2008 for financial reasons but a decade later, under the control of new coach Matt Hill, the team is back in Tempe and ready to compete.

The team features seven players from outside the United States and just two Americans.

One of the main reasons Hill looked to recruit so many players from foreign countries was centered around tennis being “a global sport.”

“The United States hasn’t cornered the market by any means. I mean there are so many great players in so many different countries that it’s extremely competitive with the level we want to play at,” Hill said.

Hill’s ideology carries some merit. American men’s tennis has been in a lull in recent years, highlighted by the fact only three US players are among the top 40 in the world.

Despite that, and ASU’s 10-year tennis layoff, the Sun Devils have a fresh-face in Hill, an ambitious coach who was able to bring in the No. 5 recruiting class in the nation ahead of his first-ever season in Tempe, according to the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Some Division-I programs around the country have lured top international talent, promising to also find places for the prospects’ less-talented friends from home.

Not Hill.

“Sometimes it’s easy when you get a few from the same country and their buddies and they’re like, ‘Alright we’ll all go together,’ but we tried to pull the best guy from each country so it was challenging, but at the same time I think there’s an opportunity there to kind of paint whatever picture we want to paint.”

Senior Michael Geerts (Antwerp, Belgium) and freshman Benjamin Hannestad (Vedbaek, Denmark) were two of the most highly-touted international recruits ASU brought in. Both players have been ranked, both in singles and doubles, in the prestigious ATP world rankings. Geerts’ has reached as high as No. 435 in singles, about as a high as any current NCAA Division I player.

In addition to that duo, ASU has also added players from Great Britain, Switzerland, France and Germany.

While the players come from all over the world, they all have one thing in common: an abundance of respect for their new coach.

Hill proved his coaching talent at the University of South Florida where he turned a dormant program into a conference-winning, nationally-ranked power, earning him American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year three times.

It was his first time serving as a head coach, but he built a strong reputation in the collegiate tennis world in his four years with the program.

Assistant coach Michael Kokta, a former ATP ranked singles and doubles player from the Czech Republic, has had a firsthand look of the effect Hill has had in recruiting top-level talent to the rebooted program.

“One (factor) is going to be obviously the personality of Matt and his track record,” Kokta said. “When he was an assistant at Mississippi State, when he was at South Florida he had a track record of taking programs that were maybe not ranked so high and taking them all the way to the top 10. So when he made those initial phone calls and those serves as selling points that they were going to be really, really good he can point back at his track record.”

Hannestad for example, committed to Hill’s USF program when he was 15. When Hill went to Tempe, the sought-after Dane followed.

“He’s always been my guy,” Hannestad said. “I’ve always wanted to follow him because I feel like he’s the guy who’s going to bring me to the best level. For the other guys, I think they have the same trust in him. He’s a great guy, he’s very genuine, he’s a great coach.”

Hannestad also explained that while many of the players aren’t from the same country, the similarities in their Western European nations make being around one another more enjoyable.

“A lot of us have the same culture and the same humor, so we’re working together great,” Hannestad said.

Sophomore Pierre Louis Dodens, who hails from Geneva, Switzerland, explained the similar backgrounds don’t just help strengthen the team’s performances on the court.

“We’re really close,” Dodens said. “We live in the same complex. We have eight, so two different rooms of four people so we eat together all the time, we spend time together, we pretty much do everything together which makes it really fun.”

As the team’s international players should have no issue guiding the program to the top of the conference’s standings as soon as the season begins, not everything will be as smooth a transition for the new Sun Devils.

Luckily for ASU, the team’s two Americans, William Kirkman and Carsyn Smith, have been helping make the transition seamless.

“Will and Carsyn know the system well,” Dodens said. “Will knows how school goes here. I didn’t know anything about that. He was a big help for me because he explained how school works and how tennis goes.

“Carsyn too. He’s living in Scottsdale right now. His parents are a really nice help and they really are trying to make us work as a team.”

Hill recognizes how difficult it was to commit to a brand-new program in a foreign country, even calling his new players “pioneers.”

“Obviously the biggest challenge was that there was no team,” he said. “They didn’t know what they’re joining. There’s no ranking. There’s no information to help aide them in that process so it was incredibly challenging especially getting guys from different countries made it a little harder.”

It makes sense that Hill is grateful for his international players’ commitments. He needs them to allow the program to sustain success in the future.

“It helps us recruit other players,” Hill said. “It gives some credibility to the vision and what we’re wanting to do.”