(Photo: Patricia Vicente/WCSN)
Saturday marks the final home match of the season for No. 31 Arizona State men’s tennis (12-10, 3-2 Pac-12) as it squares off against conference foe No. 45 Utah. For graduate student Justin Roberts, it will also mark the final time he suits up in the maroon and gold at the Whiteman Tennis Center.
Roberts, who transferred to ASU from South Florida following his junior year, is set to make his final home appearance with the Sun Devils after exhausting his final year of eligibility with ASU this past season. His decision to play for the Sun Devils reunited him with Matt Hill, the program’s coach, who led Roberts during his freshman and sophomore campaigns with the Bulls.
Hill originally coached at USF before leaving to jumpstart the men’s tennis program at ASU for the 2017-2018 season. He was the first coach of the program for the Sun Devils in the last 10 years, as it was discontinued in 2008 due to financial constraints.
But after a season apart, Roberts decided to spend his final year at ASU with Hill at the helm.
“Justin’s impact on this program in his one year here is genuinely impossible to put into words,” coach Matt Hill said. “He knows me and my system and I have a high level of trust in him because I’ve known him for so long. Even longer than I’ve known my assistant coaches.”
Roberts has heated up recently, currently owning a six-match singles winning streak with four unfinished matches in that timeframe. He has not lost since a contest on March 9 against Ben Draper of California in straight sets — both of which going into tiebreak points.
“It’s very difficult to put some kind of benchmark on how much impact Justin has had on this program,” Hill said, “because he’s had a bigger impact than he even realizes, or probably that I even realize. He was a much-needed piece of the puzzle this year that I don’t even think I knew at the time.”
This season Roberts has also won 10 matches in doubles between two partners: junior Makey Rakotomalala and sophomore Benjamin Hannestad.
The team as a whole has made significant improvements in March, winning seven of its last nine matches.
“We are starting to see the team come together as a group and see their game clean up now that they are healthy and training on a more regular basis,” Hill said. “We’re moving in the right direction at the right time of the year, which we talk about all the time, but it doesn’t always happen that way, so we are excited.”
ASU has experienced an extremely road-heavy schedule. As the match against Utah will only be the team’s seventh of the year. It has been successful when playing at home, though, as the Sun Devils are undefeated heading into the big match.
“We’ve only had four or five home matches this year,” sophomore Tim Ruehl said. “So every home match is something special for us. We really try to enjoy the moment. It’s going to be the last one for Justin, so we really want to win for him.”
For Utah (16-8, 2-4), it is scheduled to face Arizona on Friday before closing their conference schedule against ASU on Saturday.
The team comes into the weekend having upset No. 12 Stanford 4-2 at home on their senior day. Leading the way was senior Dan Little, who defeated the Cardinal’s then-No. 47 freshman Alexandre Rotsaert in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 on court one.
Individually, Utah boasts two players ranked in the Oracle/ITA rankings with Little ranked No. 54 and senior David Micevski at No. 85. ASU features one player in the rankings with junior Nathan Ponwith at No. 62.
Utah looks to secure its third and fourth conference victories of the season, after starting Pac-12 play 2-4 coming into this week.
For the Sun Devils, they will seek to get revenge after falling to the Utes on the road last season.
“We’re excited about the Utah match,” Hill said. We’ve got some unfinished business with them. We lost to them last year on the road. We want to get a little revenge if possible.
“That was a match that we feel like last year we kind of let slip away from us. We didn’t play our best tennis from start to finish. It was not our best performance so we’re excited to get back on the court with them.”
The Sun Devils square off against the Utes on Saturday with first serve scheduled for 1 p.m. PST. ASU will then finish the regular season next week on the road in Los Angeles, facing No. 13 UCLA on April 19 and No. 11 USC on April 20.
