Catching Up With: Michigan Men's Tennis

Submitted by BlueDragon on

Since Michigan's glorious 7-0 rout of the false god whose name I would prefer not to mention, Michigan Men's Tennis has won three out of their past four Big Ten matches, including two road games. On March 23, 2012, Michigan at Wisconsin lost the doubles point, but won 5 out of 6 singles matches to win, 5-2. It was a truly glorious day for Michigan singles that day. Three out of five victories were decided in straight sets for King, Bernstein, and Zhu (1,2,4 courts). Only 6 court Alex Buzzi lost his match in gritty manball grrrrrrrrrrr fashion, 6-0, 3-6, 7-5.

LINK

Sadly, Michigan will not keep the Little Brown Jug in Ann Arbor this year, as Michigan's March 25, 2012 4-3 defeat at the hands of the Golden Gophers forced Michigan to give up this prized rivalry trophy. Once again the doubles point was lost, and Petrone and Zhu lost in straight sets. Still, to get 3 points in the second road match in 3 days shows composure and mental focus on the part of Michigan to perform as well as they did.

LINK

Back at VTC on March 31, 2012, Michigan beat the Boilermakers 5-2. Michigan's Bernstein, battling a shoulder injury, participated as King's doubles partner on 1 court but did not compete in singles. Bernstein served all underhanded in doubles, causing the ball to die in the opponent's service box multiple times. With Bernstein out of the singles lineup, all Wolverines below King moved up a court. Petrone performed admirably on 2 court for Michigan, winning 6-2, 7-5. Zhu also won in straight sets on 3 court, 7-5, 6-3. Backup Brown lost on 6 court, committing frequent unforced errors and giving off a DOOM aura in the general vicinity. He is not ready to start, but Buzzi was needed on 5 court. One more injury and Michigan will lose its edge in singles competition.

Barrett Franks lost in three sets on 4 court. On the one hand, everyone played up a court and he made it to three sets. Regardless, Franks needs to move his feet better and get set to the look of the ball as it approaches him. In tennis, the movement of the feet and the ease of the stroke by which the player contacts the ball with the sweet spot is paramount. Without nimble footwork it is difficult if not impossible to get good shots on the ball without straining.

LINK

Today, April 1, 2012, Michigan defeated Indiana at the VTC. Full recap from MGoBlue is not yet available yet, but results are up. Chart? Chart:

Doubles:

table.tableizer-table {border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px;} .tableizer-table td {padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc;} .tableizer-table th {background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold;}
TeamScore
King/Bernstein 18—6
Franks/Buzzi1—8
Petrone/Zhu9—7

Singles:

table.tableizer-table {border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;} .tableizer-table td {padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc;} .tableizer-table th {background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold;}
Player and CourtSet 1Set 2Set 3
Evan King 16—16—1 
Shaun Bernstein 21—61—6 
Alex Petrone 36—26—0 
Michael Zhu 46—24—61—0 (8)
Barrett Franks 51—61—4 
Alex Buzzi 66—27—5

At present, Men's 1 court King is rated #10 in the country. Women's 1 court Emina Betkas is rated #10 in the country as well. Congratulations to Michigan's fine 1 courts!

sports fan

April 1st, 2012 at 8:01 PM ^

My wife and I attended the match on Saturday.  Lots of fun, and pretty good crowd on hand.  It was a little shocking to see Bernstein serving underhand right off the bat.  Not a real tennis player myself, but it was immediately obvious when he repeated that serve he had a shoulder problem. He didn't hit any overheads either, which can be a problem in doubles.  The guys all hung pretty tough.  As I recall, all three doubles matches had UM trailing at some point.  Even King and Bernstein were down 1-4.  Two of the three obviously rallied to win the doubles point.  Lot of fun.  Go Blue.

Waters Demos

April 2nd, 2012 at 7:22 PM ^

When a thread dedicated to men in tights fake-beating the shit out of each other gets that many responses (see thread below this one), and a thread about a university men's tennis team gets this many.

MSU is indeed a false god - a painter, a piper, a prisoner that shines. 

BlueDragon

April 2nd, 2012 at 8:39 PM ^

At least they are generating traffic on a pro-Michigan website, so it helps the collective fanbase. Or they are demonstrating the power of ever-increasing amounts of information at faster and faster rates transmitted directly into our homes.

I do like the free air available on the east side of Spartan Stadium. Source.  Heck, I might drive up there someday on a trip to Michigan to use the air pump for the lulz. Take pictures with a Michigan flag and some bikes. I had to pay 75 cents the other day for 3 minutes of air and got my bike tires up to about 50psi each.

Waters Demos

April 2nd, 2012 at 8:52 PM ^

I went out one morning to Wells Hall.  I crossed the bridge over the river where the ducks associate.  I spotted the mother, who secretly accepted me.  So it has been.

Just then some gentleman shouted from across the courtyard, obviously deciding that his freedom must predominate over mine.  Not the best place for it IMHE.