April 5, 2005

At the beginning of the tennis season, men's tennis coach Tim Siegel knew his team had the potential to be good, but he never thought the squad would be ranked 10th in the nation at this point. The team is currently 19-1 with a 1-1 conference record.

"I'd be lying had I thought we'd be top 10. I thought we had the potential to be a top 20 team. There's so much that goes into a successful season, and talent is about the fifth most important thing," said Siegel.

"We've won five or six very close matches that could have gone the other way, and the reason we won those close matches is because of the attitude of the team," he added.

Siegel attributes the squad's success to having a group of guys that come out and play hard every day, as well as three seniors that lead by example.

"I think all six players have been the key to our success. We really can't limit it to less than six. To start the season Michael Innerebner, our senior captain, won three matches 7-6 in the third and all three matches clinched the match. That was all within eight days, so he played a big role early on," said Siegel.

It can't be ignored that his team is extremely talented. Number one singles player Radek Nijaki, a 6-4 sophomore from Zielona-Gora, Poland, has taken the court by storm this season. He holds a 10-3 record and is ranked high nationally along with the team's number two player Bojan Szumanski. The two top players also combine to make a fearsome doubles team. Szumanski has lost just one match this year in singles and is ranked 23rd in the nation. He was the Big 12 Player of the Week earlier this spring during a 6-0 stretch.

"We always knew in the beginning of the season that we would be good this year, but we didn't know how good we would be. We had a couple good wins against Washington, Clemson, and TCU. They were really good wins," Nijaki stated.

Siegel loses three seniors after the season, but feels he has built a good base for the future. Szumanski has a hunch that Nijaki may leave West Texas for the pro circuit next year, but the squad will still have plenty of depth. One of the players that will be returning is number six player Adrian Prpic from Helsingborg, Sweden. To date, the freshman has only lost one match.

Szumanski and Prpic went undefeated through a large part of the season, and number four player Esat Tanik has also proven to be one of the team's most important players.

"He's our emotional leader. He's the guy that keeps everyone fired up," Siegel commented.

Tanik and his teammates will have their work cut out for them during the remainder of the season. They hit the road to play Texas on April 8, and follow up the next day with a match against Texas A&M. Both teams are in the top 20, and the team has defeated each team only once during Siegel's 12 seasons as head coach.

"Both matches are scheduled to be played in the evening so there will be about 2,000 people. They draw a good crowd and we look forward to the matches. Hopefully we can pull it out on Friday against UT," said Nijaki.

The icing on the cake will be defeating No. 1 Baylor at the end of the season. The returning national champions should prove to be the toughest competition the Red Raiders will face.

"We have five matches left and three of them are top 20 teams, so it's going to be tough, especially Baylor. That is the team we've been looking forward to playing the most. They're number one in the nation, and they're playing here at night on April 16. We're hoping to get a good crowd out here," Szumanski added.

Tech returns home to host the Baylor Bears on Sat., April 16, at 6 p.m. at the McLeod Tennis Center, and will conclude the regular season with two road matches, at Nebraska April 22 and at Colorado April 24.