Men's tennis hails from around the world
April 19, 2008
By Sheena Nguyen <><>The Daily
From under the blistering sun of Chennai, India to the good `ol familiar locale of Bothell, Wash., this year's crop of Washington tennis players hail from around the globe.
Unlike most sports whose players are recruited more locally and whose teams are made up of solely American athletes, the Washington men's tennis team has a mixed medley of players where players from the states constitute the minority on the team.
"We have nine different countries represented on the squad," said Brad Bator, a redshirt freshman from Bothell. "It's neat to see how everybody comes together as a team"
Because the sport of tennis isn't exactly a staple on ESPN and American households don't usually plan their evenings around Monday night tennis, it makes sense to look oversees for potential up-and-comers in the sport.
After all, the No. 1 player in the world, Roger Federer, is Swiss and the top American in the world is thousands of points behind him in the Association of Tennis Professionals rankings, at No. 6.
Coach Chris Russell picked up on this years ago when he was coaching at Oregon.
In fact, junior Patrick Fischer, the current co-captain and Washington's No. 1 player, was first recruited by Russell.
"He had three Swiss players in Oregon so they gave him my contact info and he started talking to me," explained Fischer, a Switzerland native.
Even with the initial talks, the process of international recruiting gets much more complicated, especially since top athletes are heavily recruited by multiple schools.
"I wasn't really interested in going to Oregon because I wanted to go somewhere where there weren't any Swiss players so that I could learn English faster and experience a different culture," Fischer added. "A year later, [Russell] came [to Washington] and I was really interested in coming here ... since school and tennis were most important to me and both were good here."
According to Fischer, many conversations went on between the coaches and him about what a scholarship would consist of and what the team would look like.
Whether it's the scholarship or the simple allure of being an athlete in the United States, Washington's appeal has clearly crossed national borders.
Freshman Tobi Obenaus, from Waidhofen, Austria, attests to this. "If I wasn't at [Washington], ... I wouldn't be in the States at all," he said.
The transition and adjustment to a different culture has also been easier than most would have imagined.
"People are more open-minded here," Fischer stated. "They talk to you more on the street, and they also accept foreigners much more than in Europe I think. As a foreigner, you feel really comfortable here, almost like you're something special."
But from a closer vicinity, junior David Chu from Vancouver, B.C., chose Washington for its similarities to home.
"The thing I like about UW is [that] the weather is really similar to Vancouver," he said.
No one comes closer to being from Seattle than Bator.
What sets him apart is that he is only one of four players on the team from the United States.
"It's definitely different because you get to experience all the different cultures," he said. "We're individuals in that we come from so many different places but bond as a team, and I think it shows this year. ... It shows that something like a sport can bring a lot of different people together."
That was a fortunate turnout for the team, though, as it was a mystery to what the team dynamic would be like before all the players came together.
"All possible scenarios could happen," coach Matt Anger said.
As far as finding the players, he could be looking far and wide or have them simply come straight to him.
"Some players we find, some find us, some are found through former players and some can be from players who I played against back in the old days," he said.
