Hoosiers head south for final tune-up before spring season

IU men’s tennis coach Randy Bloemendaal will get one final look at his team before dual competition at this weekend’s tournament at Florida Gulf Coast University.

The tournament, which will be in Ft. Myers, Fla., features players from IU, FGCU and Radford. The players will compete Saturday and Sunday in round-robin play.

Although these matches will not be submitted to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association and won’t affect rankings, they will give the players more match experience and may help Bloemendaal decide how to round out his lineup.

A pressing concern is how to replace the departed Lachlan Ferguson, the team’s number one singles player who garnered All-Big Ten honors the last two seasons.

A likely replacement at the top spot for the Hoosiers, is Santiago Gruter, who was ranked 46th in the preseason ITA rankings. Gruter, a senior from Peru, played primarily at the number two, three and four singles positions last year, compiling 25 wins and a 7-3 record in Big Ten play.

Indiana will also rely heavily on Jeremy Langer, a junior who split time at the two, three and four spots last year. Langer played six matches at number one singles last season and posted a 3-3 record in those matches. Langer and Gruter went 12-2 as the team’s number two doubles tandem last season.

Josh MacTaggart, a sophomore from England, had a team-high 31 singles victories last season at the number three and four slots and also won the Big Ten Singles Tournament.

The exhibition tournament this weekend will also allow Serbian freshman Dimitrije Tasic to get more collegiate match experience heading into the spring season. Tasic won national titles in Serbia in the under-16 and under-18 age groups.