Indiana men’s tennis wrapped up the penultimate tournament in the team’s fall season this past weekend in South Bend, Indiana, at the Fighting Irish Mini Dual event. The competition was the Hoosiers’ first indoor tournament of the season.
Four Hoosier freshmen — Sam Landau, Luc Boulier, Ekansh Kumar and Andrew Meier — all competed in the tournament, playing four singles and four doubles matches each.
“We went there to get competitive matches against indoor teams,” head coach Jeremy Wurtzman said. “I thought we got a lot of quality matches.”
Boulier and Meier couldn’t find their groove over the weekend. They both lost all four of their singles matches in South Bend.
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“They’re just getting used to playing at this level,” Wurtzman said.
The two paired up to play in four doubles matches as well, posting a slightly improved 1-3 record.
Landau continued his solid fall season, winning three of his four singles matches. Two of his singles wins came in straight sets. The first straight set victory came in Landau’s third match against Will Mayew, a freshman at the University of Louisville. Landau won 6-3, 6-2. The second straight set win came in the following match against Mayew’s teammate, graduate student Alex Wesbrooks. Landau won 6-3, 6-1 in that one.
“Sam has been great — you hope for that,” Wurtzman said. “It’s been great to see Sam have success right at the start.”
Kumar won only one of his four singles matches over the weekend. The one win came against the reigning Big East Freshman of the Year, Marino Jakic, a sophomore at DePaul University. Kumar had some trouble closing out matches, losing each of his final two in tiebreakers. In his final match, Kumar had three match points but was unable to emerge victorious.
“It was just a matter of getting the win, but he played really well within those matches to put himself in a position to win,” Wurtzman said. “We were really impressed with him.”
Landau and Kumar acted as the other doubles duo for the Hoosiers. They went 2-2 over the weekend.
“I don’t think we’ll have them play together too much this season,” Wurtzman said. “It’s definitely something that down the line in future years could work.”
The Hoosiers are set to compete at the Big Ten Singles and Doubles Championship in Ann Arbor, Michigan, next weekend for their final tournament of the fall season.
“We’re looking forward to next weekend,” Wurtzman said. “Playing one more event.”
The event begins on Friday and runs through Sunday.
