Attempting to put back-to-back losses against No. 17 UCF and No. 12 UA in the rearview mirror, ASU men's tennis travels to Texas for its third matchup this year against No. 16 Baylor in the first round of the Big 12 Championships on April 18.
At 12-10 and 3-5 in conference play, ASU is the sixth seed in the tournament; however, they don't have a single win against four of the five teams above them in the standings with losses to UCF, Utah, No. 2 TCU and UA.
What does give the Sun Devils confidence heading in is their 4-3 victory over Baylor on March 16 during the program's first head-to-head of the season. This win helped bring ASU to its highest-ranked win of the year taking place in the finals of the UTR College Championships.
Facing the No. 15 doubles pair in the country in No. 1 doubles, the sophomore duo of Daniel Phillips and Bor Artnak were able to pull out a tiebreak win in their first match playing together. It was a similar performance for the Sun Devils at No. 3 doubles with junior Constantinos Koshis and graduate student Matic Dimic securing the doubles point in another tightly contested tiebreak.
That victory was Dimic and Koshis' first-ever match together, a decision made the night prior to the match.
"I know we have some good chemistry, so it was great to just get in, (and) do our job," Koshis said after the win. "We were in tough spots a lot so I was actually very happy with how good we managed the moment."
One of ASU’s biggest strengths was at the top of the order, where its top two singles players - Artnak and senior Mathis Bondaz - cruised to straight-set wins to give ASU a 3-0 lead.
Baylor did fight back with three straight wins but junior Roi Ginat clinched the match in a three-set thriller. In the rematch in Waco on March 21, the Sun Devils got swept, however, Artnak didn't play which led many to see a cascading effect. With one of their best players back, ASU expects this showdown to mimic the former matchup rather than the latter.
"I think we're strong favorites in (the) one and two spots, we won last time, pretty easy, even though they have really high-ranked guys," Artnak said. "So hopefully, everything goes our way, we could be 3-0 really quick, and only one of the guys needs to win."
Artnak has been extremely consistent at No. 1 singles for the Sun Devils, going 12-5 and 4-2 when facing nationally ranked opponents. In the first matchup against Baylor, Artnak who's ranked No. 36 in the ITA collegiate singles rankings, comfortably took care of business in a 6-3, 6-3 win against Devin Badenhorst, who sits right behind Artnak in the rankings at No. 37.
At 6-foot-7, Badenhorst is one of the biggest players in college tennis with a huge serve that could pose problems. But Artnak has prepared himself to be consistent on his own service games, which in turn puts the burden back on his opponent to hold.
"Devin, for example, he's a great weapon," Artnak said. "He has these two or three games, you're like 'He's unplayable,' like, can't do anything, but then he has three games for anyone to win a game against him. So that's what I'm trying to work on, just be resilient out there and not give away free points."
Artnak's presence isn't just limited to his performance. He automatically slides back into both No. 1 singles and doubles, allowing the rest of the roster to play down a spot and gain an advantage. In his absence, the opposite occurred with players having to move up a position against tougher competition.
"It's definitely a factor," head coach Matt Hill said of Artnak playing. "We did win the doubles with Bor in at Indian Wells, and we didn't get the doubles without him, and had to play with some different pairs. It is amazing how much one player can change a tennis lineup, with not just level, but even just the matchups of the styles that they're playing."
Putting out the same lineup that ASU won with will likely be the plan of action but Hill and the coaching staff are also looking at players' form before making the final call.
"We got to keep watching the guys in training and make sure everybody looks sharp and we have a philosophy here that the week that you have leading up to the weekend matters in terms of the coaches' decisions on playing time," Hill said.
The Sun Devils have now fallen to 3-9 against top-30 teams in the country and are 0-6 away from home but for the team, the Big 12 Championships are a fresh start as it retools before the NCAA Tournament.
"This time of year, postseason play, it's a different season in our minds," Hill said. "We're in a brand new season, and all the focus is forward on Baylor, and all the prep and all the things that need to happen in order for us to be successful."
Edited by Henry Smardo, Alysa Horton and Natalia Jarrett.
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Pratham is a sophomore studying sports journalism with a minor in business. This is his fourth semester with The State Press.