Arizona senior Jonas Gibert earned first-team All-Pack 12 honors last season. As one of his more experienced members of the team, Gilbert has been working on improving his physique this offseason. (Photo credit: Mike Christie/Arizona Athletics)
PHOENIX – Playing a tennis match in the fall is the goal of any university program. Teams like the Arizona Men’s Tennis go to great lengths to get that experience, even if it means splitting the team for the weekend.
Coach Clancy Shields of Arizona accompanied two of the team’s best singles players, Jonas Gibbarts and Colton Smith, for the Battle in the Bay tournament in San Francisco in late September, and took part in the event in Boston. I kept a close eye on the rest of the team playing in the Chowderfest tournament. The split weekend is part of his two-month fall schedule that began with the Wildcat Invitational on September 16th. Shields would sometimes wake up at 6 a.m. to watch teams play Texas A&M, Memphis and Harvard on the East Coast.
Teams competing on opposite coasts will share one goal this fall. Improving for the 2023 spring season to achieve our high goals of excellence.
“A lot of the competitors were very high level, so it was a great experience playing with them,” Smith said of the tournament.
Shields and his players have united in setting the NCAA National Championship as the ultimate hurdle for the team to reach next spring. The Wildcats won his 2022 NCAA men’s tennis championship against North Carolina, where he lost in the second round, a feat he fell short of last season. The team will seek to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament with an undefeated home record, a Pac-12 title and a top 16 national seed designation.
Work begins now.
“I think the fall is the time to make the necessary improvements to join that (title) conversation,” Shields said.
This week presented one of the best opportunities to gain match experience at the ITA Men’s All-American Championships scheduled for the fall. The event, now in its 43rd year, saw more than 400 of his best college players in the men’s singles tournament.
Four Arizona players traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma to participate in the event. Ziverts was one of his 48 players nationwide to enter the men’s singles tournament out of the 64 main draw. Gustaf Strom, Herman Hoeyeraal and Smith entered the qualifying draw, bypassing the 256 qualifying draw.
Coming into the week, Gibbarts said he hopes to incorporate the lessons learned from his individual practice and team practice sessions to perform better at the U.S. Championships.
“I want to play what I want instead of focusing too much on results,” Gibbarts said before the tournament started. “My goal is to maintain my gameplay all week, win or lose.”
Strom, Hoeyeraal and Smith won their first round matches in qualifying draws, but none of them qualified for the main draw. Ziverts, a Stanford sophomore, lost his first round in the main draw to Max Basing. Regardless of the result, improvement was prioritized over winning or losing.
Preparing for the actual fall tournament is a little different than the spring season. According to Shields, each player has a different development plan. Prior to afternoon team practice, a 45-minute individual practice session will be arranged around that plan.
Colton Smith, a sophomore at the University of Arizona, had a strong freshman campaign with a strong 24-9 singles record. He is looking to improve this fall to achieve similar success during his 2023 season. (Photo credit: Madison Farwell/Arizona Athletics)
According to Smith, the team didn’t often have all team practices together. But that hasn’t stopped his players from practicing with a positive spirit.
“We all come out with high energy competing and trying to better each other,” Smith said. The times are a little shorter and the competition is a little more intense.”
Ziverts said the uniqueness of Fall Practice provides additional time to develop in other areas off the court.
“We’re more focused on trying to build physique,” said Gibbarts. “We’re doing more in the gym and pushing ourselves further with weights.”
Practice helps, but the fall season is all about players gaining experience playing against other college players. Shields said players develop more by participating in major fall tournaments.
“You can practice a new skill. Mastering that skill may require 1,000 practices. In a match play situation, it may require 30 or 40 repetitions. “There is,” said Shields.
Ziverts added: You can’t really practice it. It’s very difficult to feel the same tension as when you play against great players at these big events. “
The Wildcats have even bigger fall tournaments ahead. The ITA Division I Men’s Southwest Regional Championships begin October 20th at Pepperdine University. The nation’s top 32 men’s singles players and doubles teams will compete in his ITA National Fall Championships in November.
For the first time in his tenure as coach, Shields wants to represent Arizona at this year’s National Fall Championships, but he also recognizes that there are no guarantees at the college level.
“If you can get one guy into the fall Nationals at the end of the year, that’s pretty good,” Shields said. “If you can get two, you’re in a special place.”
But at the same time, Arizona doesn’t really care about individual records or how many people qualify for the National Fall Championships.
“I really want our team to go out there and continue to improve and continue to add to their game what we’ve been working on,” Shields said. We’re not trying to peak in May, we’re trying to peak in May.”
