Last chance for tennis singles

Strangely, the word of the last three months for the Michigan men's tennis team has been "individual."

This weekend, individual Wolverines have their last chance at selfishness when they play for individual pride at the Big Ten Singles Championships in East Lansing.

For several months now, the Wolverines have only competed in individual-based tournaments. While vital to a team's preparation, the tournaments have no bearing on Michigan's team record.

The singles tournament is the last chance for the Wolverines to ready themselves for the dual-meet season that begins Feb. 1 at home against Virginia.

"The tournament is strictly for our players to get some extra matches," Michigan assistant coach Dan Goldberg said. "It also gives them a chance to improve their individual rankings."

The tournament is separated into two brackets, the main one brings the top six players of each Big Ten team (last year's 10th- and 11th-place teams send five) to vie for the championship.

The other bracket consists of two other members of each team. This gives all eight Wolverines a chance to compete, six of whom will have a crack at winning the Big Ten singles championship.

Scheduled to compete in the open-draw, 64-player tournament are seniors Brook Blain, Arvid Swan and Dave Paradzik, juniors Will Farah and Jake Raiton, and sophomores Brad McFarlane, John Long and Matt Wright.

So far this season, the Wolverines have marched to a 90-39 singles record and every player has a winning percentage of more than .500.

"This year we have tremendous depth," Goldberg said. "We are hoping for five players to be seeded in the top 16."

Michigan has had success in past singles championships, especially two years ago when three out of four semifinalists wore maize and blue, including Paradzik and Swan.

But Michigan still has something to prove as far as team rankings.

Michigan ranked a surprising fourth in Region IV (which includes most of the Big Ten) by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, even though it performed statistically better than all the other teams at its regional championships.

"It would have been nice to be No. 1, but we are just going to go out and do our thing," Goldberg said.

Nationally, Michigan jumped nine spots in the poll - from No. 51 to No. 42 - thanks to its big wins in the fall tournament season.

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