Recruiting is the name of the game in any college sport. Sure, there are other factors to having a successful program, but if a team doesn’t have the talent to be competitive, it is at a major disadvantage.
Michigan State men’s tennis is a perfect example of that. The Spartans are reaping the benefits of stacking impressive recruiting classes on top of one another.
It’s not just junior Ozan Baris, who is the No. 1 singles player in college tennis. Redshirt sophomore Aristotelis Thanos has also made his presence known in the college tennis scene. He is ranked at No. 72 in singles.
True freshman Matt Forbes was considered as a blue-chip prospect and is in the fold now as well. Forbes just played in the U.S. Open main draw last month, becoming the first Spartan to ever do so.
The recent infusion of talent under head coach Harry Jadun has added a competitive edge in practice between teammates.
Baris is the top player for Michigan State. Typically, his teammates are competitive with him in practice matches, but Baris usually wins.
When Forbes was playing Baris in preparation for the U.S. Open, Forbes was taking it to Baris. Baris needed a break and he was having a conversation with assistant coach Mike Flowers on the bench.
"'What do you need, a TED talk right now?'" Forbes asked. "'Let’s play tennis.'"
The competitiveness between the top players for the Spartans makes the team even better.
“I think Ozan appreciated that,” Jadun said about Baris' competition with Forbes. “You’re a competitor and this guy didn’t come in to play (number) two singles. He didn’t come in to be the second fiddle and he was clear about that in the recruiting process. He loves Ozan. They get along really well. There’s a good synergy there. Aris (Thanos) is in that mix as well. Each of those guys, when they compete and practice, they make no bones about it. They want to beat each other and that’s what you've got to do if you want to be a great team.”
Thanos represented Greece recently in the Davis Cup – the top annual international team event in men’s tennis. He partnered with Petros Tsitsipas (brother of ATP No. 12 Stefanos Tsitsipas) in a doubles match against ATP No. 4 Novak Djokovic and Hamad Medjedovic. The pair of Djokovic, widely regarded as one of the best men’s tennis players of all time, and Medjedovic were playing in their native Serbia, so the crowd was behind them.
On the first point of the match, Medjedovic served it to Thanos and he returned it right into Djokovic’s chest. The Serbian fans were not happy. They were so unhappy that they needed the idolized Djokovic to calm them down.
That moment could have gotten to Thanos. Instead, he was treating Djokovic like any other guy.
“In that moment, he’s like, ‘Hey, I’m playing him like any other tennis player,’” Jadun said about Thanos. “Aris is very, very confident. He sees himself, five, 10 years from now, at that level — playing grand slams, hopefully winning titles.”
Led by Baris, Michigan State has now proven its worth on the court. It finished in the top-25 as a team last season after advancing to the Boston Regional final in the NCAA Tournament, and Baris is ranked No. 1 in the nation in singles. There is some proof that what Jadun is building in East Lansing is coming to fruition.
“Now, we have a little bit of proof behind the pudding,” Jadun said. “I was a used car salesman for about two years. Now I can point to something and say we have it.”
That has made Jadun’s job a little bit easier. Also, the 30-year old thinks that his age is a big benefit.
“The first thing that sticks out is I’m younger than a lot of head coaches,” Jadun said about what makes him a successful recruiter. “I think I’m still holding on by a thread as the youngest head coach in a Power Four conference. I think that really helps in recruiting, just being active, getting out there, a lot of travel and face time with the players.”
The next step for Michigan State tennis is competing with the traditional blue bloods for championships. That requires being competitive with those schools on the recruiting trail. Those blue bloods can pitch conference titles and national titles to high level recruits. There’s trophies in the cabinet. There's proof that what they do works.
Jadun’s pitch is something completely different than what the other schools pitch because it has to be.
"Our sell is, ‘Hey, I was a player here, I was an assistant coach. We didn’t do much and you can come in here and create a name for yourself and be the guy that takes this thing to the next level,’” Jadun said. “I think 30 years ago, I don’t think my sell works. I don’t think these players come to Michigan State. But, I do think with this generation, these guys are on TikTok, they’re on Instagram, it’s, 'What have you done for me in the last five seconds?' I think in this generation that sell is a lot more than the tradition and the powerhouses. I think they’re having a little bit of a tougher time selling that same narrative that they’ve had.”
Michigan State will host many of the top players in the area for the 2024 ITA DI Men’s Midwest Regional Championships. The tournament acts as a qualifying tournament for the NCAA Individual Championships.
Qualifying matches will start on Thursday in the singles draw. Michigan State freshmen Mitchell Sheldon and Danial Rakhmatullayev will have matches then.
The main draw for the singles and doubles will start on Friday. Baris, Forbes and Thanos will all be in action this weekend. The rest of the team — including seniors Josh Portnoy and Max Sheldon, junior David Saye and sophomore Taym Al Azmeh — will compete in the main draw.
The finals in singles and doubles are on Monday.
