The Arizona men’s tennis team travels to Albuquerque, N.M., this weekend to compete in the Balloon Fiesta Classic, in which Arizona will be the only team representing the Pacific 10 Conference.
According to UA head coach Tad Berkowitz, nonconference play has its benefits.
“”It’s a good opportunity for the guys to go and compete against some different teams,”” he said.
Junior Mitchell Brown, sophomore Peter Zimmer, and redshirt freshman Alex Labrosse will represent the Wildcats at the event.
After an encouraging performance at the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American
Championships last week Zimmer is ready to play more confidently against players he usually does not meet in the spring season.
“”Ultimately, whether it’s a guy that I’ve played a few times…or a guy I’ve never seen before, it’s still a battle against the situation of the match, a match against myself and my mentality,”” he said.
After the strides Zimmer has made within the last week, Berkowitz is also anticipating his first match since the All-Americans, where he won three matches in the pre-qualifying event.
“”For Peter, the bar has been raised. …The standard for him has gone up within a week,”” Berkowitz said. “”I’ve always had high expectations of Peter through last year and through improvement this year.””
In the first tournament of his collegiate
career, Labrosse, who has been playing tennis for 10 years now, will be competing for the benefit of the team and not for an individual ranking, a concept that he said used to be foreign to him.
Brown will also be playing in his first event of the fall season. This tournament will be his first in over a year as he redshirted last season.
He said he wants to use this tournament to prove that he is a “”valuable asset”” to the team and that the work he put in last season was not in vain.
In doubles action, Zimmer and Labrosse will pair up for the draw.
Berkowitz said he wants to see the two men obtain valuable doubles experience and maybe even earn a couple wins.
“”(I want to) establish a new level of confidence,”” Zimmer said.
