Tennys Sandgren’s success is validation for leaving school.
Nine months ago, Tennys Sandgren reached a decision that left his coaches at the University of Tennessee somewhat flummoxed.
Coming off back-to-back victories in USTA Futures events, the Volunteers’ then-19year-old sophomore decided to forego a return to Knoxville and assume the top spot on a roster that came up just short of a national title and was losing three key seniors.
Coach Sam Winterbotham understood Sandgren’s desire to compete professionally, but he called the departure “completely unexpected.”
Flash forward to Saturday, and Sandgren was whip-sawing returns to the very Volunteers teammate he was supposed to replace, John-patrick Smith, in the semifinals of the St. Vincent Tour Depaul Tournament at Little Rock’s Pleasant Valley Country Club.
“We just kind of winged it,” Sandgren said. “For him, it might be a little weird going up against a guy who was behind him in the lineup. But I’ve always looked up to JP, and I’m used to him beating my ass.”
That wasn’t the case in their first professional meeting Saturday, as the fifth-seeded Sandgren rallied from an early three-game deficit in the first set and won four consecutive games in the second set to advance behind a 6-4, 7-5 victory against No. 3-seeded Smith.
Sandgren faces No. 8 seed John Peers, who defeated Dennis Lajola, at 11 a.m. today in the tournament fina.
It’s a result that girds Sandgren’s thinking when he made the choice to depart Knoxville, where he arrived as a homeschooled freshman from Gallatin, Tenn., as a top amateur player. In his first three Futures events last summer, he’d failed to advance past the second round, but success over backto-back weekends in Illinois changed his outlook.
Sandgren picked up a straight-sets victory in the Lewis and Clark Community College USTA event July 31, followed by a similar result at the Ursula Beck Pro Tennis Classic in Decatur, Ill., for his second Pro Circuit victory. At that point, he began to rethink his future with the Volunteers.
“Before those two events, I was going back to school,” he said. “But I had those two results and I felt like I was ready to improve by playing these tournaments. I felt like I was able to get out of the first couple rounds and play against really good people.”
Sandgren’s logic was that it made sense to continue his college career, where he was ranked No. 32 in singles to end the 2011 season, if the improvements he made to his game trumped those by playing Futures events before stepping up to the more difficult Challenger series.
Put simply, staying in college trumped grinding weeks where he failed to advance out of the first two rounds of professional events and then spending a week practicing to make little headway. But since joining the circuit, he’s moved up steadily, from No. 590 to No. 426 in the ATP rankings, and could climb as high as No. 370 with a victory today.
“I really feel that over the past two months that hard work has started to show,” Sandgren said. “I’d like to be higher, obviously, but it’s nice to see changes in the rankings and making headway.”
As for Winterbotham, Sandgren said it’s easy to misconstrue his former coach’s remarks.
“He supports me 100 percent,” Sandgren said. “He didn’t want to see me go out too soon and lose matches, and lose confidence, and get off the path I was on. He felt like one more year might have been all I needed.”
That still didn’t mean there wasn’t some hesitancy about visiting campus again.
“I was a little bit nervous after that,” Sandgren said. “I was like, ‘Coach, can I come back to Knoxville to practice during this free week?’ But he’s been awesome and stayed in my corner.”