Last year didn't treat ASU men's tennis well. Its No. 1 singles player, Murphy Cassone, forewent his senior eligibility to join the Association of Tennis Professionals tour, sending ASU floundering to a 12-12 overall record. They were winless in seven games away from the Whiteman Tennis Center.
Against elite competition, the Sun Devils struggled even more, with a 3-11 record against teams ranked inside the top 30 nationally. The end of the season didn't ease the pain, as the Sun Devils proceeded to get swept in their final four matches.
With those results, complacency wasn't even an option for head coach Matt Hill, who aggressively recruited from the portal.
Hill reached out to South Carolina head coach Josh Goffi, a close colleague, when pursuing junior Jelani Sarr, who spent his first two years donning a Gamecocks logo. Despite a 16-8 sophomore season at singles No. 3, 5 and 6, Sarr's play style didn't work out with Goffi and was a point of growth early in his time in Tempe as well.
At the Battle in the Bay in San Francisco, Sarr took a few losses that Hill described as a "tipping point" in terms of changing the way he plays.
"The question I posed to him is 'What do you have to lose committing to the style that you know you should play, that you want to play when you're already losing anyways?'" Hill said. "You might as well lose playing the right way and get better at playing that way ... and for him, it seemed to resonate."
At 6-foot-2-inches, Sarr's athleticism and lateral quickness led to him playing a defensive-oriented game where he tracked down balls behind the baseline. Since his talk with Hill, Sarr and the coaching staff have worked on increasing his aggressiveness with groundstrokes and finishing ability at the net, earning him a Big 12 Conference Player of the Week recognition Jan. 27 after wins against Princeton and then-No. 8 University of San Diego.
Outside the confines of the court, Sarr focused on the mental aspect of his life and connecting with his faith, including citing Bible study and church as reasons for his improvement.
"It's always been about character and the emotions and the mental capacity of whether I'm going to be able to keep my emotions under control or not," Sarr said.
Senior Shu Matsuoka and sophomores Ofek Shimanov and Niels Villard are three other transfers slotted into the starting lineup. Matsuoka transferred from Middle Tennessee, and although he was nervous at first, the team's trip to Flagstaff helped him settle in with his teammates.
"(Sophomore Milos Mikovic) was doing card tricks," Matsuoka said. "I could be straight up open to a lot of guys because they were so open with me."
Matsuoka, the son of 1995 Wimbledon quarterfinalist Shuzo Matsuoka, went 13-7 at his former school, playing mostly singles No. 4 and 5. In Tempe, enhancing the precision and percentage of his serve is his first priority.
Shimanov arrived after playing his freshman year at Southern Methodist University and went 12-8 in singles play, including a 7-3 record at singles No. 3. However, his biggest impact in the early going for the Sun Devils has been his doubles play, replacing Daniel Phillips, who departed for Tulane in the offseason.
Villard went 7-4 during his time at Florida, and although he only played three doubles matches in his freshman year, his pairing with Shimanov is off to a blistering start.
The transfers add immediate punch to a roster that seriously required it, but the return of ASU's top two singles players from a year ago, junior Bor Artnak and redshirt senior Mathis Bondaz, gives it a sense of stability at the top.
Artnak reached a singles career-high of 36 in the ITA rankings last year, and Bondaz had multiple top 100 wins despite finishing an ordinary 7-7.
ASU's transfer class has been featured more than anticipated due to the unexpected loss of senior Constantinos Koshis, who Hill said was unable to return due to a medical emergency within his family. Yet the Sun Devils are off to the hottest start in the program's history at 9-1, with two top 10 wins over USD.
The upsets are ASU's highest-ranked victories since reinstatement in 2018,and exemplify what Hill calls the deepest team he's coached since being hired.
Off the back of those performances, the Sun Devils have shot up to No. 22 in the ITA rankings and are just three games away from tying their win total from last year. The road doesn't let up from here; a sweep from No. 24 Pepperdine slowed down ASU's momentum and matchups against UA, TCU and Baylor loom on the horizon, all top 25 teams.
For Hill, the quick start isn't cause for celebration. Instead, it's the reason to push harder.
"That day in that (USD) match, we did a great job of playing with tunnel vision and just a mindset that didn't allow anything to distract us from our game plans and how we wanted to approach our matches," Hill said. "So that's the challenge in front of the guys, just continuing to stay focused (and) get better."
Edited by Niall Rosenberg, Senna James and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at pvallur2@asu.edu and follow @PrathamValluri on X.
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Pratham Valluri is a sports reporter at The State Press. He is a junior majoring in sports journalism with a business minor. He’s in his 5th semester with The State Press working previously as an opinion writer.
