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The Daily Tar Heel

Brett Clark values tennis championship experience

At the beginning of the fall season, North Carolina men’s tennis player Brett Clark did not expect to receive an invitation to play in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships.

And despite losing in the second round of the tournament, Clark did accomplish something important — he had fun.

“My mindset was to go out there with as much confidence as I could,” Clark said. “I just wanted to take it all in and have as much fun as I could on the court and compete as hard as I could, and that’s what I did.”

Both matches Clark participated in went to a three-set tiebreaker. In the first match, the sophomore defeated Malte Stropp of Mississippi State. Clark won the first set 6-3, dropped the second 4-6, but came back to win the match with a 6-3 victory in the tie-breaking set.

In his second round match, Clark faced seventh-seeded Winston Lin of Columbia. For the first two sets, Clark kept the match competitive by losing 6-4 in the first and winning the second set 6-3. But his effort was not enough, and Lin won the match with a dominating 6-1 third-set victory.

“I thought I played really well in both matches, little bit of ups and downs, but that always happens,” Clark said. “In the third set of the second match, I had him on the ropes, but I just let him off the hook.”

Coach Sam Paul praised Clark’s effort in the tournament as well as the fall season.

“He played a really good player in the second match,” Paul said. “He just came up a little bit short. He had some opportunities at the start of the third set, but it just got away from him a little bit. It was a good tournament for Brett. He’s had a very good fall.”

Clark said he valued the experience he gained from participating in the tournament and felt he achieved significant goals in the fall season.

“I just wanted to improve on my performance from last year and I did better at regionals,” Clark said. “I definitely did not expect to get into this tournament because I knew how hard it was to get in, but I got into this tournament, which is like icing on the cake.”

Paul noted that Clark is a much improved player and that he is becoming one of the better college tennis players in the country.

“He knows that he can play with any player in the country, and he has the confidence to go out there and do that now,” Paul said.

“Brett is highly motivated, and I think he’ll keep working hard and set higher goals for himself.”

sports@dailytarheel.com

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