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.