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Lauren Forsman


Sports

Doubles play pivotal role in wins, losses for Rutgers

Because of the seemingly universal focus on singles in the professional world of tennis, it may be surprising to realize how important doubles play is to winning matches at the collegiate level. Ben Bucca, the head coach of the Rutgers tennis team, is convinced that capturing the team doubles point is crucial to success in singles and winning matches. Failing to capitalize in doubles puts the team at an immediate disadvantage before the onset of the six singles matches. “It really impacts your energy and your spirit as you enter into singles,” Bucca said. The statistics confirm his position. In each of their six wins this season, the Scarlet Knights (6-10, 0-7) have successfully captured the doubles point. On the opposite end, during both non-conference and Big Ten play, every time Rutgers has failed to secure the doubles point, they have gone on to lose the match. Although the final scores may not paint an accurate picture of Rutgers' performance in conference play, the competition in doubles play has been fierce. It seems that, in term of quality of doubles competition, the Knights are consistently matching up well against their opponents. As the season progresses, in a pattern that may seem paradoxical, the same players who threaten or defeat their opponents in doubles action may not exhibit the same level of competition against those same opponents in their singles matches. This points to the potential that lies in powerful duos. Determining the doubles teams that can compete with nationally ranked tennis powerhouses is an important task. It begins before the season when Bucca and assistant coach Hilary Ritchie start to pair different players depending on a variety of factors, some of which go beyond on-court compatibility. “Certainly you want to pair players that emotionally can play well together and that support one another so they become better tennis players by playing with someone, so that’s very, very important,” Bucca said. Bucca also explained that while he has not had any problems with conflicting player personalities in the past, it would be unwise not to consider obvious differences between players. “I’ve historically always had teams that had pretty strong comradery,” Bucca said, “So we haven’t had any issues of having conflict outside the court impact what goes on, on the court, but definitely styles of play are different and how some players are more outgoing, some players are quieter, so you need to factor all of that in when pairing a doubles team.” Beyond intangibles, Bucca tends to pair those with stronger groundstrokes or a more powerful serve with those who perform well at the net. He also pays close attention to where the players’ strengths lie in terms of their backhand or forehand strokes. “There are a number of different factors and then it’s just between my assistant coach and I watching everyone play and hearing what the players have to say about who they like playing with.Apr 1 2015