TENNIS

On Nov. 3-4, TopSpin held the first collegiate invitational scrimmage between the University of South Carolina Sumter and The Citadel.

I had the pleasure of interviewing some of the players from The Citadel about their passion for tennis. Roy Hob-son, Jack Pyritz, Will Graham, and Phillip Quinn all became involved with tennis thanks to their families.

Graham has been playing tennis ever since he was in third grade. However, it was his tennis-playing dad who got him interested in the sport.

Quinn, who has been playing tennis since 5 years old, playing tennis was really a family tradition plus his dislike for other sports camps. But for Hobson, who has been playing tennis for around 10 years, there was no other choice considering tennis happened to be a generational sport. His dad, Morne Hobson, was a former collegiate and professional tennis player and his grandfather was also an amateur tennis player.

Pyritz, like Hobson, started tennis at the age of 10 and grew up on tennis courts at the Raleigh Racquet Club. While waiting for his parents, he’d simply starting hitting tennis balls against the wall, plus his dad was also an NCAA Division II collegiate tennis player.

For Pyritz, Graham, and Quinn, another big part in shaping their collegiate tennis careers was their time playing tennis in high school where each of them had significant achievements.

Pyritz played varsity tennis at North Raleigh Christian Academy from 7th grade to 12th grade where he received awards for All-Conference and All-State despite never winning any titles in school. He did set some school records with the team, including beating their rivals for the first time.

Graham started playing tennis at Dorman in the 7th grade. However, during his time on the Cavaliers’ boys’ tennis team, he did win regionals in 2012 and 2013.

Quinn, unlike Pyritz and Graham, did manage to have an excellent high school tennis career. During all four years at Highland Park High, he managed to win five state titles, three for team and two in singles, and he also had 8 regional and district titles for singles and teams.

All four guys believe they have a chance at winning the Southern Conference championship and even win the national championship for The Citadel.

When asked if there is a chance The Citadel could win the Southern Conference and even the 2019 national championship, Will seems confident in his belief that it’s possible.

The rest of the guys express their confidence despite having different opinions on their ability to win both conference title and national championship in 2019. The primary reason why Pyrtiz believes it’s possible because this is the fittest team in all of the United States and the team culture is the strongest ever considering no players backs down in any of their matches.

Hobson knows in order to even have a chance of winning both the conference title and national title, the team still has to work hard on and off the court.

For Quinn, the answer is simply a yes, because if you don’t believe, you will get nowhere in life.

When it comes to singles or doubles, all of the guys have their preference about which is their better event. Graham prefers singles because he likes being responsible for his own results.

For Hobson, singles is his best event as he practices it more than doubles. Both Pyritz and Quinn prefer both events.

Pyritz explains when you work on doubles, it helps your singles. Therefore, in order to get better at both, one needs to play both.

For Quinn, the answer is both because he loves playing tennis.