College tennis is slightly different from the “normal” tennis you are used to here in the Netherlands: both in organization and in atmosphere. You don’t just play for yourself, but mainly you play for the team and the university.
On average, a team consists of 8-12 boys or girls, and you train together every day. With your team you compete against other universities in the league (conference). The ultimate goal? To win the conference! Then the team qualifies for the national tournament, in which the best 64 teams in America compete!
A typical match day in college tennis consists of two rounds of matches: three doubles, followed by 6 singles. Thus, with 9 matches, there is always a winner.
The rules are slightly different within college tennis: coaching on the court is allowed, at deuce a winning point is played and at net service the point is played through.
The biggest difference of all is the atmosphere around the tennis courts during matches. Teammates and fans make a lot of noise, encourage each other and often shout encouraging texts at each other. So don’t be surprised if suddenly there is shouting across the court in the middle of the match: the energy level is very high!
To get a better idea of college tennis, former colleague Ilya Kneppelhout has written a super fun article that will give you more insight into college tennis. You can read the article here!
