Placing second at the 2012 ITA All-American Championships Sunday in Tulsa, Okla., Ohio State men’s tennis’ redshirt junior Peter Kobelt is more than pleased with his performance on the Case Tennis Center courts.
“I was very happy with my performance, I beat five guys who are high on their respective team’s line-ups,” Kobelt said. “Being able to put five matches together like that and play that long in the tournament shows that I have been doing the right things over the summer training-wise and conditioning-wise. It was really nice to see.”
The New Albany, Ohio, native won five matches, two of which were against top 10-ranked players. Kobelt fell in the singles finale to No. 6-seeded Alex Domijan of Virginia, 7-5, 6-1.
Kobelt attributed his wins to his serving strengths and mobility.
“I was serving at a very high percentage for serves and I was able to get around and hit a lot of forehands in the beginning to control the court,” Kobelt said.
Coach Ty Tucker said he was impressed with Kobelt’s finish.
“Obviously it was very strong, to finish No. 2 in the nation at that tournament is big,” Tucker said. “It’s the first time we have had a player finish in the individual All-American singles.”
The redshirt junior also played in the doubles bracket beside senior Connor Smith, but the duo left Tulsa, Okla., without a doubles title after falling in the second round of competition.
“We played OK, but we came up short, we played a tough team and it was bad weather,” Smith said. “It was only pro sets so it was tough, but we came out a bit slow.”
In addition to finishing second in the nation this week, Kobelt is ranked as the No. 35 tennis player in the countrybut he said he was not sure of the ranking at first.
“I had a general idea on where I would be from last season with the ongoing seniors that left,” Kobelt said. “I don’t know how comfortable I was, I had an OK season but I wasn’t too confident right from the beginning.”
Tucker said Kobelt’s ranking has come as a result of the player utilizing his strengths as a player.
“His biggest strengths are his serve and the fact that he is a junior now, but a redshirt junior, so it’s his fourth year and he knows what is expected of him,” Tucker said. “He knows what kind of game he has and what he needs to do.”
Kobelt and the Buckeyes are scheduled to travel to East Lansing, Mich., on Oct. 18, to compete in the USTA/ITA Midwest Regional Championships.