Wildcats have high expectations in men's tennis following Sweet 16 appearance

After playing in its first-ever Sweet 16, Arizona's men's tennis team will try to pick up where it left off.

This year's Wildcats will look a little different. Gone is Alejandro Reguant, a leader on last season's NCAA Tournament-bound team. The Wildcats will replace him with Colton Smith, the highest-ranked American recruit of coach Clancy Shields’ tenure.

The Wildcats finish their fall schedule at the Jack Kramer Invitational in Southern California starting Friday. Shields likes where the club is headed, despite some early hiccups.

“That is the funny thing about the fall. I think some people put a lot of emphasis on winning in the fall and for me, I just want the players to get better because we need to win in the spring, not the fall,” Shields said. “You can see in some of our records, some of our guys have losing records but they couldn’t be further along with their progress so I am really happy with that.”

Smith, who was the No. 2 player in his recruiting class per Tennisrecruiting.net, chose Arizona for a number of reasons. It was his relationship with Shields and his teammates that stood out the most.

“Just kind of right away talking with him, I knew he had something special here,” Smith said. “With that, meeting some of the guys here on my recruiting visit and then you can’t beat the weather out here.”

In September, Smith played in the Junior U.S. Open in New York, reaching the third round. Shields was in attendance as Smith, a wild-card entry, beat fifth-seeded Jack Pinnington Jones in the second round.

“It was really cool just to be representing Arizona. Our program to be one of the few schools that had a player in it,” Shields said. “Then, to beat the No. 5 player in the world, to beat another high-ranked player and to go to the Round of 16 of the U.S. Open, it was really a culmination of a lot of his hard work. It was cool to see our program amongst the best players in the world and then for him to bring that experience back to our program.”

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Smith will try to use that experience as a college freshman.

“It was incredible to see that level and kind of see all of the fans there in a different atmosphere,” Smith said. “It really opened my eyes to what it is like at that other level.”

Last year marked a banner season for the Pac-12, and Shields hopes to see the conference build off the momentum in 2022. He called the Pac-12 the “best conference in the country.”

“I think everyone in our conference has a chip on our shoulder because they didn’t give us a lot of love last year in the rankings,” Shields said. “I certainly think we got five or six teams that are in the mix to compete for a title and I think we’re going to be hungry to do something big this year. We’ll see what happens, but I certainly have more confidence in our conference than ever.”

Shields will put no restrictions on Smith as a freshman.

“I want him to learn and grown in his own unique way,” Shields said. “All of these guys are complex systems and he is as complex as anyone. I think our job as a coach is to make sure we nurture him and help him grow in his unique way. We just need to get out of the way and let him blossom.

"If we can do that and he does everything right, his game is going to take off. Whether it is tomorrow or whether it is at the end of the year, this guy is going to be playing at a high level on some very cool stages in the future. As a coaching staff, we’re just trying not to mess it up.”