Troy Men's Tennis Focused On Another Title

TROY, Alabama - As the Troy Trojans have found out, winning a championship is only half the battle; holding on to it is the other half. As the 2016 season has begun, the quest for another Sun Belt championship has begun.

"The main focus approaching this season was to refill some spots," head coach Scott Kidd said. "We lost our one and three players, so we had to recruit some players. Not just any players but players that could come in and play in the top six."

If anyone knows about regrouping, it's Kidd. He came to the Trojans in 2013 and inherited a team that went 8-17 in the 2012 season. Immediately he got to work by setting the standard for Troy tennis.

The team stayed the same in the win column, but Kidd began to get the potential out of the talent he had. In that first season both Gabriel Sciacca Dias and Daniel Bustamante earned All-Sun Belt singles honors.

One year later, it culminated in a massive turnaround when the Trojans went 25-7 and won the Sun Belt Championship. On top of that, Kidd earned Sun Belt Men's Tennis Coach of the Year.

That level of success takes a mixture of talent, coaching and good fortune. As difficult as it is to get to the apex, it's just as difficult to stay there.

Troy started last season's spring play with nine of the first 10 opponents being ranked. Only one of those matches were at home and that was followed immediately by a trip to take on No. 2 Oklahoma.

Despite the brutal schedule—the Trojans played four more ranked opponents—the team still had it's second consecutive winning season at 15-14, a testament to the standard set by Kidd.

One of the more impressive aspects to last year's winning season was that the Trojans were able to do it all largely without one of their best players in Hassan Ndayishimiye.

The senior exploded in the Sun Belt winning season when he went 22-6 in singles play, 15-6 in doubles play, was named Sun Belt Player of the Week three times and All-Sun Belt singles first team.

The promise for his junior season was high, but he suffered a setback when he was involved in a serious car accident that limited him to only 13 matches. Despite that, he still had a winning record of 7-6 in singles play and four of those losses came against ranked opponents.

Now he and Pablo Moreno are two seniors on the roster this season and both will be instrumental in getting back to the top of the Sun Belt. Moreno was just as instrumental not only to the Sun Belt championship but to helping the team earn the winning season last year.

Moreno went toe-to-toe with Ndayishimiye in 2014-15 when he won 21 games in singles and 20 in doubles. He then followed that last season with 18 singles wins, 17 doubles wins and a spot on both the All-Sun Belt doubles first team and All-Sun Belt singles second team.

The third senior on the team is Andre Baldo, who has been looking inward as a way of getting the team to further cement the chemistry that Kidd said has developed greatly over the past few weeks.

"I've been focusing on improving my leadership skills since I've been here," Baldo said. "Leadership is all about leading by example. I always want to do the right thing at the right time and by doing that I hope they can mirror me."

So far the work has paid off as in the first tournament in the fall season, the team went undefeated in doubles on the first day, every player picked up a singles victory and Baldo won his draw.

"We're at a better place right now then we were at this time last year," Kidd said. "It was heartbreaking to have the car crash at the beginning of the season last year, so I think we're in a better place, a positive place."

Though it's a team heavy with experience, the Trojans will also benefit from an influx of new talent. New this season are freshmen Tin Chen from Taiwan, Jaiqi Duan from China, Shaaz Peerani from Tyrone, Ga. and transfer Gabriel Niculescu from Chicago St.

Getting back to the top will still be a challenge in an always competitive Sun Belt, but the Trojans don't have a lack of faith in getting there.

"The main goal this year is winning the Sun Belt again and getting a national ranking," Baldo said. "We think we can do that."

Troy Men's Tennis Focused On Another Title

Players Mentioned

Andre Baldo

Daniel Bustamante

Jiaqi Duan

Pablo Moreno

Hassan Ndayishimiye

Gabriel Niculescu

Shaaz Peerani

Troy University Athletics