Postmatch Quotes: Big Ten Singles Championship
11/12/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Michigan Head Coach Bruce Berque
On Jason Jung's accomplishment "I'm very happy for Jason and very happy that he's on our team because he's very easy to coach and he's got a tremendous amount of talent. He has great quickness and a great feel for the game. He also brings a real nice competitive composure to the court every day. As good as he is in competition, he's just as good in practice. It's been a lot of fun to coach him so far."
On Jason Jung's ability to close out a back-and-forth first set in the finals "A strength of his that he's probably always had is his composure. He's always thinking on the court and doesn't dwell too much on the past or the future. He's constantly thinking about what he needs to do. Sean (Maymi) was able to give him a couple ideas that were helpful to him. Once you givehim those ideas and they work, Jason will latch on to them. He made a couple simple adjustments in his strategy and was able to hang in there. He was making a few errors early on, probably hitting the ball very well but going to a little too much without a lot of margin for error. Once he adjusted and gave himself a little more margin for error on his shots, he started moving theball around a bit and was much more successful."
On how Jason Jung has progressed throughout the fall "I think he's made a lot of progress. He's more comfortable now. As good as he was in juniors, he probably came in not knowing what to expect from the level of college tennis. He's got a few matches under his belt and is starting to figure things out. He's also made some physical improvements in his game. His serve is a lot better and a lot more technically sound. He's very good technically in most aspects of his game with the exception of his serve. He made a pretty dramatic change to his serve in terms of his technique. With most kids, it takes a while to get comfortable with that. Jason has actually done a great job of making the change and getting comfortable with it to the point that he can use it in a match. That's been the most noticeable improvement in his game so far."
On howMichigan fared at the tournament overall "We did well. Anytime you have an individual tournament like this with a lot of players, there are always going to be some positives and negatives. If you asked everyone on the team, not every single person will be happy with they way they played and a couple people were disappointed and feel like they're not playing that well. Overall there was a lot more good than bad. We were close to having four guys in the quarterfinals. Aside from the obvious success of Jason (Jung), several people had good performances. Matko (Maravic) played well to get to the semifinals. Mike (Sroczynski) also played well and got to the quarterfinals. Peter (Aart)s almost snuck into the quarterfinals and really has lifted his game quite a bit from last year. Scott (Bruckmann) also played some good tennis. There were a lot of bright spots, but of course there are always things we need to improve on. It's nice to end the fall season on a positive note. It's great to have a win and great to see Jason playing well and rewarded for his hard work. It's also nice to have someone out there on the court that is competing hard and playing that kind of quality tennis in a first-class manner. The way he carries himself makes you really proud to have him on your team."
U-M Freshman Jason Jung
On how it feels to win his first college tournament... "It definitely feels good. I think I'm progressing well with my game and gaining the respect of a lot of people."
On what the keys to his success were this weekend... "My serve definitely was the key. I've changed a couple things the past few weeks and it's helped me a lot. I've still got some work to do on it, but it's helping me a lot out there. I also focused on being patient on the court."
On his ability to close out the first set in the championship match... "I got a bit frustrated once it started going back and forth. I wanted to put myself in a position where I could just keep hitting and not be afraid to take my shots."
On how he feels following the fall season... "I feel pretty good. This win will definitely give me a lot more confidence. Hopefully I can keep improving over the next couple months to be ready for the dual-match season."
Players Mentioned
