Wichita State tennis player Luke Bracks recently competed against some of the best collegiate players in the country in a summer national championship tournament. He said the appearance could help inspire younger Shockers tennis players.
“The players seeing me make it to this tournament will hopefully make them see that my processes and work ethic will help them achieve their goals, too,” Bracks, a junior, said.
At the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA) National Summer Championships in Memphis, Tennessee, Bracks played in singles and doubles, losing to the top seeds and eventual winners of both events. Bracks lost in the first round of the singles bracket and was eliminated in the quarterfinals of doubles.
“It was an overall great experience,” Bracks said. “It was a pretty good achievement to qualify for that event.”
Leading up to the event, Bracks had to go through ITA’s Summer Point Race Series, where he competed in and qualified for the National Summer Championships. Bracks was the winner of Wichita State’s event and Washburn University’s event in men’s open singles to help him qualify for the National Summer Championships.
A Tulsa, Oklahoma, native, Bracks decided to stay in Wichita over the summer to help train with men’s tennis head coach Darragh Glavin and graduate assistant coach Joan Grosset.
Bracks said the practice paid off during the tournament, when he was unable to receive direct coaching and pointers from his coaches.
“I started to really see the benefits of it now, and I was starting to peak my game,” Bracks said. “I was able to play probably my best tennis of the summer at that tournament, for sure, and I was able to compete hard with those guys.”
Going into his matches, Bracks said his mindset was to stay confident and to play his own style of tennis.
“I wanted a state of mind to make a lot of quality shots, to not overplay and to play at my level,” Bracks said. “Because I know my level is good enough for these guys.”
During singles, Bracks lost his first-round matchup against the University of Illinois’ Kenta Miyoshi, the top-seeded player and defending champion. Bracks lost 6-1 in the first set and 6-4 in the second.
Glavin said playing Miyoshi, who would go on to win the tournament, was a tough draw.
“I think in the second set, (Bracks) really showed what he’s capable of,” Glavin said. “And I think towards the end of the match he played the way he knows he can play.”
Bracks was knocked down to the consolation bracket where he won his matchup against the University of Memphis’ Samuel Reeve. Bracks lost the first set, 7-5, before bouncing back to win set two by the same margin and the tiebreaker set, 10-8.
“It was good for him to finish the tournament with a win,” Glavin said.
Now that Bracks is back on campus, he will have to shift focus to the upcoming fall tennis season.
“It definitely positively impacted me,” Bracks said. “I have more confidence going into the fall and spring (seasons) because I know my level is good enough to play against the best in college, and it’ll definitely help create more of an impact on this team in the next coming years.”
