The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AFTER spending the majority of his summer playing in professional tennis tournaments in Europe, Justin Roberts was glad to take ten days off to relax and recuperate with good home cooked meals before heading back to school for his senior year.

On Friday, Roberts will be returning to the University of South Florida to begin his senior year. But he said the experience he gained on the pro circuit will definitely help to propel his game to the next level.

“I played about seven tournaments in the summer, so I had to take some time of to let my body fully recover and let my mind rest,” he said. “Since Monday, I’ve been back training in a full regimen at Albany.”

Of the seven tournaments he participated in, Roberts said the last one in Finland turned out to be his best, as he made it to the quarter-final of the men’s singles, beating the number 11th ranked player in NCAA from Stanford, American Tom Fawcett, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the second round.

In the first round, he also ousted the No.6 seeded player Louis Chaix from France 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 before he lost to Jonathan Mridha, 6-4, 6-1 in the quarters. Mridha was the eventual runner-up of the tournament.

Roberts, who played two two tournaments in Spain, three in Portugal and another in Belgium, said his appearance in Finland was his best production and gave him a lot of incentive to go back to school.

“I had a good end of the season in college and I expected that to continue this summer, but I got injured at the end of the college season and so I had to take some out to recuperate,” he recalled. “I didn’t really pick up where I left off. I had some really rough weeks, but I finished with a pretty good showing at the end.

“It wasn’t what I expected, but with the time out that I had during the summer, I’m glad the way I fought through it. It was a summer full of good learning experiences for me.”

In those tournaments, Roberts also played in a few doubles, but the results were not as good as he expected either, making a few quarter-finals and losing in the first round in another.

At the end of the tour, Roberts has pushed his ATP points total to six and is now ranked at 1,221, up 151 points from last year, the highest by any Bahamian. As a matter of fact, he’s the only Bahamian with any ATP points.

“I feel good. I’m beating better players than I beat last year,” he said. “My fitness level is better and my tennis is much better. I’m progressing very well, which is good. I just have to keep on going.”

The stop home for Roberts gave him an opportunity to “slow down my batteries and get recharged for college.”

“I’m getting a little restless,” he said. “So it’s time to go back and do some work. I just started working out the last few days, but it’s easier for me to do it when I’m in a routine at school.”

While at Albany, Roberts was hitting with his little sister, Savannah, and working out with tennis pro Grant Doyle, who is heading up the proposed Lleyton Hewitt Academy that is being started by the retired Australian player who in 2001 was the No.1 ranked player in the world.

As he prepares to return to USF for his senior year, Roberts said his goal is to finish off strong.

“I would like to get that All-American title and be an All-American,” he projected. “I just want to be able to play number one for my team and hope that we can do very well as a team. I think this summer sets me up for a good senior year.”

Depending on the needs of the Bulls’ coaching staff, led by Ashley Fisher, Roberts sees himself battling it out with another team-mate, Alberto Barroso-Campos from Spain, for the top spot. But he’s confident that wherever he plays, he will make a valuable contribution.

He is also expected to play doubles with either Barroso-Campos or Peter Bertran from the Dominican Republic. He played mostly with the latter last season as they compiled a 13-9 win-loss record.

“I won’t know until I get back where I will play,” said Roberts, who was also 5-11 in singles as he helped the Bulls to an 18-9 team record. That included a 6-1 as they emerged as the American Athletic Conference champions over Tulsa in Memphis, Tennessee before they eventually lost to the Florida Gators in the NCAA Championships in Gainesville, Florida.

The 6-feet Roberts also clinched the Bulls’ fourth-straight conference title with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Danny Kerznerman of UCF and he helped the Bulls to an upset over No. 16 Mississippi State with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 2 earning him the AAC Player of the Week honours.

The Bulldogs will open their 2016/17 season over the weekend of January 13 and 14th in Gainesville against Louisville and Wisconsin.

“It’s just a time to grow. I think I’ve improved a lot,” said Roberts as he looks ahead to the upcoming season. “You learn a lot by yourself over the past three years. If I had to do it all over again, if I had to chose between going to college first and then playing pro, I would chose college first.”

The 20-year-old finance major said said he still has a lot to do to enhance his game for the pro ranks.

“The more you play, the better you feel,” he said. “It’s more in your head with that belief that you can beat anybody on any given day.

“That just comes from being out there and playing more matches, going through the experiences and putting in the time. For my final year in college, I just want to continue improving and get better. With that, the results tend to follow, so I’m just going to push forward.”

In moving forward, Roberts said it’s unlikely that he will be home in December for the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association’s annual Georgio Baldacci Open Tennis Tournament at the National Tennis Center, which also serves as the selection process for the Davis Cup team.

But as the only player with any ATP points, Roberts said he would like to be considered for the team that will play out of Zone III next year. The team of Spencer Newman, Philip Major Jr, Justin Lunn and player/captain Marvin Rolle were relegated from Zone II in their 4-1 lost to host Bolivia in April.

That decision, however, will rest with the BLTA, but Roberts said he’s confident that the Bulls’ coaching staff will grant him permission to participate if he is selected. If he isn’t considered, he will continue to make his impact with the Bulls men’s team.

During his trip home, Roberts said he spent a lot of time with family and friends. He also enjoyed the fried snappers, peas and rice and macaroni, but he’s still waiting for the cracked conch, which he hope to indulge in before he leaves on Friday.