The Tribune

JUST like hew did when he played for the University of South Florida, Justin Roberts is holding court with the men’s tennis team at Arizona State University.

Over the weekend, the ASU Sun Devil played a double header with Roberts playing a key factor in the outcome.

On Sunday, the Sun Devil finished up its Midwest road trip on a high note, defeating the Indiana Hoosiers, 4-2, at the IU Tennis Center.

In that match, Roberts plated in the number three singles, but he didn’t have to complete his match against Zac Brodney of Indiana after his team-mates had already secured the victory.

At the time, Roberts was leading 5-4 in the third set. He won the first set 7-5, but lost to Brodney 6-4 in the second set.

The match-up came two days after the Sun Devil lost a 6-1 decision to the No 2 ranked Ohio State at the Varsity Tennis Center.

In that match-up, Roberts got the only victory for Arizona State with a stunning 7-6 (7-4), 0-6, 1-0 (10-8) decision over Ohio State’s top-ranked Kyle Seeling.

“It was a good match for me,” Roberts told The Tribune. “I think I started the year off playing slow, so it was good for me to feel my level back up there again.

“To play that well against the number two team in the country and against the number 13 player in the country and win was a good feeling. I feel I am getting back on the right track.”

Head coach Matt Hill, who also coached Roberts at South Florida, was just as impressed with his performance.

“I’m super proud of Justin to be able to finish off his match,” Hill said. “That guy was the No.12 guy in the country and Justin had a little bit of a slow start to the season. It was a great match for him and he looked really good tonight.”

The Sun Devils are now 3-4 for the season, but Roberts said they are just getting started and he’s looking forward to bigger and brighter days ahead of them.

“I wasn’t really playing that much, so I’ve been working very hard trying to get back into the sync of things,” he said. “I feel very optimistic about the rest of the season.”

Roberts, 22, is currently playing between No.2-4 on the Sun Devil’s team. At 6-feet, the graduate student at ASU also play doubles.

“I like it. It’s similar to the style of play that we had at South Florida,” he reflected. “I have different team-mates, but I’m one of the older guys on the team and I have a different role.

“I am really enjoying it and I’m looking really helping this team to get to the NCAA Championships in May.”