Star gets brighter for DeHeart :: Daily Illini

Star gets brighter for DeHeart :: Daily Illini~~~

One legacy Craig Tiley left the University of Illinois is a student reporter who covers the tennis team in great detail and not only on match day.

I greatly admired a story Amber Greviskes wrote last January about the college vs. pro dilemma, and here she profiles senior Ryler DeHeart, who was ranked number one in the college preseason rankings. Although he was unsuccessful in defending his title at the recent ITA Indoor, DeHeart won the consolation tournament, which allowed me to observe several more times what a stoic yet determined competitor he is. In a third set tiebreak, he dumped an overhead into the net that would have given him a match point, and he simply went to the net, collected the ball and got ready to play the next point. It's difficult to find traction in the psychological warfare that is tennis if your opponent is that steely.

I gather that he wasn't quite as placid in his challenger match Monday against Brian Baker, squandering three match points and losing a third set tiebreak, but I doubt that he dwelled on the negative very long.