0 The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com I April 4, 2011
The Pro You Don't Know
Evan King
By: Matt Rudnitsky // Daily Sports Writer
We all know Denard Robinson.
Just like we all know Mike Martin, Darius Morris, Tim
Hardaway Jr. and every other Michigan athlete with a
legitimate shot at becoming a successful pro athlete.
They look the part, don't blend in and can't even walk
through the Diag without turning a few nearby students
into the likes of 12-year old girls at a Justin Bieber concert.
But what most students don't realize is that there is a
guy on campus who already is a professional athlete - sort
of.
That guy is sophomore Evan King, No. 1 singles player
for the No. 22 Michigan men's tennis team.
A guy who has been virtually everywhere that matters
in tennis, from Michigan's own Varsity Tennis Center on
State Street all the way to the All-England Club in the
Wimbledon district of London, England.
But nobody in Ann Arbor seems to notice.
The funny thing is that before Evan King
became the Wolverines' top-ranked singles player, he was
in the spotlight.
Now? Not so much.
At a school dominated by football, hockey and basket-
ball, a tennis star isn't exactly hounded all day by star-
struck students, no matter how talented he is.
"I'll run into a couple people (on campus) who played
tournaments around the Midwest and ended up coming
here," King said. "They're like, 'Hey, I'm a tennis fan, I
know about you - you're a top recruit!' But it's extremely
rare."
But before college, King was featured on the cover of
RISE magazine (now ESPN RISE) and even served on a
committee supporting Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid.
"It was just a bunch of hometown people who would
have been the right age in 2016, in their prime, to be in the
Olympics." King said. "It was a great experience because
we got to speak in front of the Olympic committee, show
off our skills just a little bit, kind of demo stuff around.
"It was fun to meet a bunch of differ-
ent world-class athletes that were my
same age."
While King might downplay the
experience, it's pretty clear what it
meant.
At just 16 years old, the kid was
considered a future Olympian. But in
Ann Arbor, he's more anonymous than
the guys who produced the "The Pursuit of Jappiness"
video.
Standing at the hallowed grounds of Wim-
bledon, sliding across the fresh red clay of Roland Garros
and patrolling the most famous courts in our country at
Flushing Meadows would make any tennis player weak
in the knees. It just doesn't get any better.
But at 19 years old, Evan King has done it all.
King, who before college was No. 1 in the USTA
18-and-under rankings and No. 14 in the ITF rankings,
was at the forefront of junior tennis as a teen. That
means King was ranked above every junior tennis
player in the US and was ranked 14th internationally.
With that came opportunities most teenagers
could only dream of.
He got to play at the 2008 Junior Davis Cup -
tennis's version of the World Cup - in San Luis
Potosi, Mexico, where he went 8-0, leading the
United States to the title over Argentina.
He got to play at three of the junior Grand
Slams - Wimbledon, the French Open and
the US Open - sharing a locker room with the
game's biggest stars, marveling wide-eyed at
Rafael Nadal's gargantuan biceps and Roger
Federer's unmatched elegance.
He got to do just what Nadal, Federer and the
other professionals do every year - the only dif-
See KING, Page 3B
Accomplishments
Has played at:
Wimbledon, French
Open and US Open
Junior Grand Slams
Before Michigan:
-Ranked No.1 in the USTA
rankings
-No. 1 in ITF rankings
BASEBALL,
Krantz's two-run
home run powers
first Big Ten win
Michigan loses first home game
in nearly three years, splits series
By DANIEL WASSERMAN
Daily Sports Writer
When redshirt sophomore
Kevin Krantz's moon shot land-
ed well
beyond the INDIANA 12
left-field MICHIGAN 5
wall on
Saturday, INDIANA 2
it appeared MICHIGAN 3
to take the
memo-
ries of INDIANA 10
Michigan MICHIGAN 3
baseball's
early-season woes with it.
Krantz's homer lifted the Wol-
verines over Indiana in the first
game of a doubleheader in Ann
Arbor, and Michigan's momen-
tum spilled over into the night-
cap with a two-run first inning.
But soon enough, the mistakes
that have plagued the Wolverines
all season came back as quickly
as Krantz's homer left the park.
Michigan's seven errors this
weekend proved costly as the
Wolverines (1-2 Big Ten, 7-18
overall) dropped Friday's game
12-5 and won Saturday morning,
3-2, before an embarrassing 10-3
loss later in the day.
In Saturday's second game, it
was Indiana (2-1, 18-9) who was
on the wrong end of the defensive
miscues. A first-inning error led
to an RBI from freshman right-
fielder Michael O'Neil. Fifth-year
senior second baseman Anthony
Toth, who reached on the error,
later scored on a wild pitch to put
the Wolverines ahead, 2-0.
But sophomore hurler Kyle
Clark's day was skewed by errors
as well - the first of which was
an error of his own. Attempting
to cover first on a grounder to
See KRANTZ, Page 2B
By EMILY BONCHI
Daily Sparta Writer
For the first time since 1993,
Indiana left Ann Arbor with a
win, snap-
ping the INDIANA 1
Michigan MICHIGAN 2
softball
team's INDIANA 5
almost MICHIGAN 4
three-year
win streak on its home turf.
"We had a game plan going
in ... and I didn't feel we exe-
cuted it," Michigan coach Carol
Hutchins said. "I don't feel our
kids trusted it."
The third-ranked Wolverines
(3-1 Big Ten, 33-3 overall) faced
the Hoosiers in a double-header
on Saturday at Alumni Field
for their first home conference
matchup of the season. Michi-
gan won the opener, but lost the
second game in an extra-inning
battle to split the series.
The opening game remained
scoreless through three frames,
as both teams' mounds seemed
to have control. Senior pitcher
Jordan Taylor headed into the
bottom of the fourth inning with
seven strikeouts, and Indiana
pitcher Morgan Melloh, who
pitched both games, had already
struck out four Wolverines her-
self.
After starting off its season
on an offensive high, scoringhas
become an issue for Michigan.
In the beginning of the season,
during tournament play, the
Wolverines were averaging 8.1
runs per game, but since Big
Ten games started last weekend,
Michigan has cut that average in
half, scoring under 3.8 runs per
outing.
Melloh was not making this
issue any easier, as the All-
American pitcher transferred to
Indiana from Fresno State (the
Bulldogs had handed the Wol-
verines their most recent loss)
for her senior season to give
Michigan an ace to face.
"(Melloh's) one of the best,"
Michigan coach Carol Hutchins didn't think her team was unified in its loss.
Hutchins said. "She's one of the Wolverine to really capital-
best we've seen. That's the kind ize against Melloh, breaking
of pitching we're going to have the game open on her second at
to beat to get where we want to bat. She lined one to the right
be ultimately." field wall to score sophomore
Freshman catcher Caitlin shortstop Amy Knapp and give
Blanchard was the first See SPLIT, Page 2B
DENARD UPDATE
U Quarterback Denard Robinson is settling
into Brady Hoke's pro-style offense, and
impressing along the way. Greg Mattison
has certainly taken notice. Page 4B
ALL-AROUND FROSH
Freshman gymnast Sam Mikulak has
collected plenty of awards during his first
year on campus and he made history on
Friday in a big way. Page 2B
A