The unseeded sophomore upset two ranked opponents on the way to the title.
By Blake Dowson
Davis Crocker of Michigan outlasted the field on the final day of competition at the Big Ten Men’s Tennis Championships at the Hawkeye Tennis & Recreation Complex and was crowned singles champion.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “The last couple years have been up and down with things on and off the court. So to get this win, it feels amazing.”
Crocker cruised through his first match of the day in the semifinals against freshman Ben Vandixhorn of Northwestern.
Crocker jumped out to an early 4-1 lead in the first set and never looked back. He was the aggressor from the start, which, he says, he loves to do, and he overwhelmed the younger Wildcat.
Vandixhorn won a service game to get the match to 4-2, and it seemed he had some momentum, but Crocker slammed the door on any thought of a comeback.
The eventual champion took the semifinal match (6-2, 6-2).
In the other semifinal match, freshman Toby Boyer of Nebraska took on an upset-minded Matt McCoy of Indiana.
McCoy a round earlier had knocked off Boyer’s older brother, Dusty, who was the tournament’s top seed.
Throughout the match, there was a feeling that McCoy was just one or two big shots from breaking through.
That moment was almost his tied 3-3 in the second set. Looking for a break, Boyer hit two-straight aces and then a big forehand into the corner to take the game and take the lead for good.
Boyer took the match (6-4, 6-3) and seemed to have the inside track on the singles championship as well as the doubles championship.
He and his brother won the doubles title on Nov. 6 with their parents watching.
“It was fun to see them win doubles on Friday,” David Boyer, the duo’s father, said. “There were texts and tweets all over the place, so it was pretty exciting for the whole family.”
Early in the singles finals, it seemed as though it would be a back-and-forth match between Boyer and Crocker.
With Crocker seemingly out of sorts, Boyer took the first three games and looked as though he would cruise to victory.
In danger of letting the match get out of hand, Crocker started approaching the net to find a rhythm.
“I was in the games early on, but I didn’t feel like I was playing my style fully,” he said. “At that 3-0 game, I kind of made a commitment to buckle down and at least make the guy beat me. I kind of got a rhythm from that.”
The redshirt freshman from Kalamazoo, Michigan, rattled off six-straight games to win the set (6-3).
The swing moment of the second set came with the two tied at 1-1. With Boyer serving at deuce, the two combined for a crazy string of volleys, with Crocker ultimately winning the point and taking the lead for good.
The match ended, fittingly, with Crocker hitting a winner at the net to clinch the Big Ten singles title.
“All these guys work hard,” Michigan associate head coach Sean Maymi said. “But it’s nice to see someone that puts all the extra effort into it see some benefit to that. So hopefully, this fuels him and makes him want to keep going. In this match, he didn’t play particularly well, but he did a really good job of settling himself down and finding a way to win.”
