Vanderbilt’s Ryan Lipman is not the kind of tennis player who can just blow opponents off the court. Not yet, anyway.
For now, the freshman phenom will just settle for beating them.
Lipman has reached the finals of the prestigious ITA Regional Championships and making the third round of the D’Novo ITA All-American Tennis Championships, all in his first semester of college play. His thin frame hasn’t stopped him from piling up some fat results, compiling a team-best 10-3 record at singles against some of the best opposition in the country.
“Just having a lot of options,” Lipman said. “A lot of guys just have one game. I feel like if plan A is not working, I can go to plan B or plan C.”
“He’s so smart on the court,” said Vanderbilt coach Ian Duvenhage. “He’s such a savvy competitor. You see him go up against people that may be physically superior and he wins handily. He’s tall, but he’s thin and not very physically imposing. He doesn’t often go on the court and find himself in a situation where he can overpower people.
“Having said all that, that doesn’t mean he’s not gifted, but his success is a function of his understanding of the game and it’s a function of his versatility.”
Even if using plan B or C, Lipman has brought his A game to Vanderbilt. Among the players Lipman knocked off in the fall was junior Reid Carleton of Duke, at the time the 29th-ranked player in the country, at the Southern Collegiates on Sept. 20 in Athens, Ga. Lipman outdueled Carelton by splitting two sets and winning the tiebreaker in his first college tournament, 6-1, 3-6, 1-0 (6).
“That was probably one of the best matches I’ve played so far,” Lipman said. “The first set I played flawless. It was like I couldn’t miss. The second he played a lot better and won, but then I played a really good super tiebreaker and it was my biggest win of the fall so far.”
Lipman, a Nashville native whose mother also played tennis at Vanderbilt, was home-schooled starting in eighth grade in order to concentrate more on the game itself. Lipman was 14 when he caught the attention of Duvenhage. If his high school career was any evidence, there was no doubt that he would not only be able to compete but be a consistent winner in college.
It’s not like he hasn’t had big-match experience. He finished runner-up at the prestigious 2009 United States Tennis Association Boys 18 Championships to earn a spot in the qualifying draw for the U.S. Open.
Yes, that U.S. Open.
“It was the coolest thing I’ve ever done,” Lipman said. “It was so fun, I can’t even explain it.”
Although Lipman was the No. 3 player in the nation from the high school class of 2009 according to tennisrecruiting.net, Duvenhage looked further past the rankings to realize what a gifted player he had on his hands.
“There are a lot of intangibles with him that are not initially evident,” Duvenhage said. “First time you watch him, you’re not in awe of his power, but the more you watch him, you start to realize that his understanding of the game strategically is so far superior to just about everybody his age and many people older than him.”
Duvenhage says he’s sure Lipman will step right in and be the No. 1 singles player for the Commodores for Southeastern Conference play in the spring.
“Most guys at his age can do one or two things really well, and that’s why they’re successful,” Duvenhage said. “He can do all kinds of things.”
Lipman also prides himself on staying mentally level on the court. He can tell when he has an opponent beaten, he said, by their body language.
“I check my emotions,” he said. “I don’t get too excited, I don’t get too negative.”
Lipman may be sure of himself on the court, but off it he’s just like any other freshman.
“College is a struggle,” Lipman said, laughing. “I’m just trying to get by.”
