No Better Sooner

Growing up in Spain, Axel Alvarez Llamas knew little about American universities and their tennis programs. His junior career was going so well that turning pro seemed to be a distinct possibility, so there was no need to study up on collegiate teams.

That didn't mean colleges weren't studying up on Alvarez, however. “They (colleges) were asking me for a long time,” recalled Alvarez, who was runner-up in the sub-16 European Championships and was ranked in the Top 50 among juniors in the ITF (International Tennis Federation) with career records of 42-18 in singles and 46-9 in doubles.

Oklahoma men's coach John Roddick was among the collegiate masses with an eye on Alvarez, but most assumed the Spaniard was leaning toward playing for pay.

Then came injuries for Alvarez, first his foot, then his hamstring, then his back. “When I was 18 years old, at that time I really wasn't thinking I was going to college,” Alvarez said. “Then I was getting injured for like 2-3 months and I wasn't playing that well. I thought it was a good idea to give college tennis a chance and get a free education. In Spain and Portugal, it's important to do both. It was a great opportunity.”

"That is such a memory that I'm going to have for the rest of my life. I'm so proud of that. It feels unreal. I don't know what to say about it right now. Maybe 10 years down the road I'll be able to tell my friends or my sons."
— Axel Alvarez

Perhaps the most important decision a standout tennis player can make is acknowledging his limitations. When a junior career ends at age 18, should a player turn pro or head to college? Alvarez chose wisely. As a result, Roddick and the Sooners have reaped the reward.

With his first-round victory at the Big 12 Championships in Stillwater last Friday, Alvarez became OU's all-time leader in career wins (213) and career singles wins (116). With the first and second rounds of the NCAA Championships set for May 13-14, Alvarez will attempt to add to those totals as the 10^th-ranked Sooners gun for the third straight appearance as NCAA finalists, having finished as national runner-up in 2014 and 2015.

“I would have never guessed it,” Alvarez said of becoming the most successful player in the program's 53-year history. “When I came here, I wasn't playing that well. Then I improved so fast and the coaches helped me so much. My freshman year (2013), I played well and my sophomore year I got to tour the country. Then last year, I don't know, I was confident and my level (of play) was so high. That is such a memory that I'm going to have for the rest of my life. I'm so proud of that. It feels unreal. I don't know what to say about it right now. Maybe 10 years down the road I'll be able to tell my friends or my sons. It's cool. It's really something cool.”

During his junior season last year, Alvarez was named ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) National College Player of the Year, becoming the first player in OU history to win the award. He also was the first Sooner ever to be ranked No. 1 in singles and earned the program's first-ever No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA singles championship. Alvarez went 39-6 in singles and 25-1 in dual play last season, which included a 21-match win streak. He was named an All-American in both singles and doubles, becoming just the second OU player ever to do so.

Alvarez said he was so busy staying in the moment, he failed to see the magnitude of what he was accomplishing last season. “When you're playing, you don't realize how hard it is to accomplish that,” Alvarez said of 2015. “This year I'm realizing how hard it was to go through the whole regular season undefeated. Now that I think about it, it's kind of crazy that I was able to play at that level. Usually you have a bad day, but I was able to pull matches off when I wasn't playing that well.”

Alvarez (far right) celebrates the Sooners' 2015 Big 12 Championship final win over No. 2 Baylor. Alvarez was named the tournament's most outstanding player.

This season, Alvarez' singles ranking has slipped to No. 25. “Matching his record from last year is a tall task. He went 25-1, which is incredible,” Roddick said. “It's not been his best season ever. He hasn't finished a lot of matches, but he's been winning against top players. He didn't have a great fall and he struggled early on, but he's starting to play at the level we need him to right now and that's kind of the important thing.”

The 23-year-old Alvarez, who started playing tennis at age 6, looks back fondly to the day he arrived as an aching and tentative college freshman who at the time lacked confidence. Once Alvarez had chosen the collegiate circuit, he studied OU at length because Roddick had maintained a steady interest throughout the recruiting process. “They were asking me for a long time (to sign),” Alvarez said of the Sooners.

Alvarez eventually chose Roddick sight unseen.

“The first time I saw him was actually when I came here (Norman) for the first time,” Alvarez said of Roddick. “I talked to him on the phone from Spain, but I never saw him until I got here. I made sure I talked to everyone who knew about OU (including eventual doubles partner Guillermo Alcorta). He explained to me how the university was, how the teammates were, how this place was, everything. I talked to other people who were here in the states. I saw some pictures. I did my research on the university and that's why I chose here.”

Roddick and Alvarez talk during a changeover. Alvarez took a leap of faith in coming to Oklahoma.

The Sooners' ascent to becoming a national power has been steady since Roddick's arrival in 2010, and if anyone understands the difficulty of choosing between pro and college, it's Roddick. Although he rose to No. 6 in the world in singles and No. 3 in doubles as a junior player, Roddick still chose to attend the University of Georgia, where he became a four-time All-American and was selected as UGA's Athlete of the Year in 1998.

“They want to go pro, but whether or not that's realistic is another story,” Roddick said of today's 18-year-old. “Convincing kids that college is probably their best option, both short-term and long-term, is a challenge. Even with American kids. Pro tennis is such a short career for the most part. You play from (age) 30 to 32 or 33, and you're done. They know they have a short window, so it's tough to make decisions. In my opinion, you have to be realistic and a lot of players coming up are not realistic.”

Alvarez said there's been a shift in that mentality lately. “I think more people in America go to college, but now people in Europe are starting to realize how good college is,” Alvarez said. “They don't know how good this place is, how high the level of play is. They waste four years of their lives and don't really improve. To be honest, I think almost everyone should come here (America) to go to college because of the experience and to get an education. I improved my level here.

"Even if we lost a doubles point, worst-case scenario is we were usually half-way there because Axel simply wasn't losing."
- Head Coach John Roddick

“If you're not one of the best players in your country, I would say go to college. I think there's only like 5-10 percent of (junior) players who are truly ready to go pro when they could go to college. You have to be really, really good to make that decision.”

In Roddick's opinion, Alvarez' career achievements while playing such a limited schedule make him the best player in OU history, edging out Oliver Lorin (1985-88) and former teammate Dane Webb (2012-15).

“Lorin was a great player, but they had more playing dates,” Roddick said. “They could play a lot more matches than we currently play. It's like saying, 'You can try to break this record, but you're going to have 25 percent fewer opportunities to get it done.' Your winning percentage is going to have to be incredibly high to do that. A lot of those records at major programs in the 1970s, '80s and early '90s aren't going to fall, because mathematically you can't do it.”

Webb was Alvarez' teammate for three seasons and said he saw Alvarez gain confidence once he overcame his initial injuries and adjusted to living in the states. “He definitely got better the whole time I was there,” said Webb, who held the previous record for career wins (212) that Alvarez now owns. “His serve got a lot better, especially the last two years I was there. I think he really enjoyed playing, just staying loose and having fun being on the team. It made him a lot better player.”

Then a freshman, Alvarez celebrates the winning and clinching point in the Sooners' 2013 Big 12 Championship final win over Baylor.

OU advancing to the NCAA Championship match in 2014 and 2015 was led by Alvarez, Webb and Andrew Harris, who is a junior on this year's squad.

“At the end of the year, we probably had three guys who could play at No. 1 (singles),” Roddick said. “Number 1 singles is always the hardest position to win. When you go out there, you don't expect to win at 1 very often. All the sudden, when we could really start depending on that (singles) point, it made us very dangerous. Even if we lost a doubles point, worst-case scenario is we were usually half-way there because Axel simply wasn't losing. Any individual stuff, he's not really motivated by that. In our sport, with what we try to do as a team, that's OK. As an ex-college player I know how hard it is to get motivated for the individual part of it. You just care so much for the team aspect of it.”

With only the NCAA Championships remaining in his collegiate career, once again Alvarez must decide whether or not to join the pro circuit. He already has made his decision.

“I'm taking a break,” said Alvarez, who has one semester remaining for his bachelor's degree in economics. “I've been thinking about it for the last couple years about whether I want to go pro. If last year (when he was ITF Player of the Year) had been my senior year, I probably could have tried it a little bit. But after this year and how I feel, I want to do something else and try something else in life and move on. I don't think I'm going to go pro.

“If your mind is not ready to do it and you're not willing to do all it takes, it's not worth it. Right now, I know where my mind is. If I tried to play pro, I'm not going to be 100-percent committed. I will miss it for sure because I did it for 17 years of my life.”

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Dane Webb

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