Going Pro

Katherine K. Gardiner Arizona Daily Wildcat UA senior tennis player Tom Haugland smacks the ball during their home match against Michigan earlier in March. Haugland is headed for professional tennis after this season.

Despite just three victories to date, the senior is content with the experience he's gained participating at the highly competitive No. 2 position, because he has bigger plans when the season ends - becoming a professional tennis player.

Haugland, who is from Oslo, Norway, is determined to join the ranks with such stars as Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi this summer.

Although the wins have been few and far between, he feels that facing the top players in the Pacific 10 Conference is preparation enough.

"The one and two players in the Pac-10 are on the ATP ranking and that's where I'm going to end up after May, so it's perfect for me to get prepared and know what I'm going to get into," Haugland said.

Once the season ends, Haugland will travel to Denmark to play in an international tournament. For the remaining summer months his schedule is full of professional tournaments throughout the world.

The marketing major still has one year of school before he graduates and plans to return to Arizona next fall and play at satellite tournaments in California.

"School is very important," Haugland said. "I want to graduate."

Haugland finished last season 21-8 on the lower courts, which was eight losses too many, in his opinion.

"I don't think there was one game last year that I should have lost," Haugland said. "This year I go out on the court knowing that I have to play extremely well and have to really fight for a win."

Of the six teams in the Pac-10 South Division in which Arizona participates, five were ranked in the top 25 in the ITA/Rolex preseason poll. A handful of Haugland's opponents were then or are still now ranked among the top 100 players in the nation.

Senior Henrik Wagner said two of Haugland's three victories have been the "biggest team achievements of the year."

Arizona's wins against Michigan on March 6 and against Baylor last month both came down to Haugland's singles victories.In both situations, he rallied to win in three sets. Against Michigan's Matt Wright, Haugland overcame a first set tie-breaker loss to win, 6-7 (4), 6-2,7-6 (5).

Michigan was ranked four slots ahead of Arizona at the time of the upset as well.

"Both times he came out really strong when there was so much pressure, which is very impressive," said Wagner of his roomate for the past two seasons.

The win also gave Arizona the much-needed confidence that helped them win a few individual matches the next day against Southern Cal, a team that beat them 7-0 last month.

"He is very good in situations like that," Wright said. "Any time the last match comes down to your court there is a lot of pressure involved. He just came through phenomenally in both matches."

Haugland originally began the season playing in the Wildcats' top position. Wagner took Haugland's place on Feb. 7 against Oregon after Haugland dropped three-straight matches.

"Tom was playing in those tough matches and losing," Wright said. "He was getting frustrated and we just wanted to get him some confidence and a win."

Haugland and Wagner, who play doubles together on court one, had no problem with the switch.

"It doesn't mean anything because both courts get great matchups," Haugland said.

"I think our guys just want to find a place they can win a match," Wright said.

Haugland said his confidence has improved, but besides the team's goal of qualifying for regionals, he wants to sharpen some of his skills in preparation for the summer.

"I need to get specific and focus on a few things, like serving and a more aggressive forehand," he said.

With his period of adjustment over, Wright expects Haugland to finish the last half of his final season on a higher note.

"His matches have been a lot tougher than last year, which I think was a shock to him at first, but he's been playing a lot better lately."