Gophers recruits may clash at state

Although Tucker Saxon and Eric Frueh will be teammates on the Gophers tennis team next year, for now the two high school seniors are old rivals.

Barring any early-round upsets, the two will likely face off in a showdown this week in the semifinal singles round of the state high school tennis tournament on campus.

It might seem like a high-pressure situation for Saxon, the three-time defending Class 2A, Section 4 singles champion at Mahtomedi, who was announced last week as the latest signed 2011-12 Gophers tennis recruit.

“I’d probably say this will be the first year I’m not nervous,” the Zephyrs captain said of the state tournament, “probably because it’s the last one. I mean, all those nerves have kind of been dealt with the last three years.”

Adding to Saxon’s confidence, he said, is the fact that last fall he beat Frueh, of Rochester Century, for the first time in a United States Tennis Association tournament.

Last year at state, Frueh bounced Saxon 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.

“Ever since [beating Frueh], now I look at him in a completely different light,” Saxon said of his potential opponent. “I’ll be ready to go, so I hope he is.”

In youth tennis, elite players from the same state get to know each other fairly well, meaning a friend can also be a bitter rival.

Saxon estimated he has known Frueh and been playing against him for about six to eight years. The two are friendly off the court, and have hung out at each other’s houses.

“We all respect each other, I’d like to say,” Saxon said of the state’s elite singles competitors, “but you can tell that [on the court] it’s pretty hostile.” 

Over the years, Saxon has learned to channel that hostility — in the past, his emotions often got the better of him when a match wasn’t going his way.

“I used to not really have that much fun to be honest,” Saxon said, “but in the last couple years I’ve just realized that if I do it every day, there’s got to be something I like about it and I finally just found out how fun it can be.”

When Justen Seim took over as head boys’ tennis coach at Mahtomedi two years ago, Saxon already was a seasoned varsity competitor used to a different coach.

“Over the last two years, he’s just — I guess the best way to describe it is matured,” Seim said of Saxon, “most importantly as a person.

“On the court he’s matured also, but I think just becoming an older person and now being a senior, he understands the importance of everything at hand.”

Saxon has parlayed the personal growth gained in six years on the varsity team into a role as a mentor for his younger teammates, some of whom Saxon said struggle with the same mental issues that he had as a younger player.

“[At practice] I try to have everyone just have fun,” Saxon said. “When kids are getting a little too tense I try to just joke around with them, make them laugh a little bit just so they have a little bit more fun and hopefully then they play better.”

Asked where he will need to improve to compete at the college level, Saxon said: “I have all the shots, it’s just [that] I need to kind of get that professional focus and learn how to buckle down.”