Recruiting is a completely different ball game in the world of tennis.Most University athletic teams can recruit in-state for the majority of their talent. But the international game of tennis requires LSU men’s coach Jeff Brown to scour the world for players.Half of the members of the 12-player LSU men’s tennis team are  from another country. During the team’s Feb. 7 match against Rice, none of the players on the court for either team were from the U.S.”We have quite a few Americans that just don’t happen to be in the top six,” Brown said. “Since tennis is such an international sport, [foreign players] play a lot of tournaments in the United States.”Brown said he evaluates the international talent at these tournaments and decides which players he would like to recruit. He said convincing international players to come all the way to Louisiana can be a challenge.”You just try to explain in terms of things they understand,” Brown said. “A lot of guys will take visits. They’ll visit us and they’ll visit a couple of other schools.”LSU senior Michael Venus, ranked No. 9 in the nation, is originally from New Zealand but went to high school in Texas. He attended the University of Texas his freshman year.”Basically, my senior year in San Antonio, everyone was a really big Texas fan up there, so that’s how I ended up [at Texas],” Venus said. “Then, my old coach from [junior nationals], he knew Jeff [Brown] really well and said it would be a great fit for me.”LSU freshman Neal Skupski, from Liverpool, England, said there were many reasons he chose to play collegiate tennis at LSU, including the facilities and LSU football. But he said the biggest factor was his brother, Ken, who finished his LSU tennis career in 2007 as one of the most decorated tennis players in LSU history.”I was thinking of coming to America, but I didn’t know where to go,” Skupski said. “I [was looking at] two other universities, but Louisiana was No. 1 because of my brother. I came once to visit him my senior year and walked around the campus and liked it.”Similarly, LSU senior James Cluskey of Dublin, Ireland, said he had also planned to come to America but wasn’t quite sure where.”I kind of planned on coming to America. A lot of Irish guys go to play college tennis,” Cluskey said. “I took a few trips to Indiana and Pepperdine, then here. I liked the coaches and the whole atmosphere.”Cluskey said the presence of other international players also played a factor in his choice.”When I first came over, I didn’t know anyone really,” Cluskey said. “I knew there were two English guys on the team … It kind of made a little bit of a difference because you have someone from your part of the world there. I hung out with the guys on the team, and I seemed to have the best relationship with those guys as opposed to the other schools I went to … So I went with my gut instinct.”Brown said he has had several local players, such as assistant coach and former Tiger Danny Bryan, play important roles for LSU. He said most of the Southeastern tennis talent comes from Florida, Georgia and Texas.”Florida and Georgia have a very small group of highly rated players,” Brown said. “There are also many players in Texas, but with so many universities in the state, it’s hard to pull them out [of state].”—Contact Tyler Harvey at [email protected]