Danny Bryan, a freshman on the LSU men’s tennis team, said even though he’s played several different sports, he likes tennis the most.
“I played baseball, basketball and football when I was younger, but nothing as serious as tennis,” Bryan said.
Bryan has compiled a 16-8 singles record. He is also 16-3 in doubles competition with Cory Ross.
Bryan, who has played tennis for about 14 years, said he has enjoyed playing on the collegiate level.
“It’s been great [playing at LSU]. I’ve had a good time. I love playing college; it’s a lot better than when you play junior tournaments, so I’m having a good time.”
Teammate Ken Skupski, who will play in the doubles competition with Bryan this weekend, said he is eager to play with Bryan for the first time.
“We’ve practiced a couple of times this week, but Danny’s a pretty aggressive guy, definitely the type of guy I want to play doubles with,” Skupski said. “He’s different from my previous partner, but we’ll go out and give it our best shot and try to play big.”
Bryan said he thinks he and Skupski will do well.
“We expect to do well on [doubles court] 3,” Bryan said. “I think that we can, we’ve got a really good chance of doing that. I hope to just play well.”
Coach Jeff Brown said Bryan has done a good job handling the work that has been given to him.
“I think [Danny]’s got a ton of talent,” Brown said. “He’s a young guy. He’s improved his strength, he’s improved pretty much everything we’ve asked him to do. He’s just got to get settled on a game style for the most part and the sky is the limit for him as far as what his potential is.”
Brown said he feels comfortable about playing Bryan in singles competition if he needs to.
“I think right now he’s been out of the singles lineup because we’ve got a lot of experienced guys,” Brown said. “He’s been working very hard in practice, but I think he’s the kind of guy I could go to next year and if we need him the rest of this year and be a consistent performer.”
Bryan and the rest of the team will play at home against Florida on Friday at 4 p.m.