Abougzir finds home, makes history at FSU

It wasn't that long ago when Ytai Abougzir was competing for Grand Slam titles as one of the top junior tennis players in the world.

From reaching the semifinals in the juniors bracket of the U.S. Open in 2000 – where a youngster named Andy Roddick won the title – to winning the doubles title at the Australian Open two years later, Abougzir figured his life in tennis would be spent touring the world and chasing million-dollar paydays.

But less than two years into chasing that professional dream, Abougzir said he realized that he just wasn't quite ready for life as a pro. So he set his sights on college – and Florida State turned out to be the right school at the right time for Abougzir, who walked away from a steady diet of FUTURES and Challenger tour stops two years ago and began the transition into a college tennis player.

"It was a thing where I expected more of myself," Abougzir said. "But I didn't really pass that hump. I could never really get it going. It was a difficult time. But it's something that I'll try to do again and see if I can do better. The thing is that I tried it. I can't really be mad at myself for how it turned out. It didn't really work and here I am."

Abougzir, whose full name is pronounced EE-tie A-BOOg-ZIR, landed in a pretty good spot with the Seminoles – and he's helped the FSU program continue its climb among the nation's elite teams.

Last week, Abougzir became the first FSU player in 12 years to earn an at-large bid to both the singles and doubles draws in the NCAA Tournament. He is ranked 36th nationally in singles and he and partner Chris Westerhof are ranked 11th in doubles.

He can win All-American honors by advancing to the quarterfinals, or final 16, in either event. The tournament opens on Wednesday at Stanford.

"I think he and Chris have a chance to make a pretty good run out there," FSU coach Dwayne Hultquist said. "They are both really good at the net. They both return very well. Their strength is their returns and their hands and their shot-making ability. With Chris' reflexes and with what Ytai can do on his forehand side, they've got a shot to make a good run."

Just being in this position is a path Abougzir never thought he would be taking just a few years ago.

He competed in eight Grand Slam events as a junior and at one point was ranked the No. 2 player in the world in his age group.

But he said he just wasn't ready for the challenge of making it as a pro.

"Going from juniors to the pros is a whole new level," Abougzir said. "You've got to be mentally stronger. You've got to be physically stronger, too. The physical part of traveling week in and week out was probably the toughest. I just wasn't ready for it."

But NCAA rules provided Abougzir with an out.

Tennis players are allowed to retain their amateur eligibility even while they compete in professional events as long as the prize money they earn matches the expenses of traveling and entry fees.

The NCAA also restricts the professional experience to one year, one requirement Abougzir did not meet because his first attempt at a pro career lasted 18 months.

That cost him a full year of eligibility at FSU and forced him to sit and watch during the 2004 season.

"That was a real bummer," Abougzir said. "I didn't get to play my first year here. I went straight out of playing every week to not playing a single match all season. It hurt my confidence and everything else. I was pretty much just a practice player for the other guys on the team."

But while Abougzir was sitting out that 2004 season, his presence on campus was helping Hultquist strengthen the FSU program.

Abougzir's accomplishments are well known in the tennis-rich environment of south Florida, where he played as a youngster in Boca Raton. Hultquist said having Abougzir on roster helped add a little more credibility to the recruiting pitches that brought in top south Florida players Sam Chang (Delray Beach) and Myciek Sykut (Marathon) the last two seasons.

Two more stars from Dade County – nationally ranked Jean-Yves Aubone and Bradley Mixson – will arrive in the fall.

"Everyone knows who Ytai is, both in the United State and internationally," Hultquist said. "People knew of him and the things he had accomplished and that certainly helped us when we were talking to recruits."

Long before Hultquist was able to use Abougzir's name to help lure recruits, he first had to convince Abougzir that FSU was the right place to rebuild his tennis career.

Abougzir was one of the top prospects in the country in 2002 as a high school senior at Boca Raton Prep and attracted attention from the top collegiate programs in the nation.

He said he was torn between chasing a pro career and accepting a scholarship to the University of Florida out of high school. FSU was not an option he considered at the time.

"It was going to be either Florida, Tennessee or TCU," Abougzir said. "Those were the three main schools I focused on because I liked the coaches and the atmosphere. But then I realized that TCU was too far from home and Tennessee was too cold. And most of the guys I went to high school with or played junior tennis with were going to Florida so that's what I was going to do if I went to college.

"It was 50/50 at the time. I was very close to going to college. But I sat down after all the junior tournaments that summer and my family and I talked about it and I decided I wanted to try and play professionally. We all made that decision together and if my family had told me to go to school then I probably would have done that. But they wanted me to try it just as much as I wanted to try it. So that's what I did."

The timing couldn't have been better for FSU's program.

While Abougzir was busy grinding away in entry level events, Hultquist was stockpiling talent and keeping a close eye on Abougzir's pro career.

Hultquist made it a point to keep in regular contact with the Abougzir family and remind them that a roster spot would be available if Abougzir had a change of heart.

"The only school that kept in touch with me was Florida State," Abougzir said.

When Abougzir began his second search for a college program, he said he liked what he saw at FSU.

"The two years I was looking at them in high school, they weren't in the top 30. They were right outside the top schools. They had some talent but the really good players were not there. But when I started looking again, I came to campus and I could tell things had changed. The guys really wanted to do good things and I liked what I saw."

Hultquist jumped at the chance to bring Abougzir into the program, even if it meant having him sit out a year because of his extended pro career.

"He had a very competitive attitude, a winning attitude, a workmanlike attitude that we needed in the program," Hultquist said. "He helped us a lot last year progressing to where we are now. And now I think we have a team of those same type of guys. He was kind of part of making that happen. We have guys like Myciek and Sam and others who are very disciplined, hard-working guys who are also very ambitious."

Two years after making the decision to enroll in college, Abougzir said he couldn't be happier with his decision.

He's playing in the No. 1 spot on one of the nation's top teams and in a conference that features five of the top 20 players in the country.

Though he said his transition to college tennis was painfully slow, he also said he's learned to appreciate the ride.

"If I knew this was going to happen," Abougzir said, "I probably would have played for just one year and then come on to Florida State. It's worked out pretty well for me."

Hultquist, 'Noles look forward after NCAA loss

Just a few days after the No. 17 FSU tennis team was knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by 14th-ranked Mississippi, FSU coach Dwayne Hultquist said he's pretty excited about the direction his program is headed.

"I feel really good about where we're going to be next year," Hultquist said. "Next year, we have the opportunity to be the best team since I've been here. We've got six of our top seven players returning. We're adding two of the best incoming freshmen in the country along with Bobby Deye who is another very good player. It's pretty exciting to think about what's happening."

That excitement doesn't erase the sting of being sent home from the NCAA tourney a year after advancing to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history.

The Seminoles (17-12) lost 4-2 to the Rebels in Oxford, Miss.

"Probably the key point in that match was where we lost two tiebreakers at No. 3 and No. 6 [singles]," Hultquist said. "Had we won those, it would have put us in total control of the match. But I thought the guys played pretty good in what turned out to be a very difficult atmosphere."

As he looks to next season, Hultquist knows he has a big hole to fill in departing senior Chris Westerhof, who leaves as the school's all-time leader in doubles victories.

Westerhof also provided some gritty victories in singles play this season.

But Hultquist has two promising youngsters to help fill Westerhof's void in freshmen Myciek Sykut and Chris Cloer. They each won both of their singles matches in the NCAA Tournament, the only Seminoles who can make that claim.

"At the end of the year, two of our strongest players were our two freshmen," Hultquist said. "Our freshmen were winning a lot at the end. Chris started the season 2-6 and finished 14-5. Myciek was even better. They both played so well at the end of the year and it makes you think our future looks very good when you have freshmen doing that."

It's not just the freshmen who have Hultquist looking for bigger and better things next season.

Rising seniors Ytai Abougzir and Jonathas Sucupira anchored the top two spots in the lineup all season. Rising junior Sam Chang turned in some impressive victories to help FSU close out the regular season with a bang.

But the real excitement – as is often the case when recruiting rankings are dissected – comes from the incoming freshman class that is expected to be ranked the best in the country.

Miami natives Bradley Mixson (12th) and Jean-Yves Aubone (18th) and Naples' Bobby Deye (46th) are each ranked among the nation's top players by TennisRecruiting.net. The two-man class of Mixson and Deye was rated No. 9 in the country by the same web site and the recent addition of Aubone should push that class to the No. 1 ranking.

Though Hultquist said he is not expecting any of the newcomers to take over the top spots in the lineup, he does hope to see the bottom of the lineup strengthened as well as another top doubles team formed with Mixson and Aubone.

"We're going to have really good depth next year," Hultquist said. "And that caught up to us at the beginning of this season when we had so many injuries. We won't have what happened to us this year happen again because of the depth."