MSU Men’s Tennis Coach Gene Orlando is Growing the Game in Michigan and the Midwest

<p>“We’re fortunate to have a season this year, and we’re thankful for the Big Ten conference and MSU supporting us,” says Orlando. “We get to play an unbelievable schedule. The Big Ten conference is one of the best conferences in the country. It’s exciting to have that many quality matches.</p><p>“We're off to a good start. It's been a great improvement; the guys have really come a long way. We weren't able to compete in the fall. But we took the challenge, and we were just so excited to be able to be back together in September and train and work together. We really missed it and we stayed true to each other. And we had no COVID cases and just kept our bubble small. But the guys trained so hard.”</p><p>Orlando talks about how he became interested in tennis and how he immediately fell in love with the game soon as he was introduced to it. And he discusses how the game of tennis has evolved over the years.</p><p>“The equipment, obviously, has been transformational; going from wood rackets to graphite has added more power to the game. Then there’s the physical training. Back in the '70s and '80s and even the early '90s, training and fitness weren't really part of the game. Now it's a major part of the game. And there’s the mental side; you have sports psychologists. You have all these different assets going into developing a tennis player. Before it was not that. It was just the athlete learning on his own, doing the drills and competing. But now when you have all the athletic training, the fitness, the mental side, and then the development of someone's game, you’re really producing unbelievable players.”</p><p>Orlando adds that tennis is a much more international game then it was a few decades ago. He still focuses most of his recruiting in Michigan and the Midwest. </p><p>“We can't miss out on the opportunity to grow the game within Michigan and the Midwest. The more players that we give the opportunity to play the game and to compete at this level, the more likely it is that they will go on to share the