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Sports
The Battalion
Page 5 ♦ Tuesday, November 11
Double Trouble
Men's doubles team of Cook &
Matijevic put fear in opponents
By Blake Kimzey
THE BATTALION
F orget threatening. Forget intimi
dating. When juniors Ante
Matijevic and Lester Cook step
onto the doubles court they are down
right scary. As the No. 2 doubles team
in the country, they make their oppo
nents weak in the knees, double over
with dry heaves and run for cover.
Their notoriety has only increased
after they convincingly knocked off
the nation’s No. 1 doubles team at the
Icy Hot/ITA All-American
Championships earlier this fall.
Certainly, this is a phenomenon that
Texas A&M tennis coach Tim Cass has
had the joy of watching up close.
“Being second in the U.S. is pretty
good when there are 300 Division I ten
nis teams,” Cass said. “Ante and Lester
are obviously two of the top tennis
players in the nation, and more people
are going to gun for them. It has been
fun to watch them and it is an honor for
them to be ranked so highly.”
The two All-Americans are the def
inition of what it means to be a finely-
tuned on-court duo and could go down
as one of the most persistent and over
achieving doubles teams in the 100-
year history of men’s tennis at A&M,
and they’ve only been teaming up
together since their sophomore years.
Cass said Matijevic and Cook are
stepping in where A&M tennis icons
and All-Americans Ryan Newport and
Shuon Madden left off.
“There have only been seven All-
Americans in the history of tennis at
A&M, and Ante and Lester are two of
them,” Cass said. “We talk about these
guys making memories and an impact,
and their play on and off the court
demonstrates that. With more than
3,000 Division I tennis players out
there, and only 35 named All-
Americans each year, Lester and Ante
are stepping out of the crowd.”
Stepping out of the crowd is an
understatement. As one of the most
feared doubles teams in college tennis
today, Matijevic and Cook know they
are in the crosshairs of their oppo
nents every time they hit the court.
“Because we are ranked as highly
as we are it does give us an advan
tage,” Cook said. “But, you always
have something to lose every time you
step on the court. On the court, the
rankings don’t mean anything, but it
does give other doubles teams extra
juice to come after us.”
While tennis seems to come with
ease to Cook and Matijevic, being one
of the best doubles teams in the coun
try hasn’t come without countless
hours of practice and conditioning,
especially in the fall season.
“Doubles is a different game
because you really have to work with
your partner,” Matijevic said. “We
play so well together because we get
along with each other. We feel the ball
really well and every match we play is
better than the one we played before.”
While both players share a passion
for tennis, their backgrounds are
markedly different.
Matijevic came west to A&M from
halfway around the world, growing up
in Split, Croatia.
His tennis roots run deep: He is a
five-time Croatian national champion
and is the defending U.S. national
champion. With those credentials,
Cass came looking for Matijevic at
Birotehnika-Zagreb high school.
However, Matijevic put his home
land in the rearview mirror because he
said the atmosphere at A&M that Cass
and his fellow teammates have culti-
Randal Ford • THE BATTALION
Texas A&M doubles partners Ante Matijevic (left) and Lester Cook have climbed to the No. 2 doubles team in the country.
vated makes him feel at home. It is an
atmosphere that has helped Matijevic
ascend to national prominence.
“Coach is like my second dad here,
and I respect him so much,” Matijevic
said. “When I came here as a fresh
man, I had no idea how to play dou
bles. So, how I play now is a credit to
coach Cass because he taught me.”
Cook, however, came east to A&M
after dominating juniors on the west
coast in Sherman Oaks, Calif. His
older brother, Jason, played tennis for
Cass while Cass was coaching in New
Mexico in 1996, and that gave Cook a
a look at the kind of coach Cass is.
Cook also has the added benefit of
having played doubles with departed
superstar Newport during his develop
mental freshman year at A&M.
Cook says he and Matijevic couldn’t
be as in-tune as doubles partners if their
relationship wasn’t strong off the court.
“Ante and I get along great,” Cook
said. “He is from Croatia, and it is
great to learn about other cultures. I
love talking to him, and he is a great
guy to be around. On the court we are
a natural team; you have to get along
to be a good .team or else your com
munication isn’t going to be there. A
whole bunch of skills can fall apart
when you are on the court.”
Thus far their skills have done
everything but fall apart. Because the
duo are humble to the core, they don’t
talk about the fact that they could be
No. 1 by the end of the fall season.
“One motto our team has this year
is ‘a little more than the other guy,”’
Cook said. “Every time we step on the
court we are trying to work a little
harder than the other team.”
Cass said the two are destined for
great things.
“They came here to make a mark,”
he said, “and that is exactly what they
are doing.”
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