By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Until watching two of his closest friends in Colombia ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬" Juan Marino (Arkansas) and Diego Pedraza (Dartmouth) ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬" go the college route, Juan Benitez had never even thought about playing collegiate tennis.

"It wasn't in my plans. I was going pro," said Benitez, a Baylor sophomore who's 15th in the latest ITA rankings and playing No. 1 singles and doubles for the Bears.

Since he got his first ATP ranking right before his 18th birthday, Benitez figured he would just keep grinding on the Futures tour and work his way up. But, once he saw Marino and Pedraza both leave for college, "I slowly started considering, that might not be a bad option. And here I am."

Growing up in Medellin, Colombia, Juan got his introduction to tennis at 4 years old, when he watched his parents play at a local tennis club. "I would stand there and watch them from the fence, and I loved it from Day 1."

As one of the top juniors in Colombia, he won tournaments in Bolivia, Peru and Argentina and attracted the attention of college recruiters in the United States. Getting interest from the likes of Illinois and Louisville, Benitez was originally committed to South Florida before Baylor coach Matt Knoll convinced him to at least make a visit.

"Once I saw the facilities, I was like, 'OK, I'm coming to Baylor,''' he said.

A mid-year enrollee as a freshman in January 2015, Benitez had little impact on a Baylor team that lost to eventual national champion Virginia in the NCAA Championship semifinals. He was 5-2 in singles and 4-1 in doubles and sat out the team's last 12 dual matches.

During a year off from college, Benitez saw his ATP ranking improve to a career-high 684 in the world with quarterfinal appearances at a couple Futures tournaments in Mexico last spring and finals at Rochester, N.Y., in June and Birmingham, Ala., in November.

In the semifinals at Rochester, he survived a three-set marathon with Ohio State junior Mikael Torpegaard, the 2016 NCAA singles runner-up and No. 1-ranked college player for most of this season.

"When I was playing pro, I beat Torpegaard. And then I saw that he was No. 1 in college, and I was like, 'OK, I beat this guy.' I knew I was at that level," Benitez said. "If you can beat those kinds of guys and have some success early, like beating Max (senior teammate Max Tchoutakian) at the very first tournament, I was like, 'OK, I can do this.'''

Not that it's all been rosy.

After a 15-3 start that included nine wins over ranked players, Benitez was just 1-4 in Big 12 matches and had lost five of his last six decisions before beating Cornell's David Volfson, 6-1, 6-2, in Baylor's 4-0 win over the Big Red that got the Bears back to the Round of 16.

"I was just thinking too much," he said. "Now, I'm just trying to clear my head and focus on what I have to do to win the next match. Just do everything in order to be prepared and be in the best condition I can be in to win it. That's pretty much the mindset I have right now."

Playing at the top of Baylor's singles lineup, Benitez had some big shoes to fill. Julian Lenz was a three-time singles All-American who ranks fourth all-time in program history with 119 career singles wins. But, the fiery sophomore gave the Bears "a lot of energy and a lot of fight," Knoll said.

"Juan is a guy that's very charismatic. He really loves tennis, and you can see that when you watch him. And I think that lifts everybody up. Sometimes, you have a guy in that position that has those special qualities that are intangibles. And I think you'll see him really grow in that regard as he becomes a little bit more comfortable and continues to improve."

While it's been humbling at times, Knoll said it's been great that "college tennis has showed him that he's got some things to work on" if he wants to compete against the best pro players in the world.

"His game is really, really good against me, he doesn't have any weaknesses," Knoll said. "But, when you start trying to play guys that are top 100 in the world or playing at Challenger level, they're going to find things that you're not great at and they're going to structure a game plan in a way to make it hard for you to feel comfortable."

At that point, Knoll said, "Do you duck your head and feel sorry for yourself, or do you dig in and get better? Hopefully, when we're standing here in a year, we're going to see that he's at a completely different level and maybe ready to think about going out and trying to make a living playing tennis."

After rolling through the first and second rounds with 4-0 wins over Lamar and 26th-ranked Cornell, the seventh-seeded Bears (23-7) face 10th-seeded Texas (21-8) at 8 a.m. CDT Thursday in the Round of 16 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.

"You're in the show when you get to the Round of 16," said Knoll, who's now made it 15 times in the last 16 years. "You don't feel like you're in the national championship until you're at the place where they're going to hand the trophy out. Well, this is where they're going to hand the trophy out. These are all the best teams, and you feel the buzz and you feel the energy, and it really is special for the players."

While Baylor breezed through the opening rounds, Texas had to rally from a 3-1 deficit to beat 29th-ranked Tulane, 4-3, winning three-setters at Nos. 2, 5 and 6 singles.

The Bears handed the Longhorns a 4-1 loss last month in Austin, with Benitez sweeping Harrison Scott, 6-3, 7-5, at the top spot. Texas has adjusted its singles lineup, moving 25th-ranked freshman Christian Sigsgaard up to No. 1 singles, while Baylor freshman Bjoern Petersen is back on the court for the first time in over three months.

"You can't overstate it," Knoll said of Petersen playing in the first two NCAA matches last weekend in Waco. "You saw the huge improvement from Day 1 to Day 2. He won two doubles matches, which was great for his confidence, and won the first set against a really good opponent (Cornell's Chris Vrabel). He's a different guy than he was four or five days ago. Now, it's just a matter of being smart and getting him ready to compete again. But, I think you'll see his level just continue to rise throughout the course of this tournament."

If Baylor advances to Saturday's quarterfinals, the Bears would likely face No. 2 seed Virginia, which has won back-to-back national championships and three of the last four.

"I think we're pretty confident, and we have really good tennis players," said Benitez, who will also play in the NCAA singles and doubles (with sophomore Will Little). "From 1 through 6, we have the players to make a good run in the NCAAs. We're just excited and ready to compete."