When the U men’s tennis program received Dan Little’s letter of intent, head coach Roeland Brateanu was ecstatic.
“Dan is an unbelievable player with a tremendous future ahead of him,” Brateanu said. “He will make a huge impact on both our singles and doubles line-up, so it goes without saying that we are delighted with his commitment.”
Little grew up in London, England, close to the All-England Tennis and Croquet club at Church Road, the home of The Championships, Wimbledon. Growing up around the legendary club made Little strive to someday get to the prestigious tournament as a competitor. Little started playing tennis when he was eight years old, and he competed in a local under-10 tournament, the first of many for the Englishman.
Little climbed up the ranks in junior tennis, winning three International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior singles titles and four ITF junior doubles titles. Little won singles titles at Doha and Abu Dhabi in 2014 and won the title at Norway in 2013. He also won doubles titles again at Doha, Abu Dhabi, in addition to the United Arab Emirates in 2014, and Kenya in 2013. He’s been ranked as high as 192 in the world ITF junior rankings.
It was in June 2014 when Little stepped on to Wimbledon for the first time as player when he competed in the Junior Wimbledon Championships.
“[Playing at Wimbledon] was pretty amazing. It was always a goal of all young English tennis players to try and make it there,” said Little. “The match was pretty long and pretty tough to lose. It was such a tight match, but it was a really good experience to play on grass, which is pretty rare to play on as a junior. It is definitely something I’ll remember for a long time.”
After this, he received a call from Branteanu offering him a spot on the Ute tennis team, and he was ecstatic. He booked a flight and came in November and was impressed by everything Utah had to offer.
“It’s incredible how good the sports are here and how amazing the facilities are — it’s so different from home,” Little said. “After signing, I just couldn’t wait to get here.”
In his freshman year, Little is already making a big impact. He got to the third round at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the beginning of August and in September won the Gray Flight singles championship at the Utah Intercollegiate.
In the final tournament of the fall season, the freshman made it to the finals of the mountain region ITA Regional Championships at the University of New Mexico where he fell in three sets to the No. 2 seed in the draw, Diogo Rocha of the University of Denver.
Little attributes part of his early success to his pregame rituals. He has a long list of things he has to check off before he can finally step onto the court
“All my teammates find it crazy. I do certain rituals when I warm up. When I put my bag down on the court, it has to be a certain way, the racquet has to be in a certain position, I have to change my shirt and my shoes at a certain time,” Little said. “I won’t change it for the rest of my tennis career unless the coaches tell me to. It works for me.”
Little and the Utes do not compete again until Jan. 15, 2016, when they play San Francisco in Honolulu to kick off the spring schedule and their quest for the Pac-12 Championship. The Utes haven’t won a conference championship in the Pac-12, the last one being in 2008 when the Utes won the Mountain West.
Even though Little is unsure of what to really expect, he knows it will be an unforgettable experience.
“I’m just going to enjoy it as much as possible, enjoy the traveling, playing as a team and hopefully do as well as I can,” Little said.
@GriffDoug