Singh keeps pushing ahead

First came the tingling sensation in his legs. Next was the intense pain in his quadriceps, which quickly spread to his calves.
Before Sanam Singh knew what was going on, muscle cramps had invaded the entire lower half of his body and the Virginia men’s tennis team’s dreams of an undefeated, championship season had wilted in the Oklahoma heat.
It had all happened so quickly.
Just an hour earlier, the Cavaliers seemed on their way to winning the school’s first NCAA championship. Virginia and Georgia were tied at three in the NCAA semifinals. Singh had won the first set of his match against the Bulldogs’ Jamie Hunt and was tied at 3 in the second set.
Then came the cramps.
“It’s one of the worst feelings I’ve ever felt,” Singh recalled. “Basically, all of your muscles are just frozen. They contract … once it hits you, it just spreads like wildfire.”
Singh, with all of his teammates and a large Virginia fan base watching his decisive match, valiantly attempted to play through the pain. However, it was obvious to everybody that he could barely move.
“It was hard to watch,” said Virginia co-captain Houston Barrick, Singh’s roommate and doubles partner. “You just felt for him. He kind of looked like he was out on an island by himself.”
Despite a couple of medical timeouts and some extra hydration, Singh couldn’t rid himself of the pain. The freshman dropped the next nine games, losing 6-0 in the third set.
Singh was crushed.
“I had nightmares for a while,” said Singh, who isn’t sure why he cramped up — he believes he was properly hydrated, “but you have to get over those kinds of things. That’s how you learn I guess. It was really sad the way it happened.
“I lost a lot of sleep for the first few nights, just thinking about it. Normal losses are hard, but when you lose like that…”
Singh credits his teammates for helping him through the tough times. The close-knit, family atmosphere that Virginia coach Brian Boland has fostered during his tenure was just what the doctor ordered.
“Everyone was just ridiculously supportive,” Singh said.
That selflessness said a lot, given the team’s grand expectations. Until the loss to Georgia, Virginia — behind two-time individual NCAA champion Somdev Devvarman — had steamrolled the competition, going 32-0.
“As a team, you hate to go out like that,” Barrick said, “but [Singh] gave it his all and went down fighting. At the end of the day, that’s all you can do. It’s just tennis.
“We just kept telling him, ‘It’s just tennis and the sun’s going to come up tomorrow morning no matter what.’ We were all sad, but you know, you just move on.”
While he was empathetic for Singh and his team at the time, Boland now chooses to view the episode in a more positive light.
“I always tell the players that you don’t learn about people when everything’s going well and you’re winning,” Boland said. “You learn the most when times are tough.
“That’s when you find out about someone’s true character and what kind of person they are.”
Boland calls Singh, now a sophomore, “an amazing kid.”
“He’s a great young man, so well-grounded,” he said. “He’s mature beyond his years.
“I think it’s an experience that will only make him stronger.”
This season, Singh is
being counted on to pick up some of the slack left by Devvarman’s departure. So far, he’s delivered, going 4-0 in dual match play in the
No. 2 and 3 singles spots heading into Virginia’s match against Kentucky tonight at The Boar’s Head Sports Club.
Ever since last spring, Singh says he has worked on his strength in an effort to ward off future bouts with muscle cramps.
Singh admits that he often dreams about having the chance to replay that third set against Georgia. While he said he wouldn’t mind playing Hunt again, he says that’s not what is most important.
“I just want the whole team to do well,” he said. “I don’t care for my revenge.”

This article was edited to fix a typo in the caption information.