The University of Mississippi Athletics
On the Comeback Trail
4/7/2016 | Men's Tennis
By Kim Ling,
Associate Athletics Media Relations Director
OXFORD, Miss. - If you strolled over to the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center last week you might have noticed a couple of guys that looked familiar. Ole Miss men's tennis alums Nik Scholtz and Jonas Lutjen could be seen hitting on the courts they once roamed for four years.
Both are back in the United States playing in the Futures in Memphis, Tennessee and Little Rock, Arkansas.
Lutjen is happy to be back around former teammates and coaches, especially Scholtz. The two paired up together beginning in 2012 and enjoyed a successful two-year run on the courts, capped by a run to the NCAA Doubles Final Four in 2013. They became more than teammates, even drawing the nickname "BirdShark" from teammates and fans.
"It's amazing to be back here," Lutjen said. "When the schedule came out and I saw Memphis and Little Rock, two pretty big futures (25k) for us, I called Nik right away and said 'we have to play there.' It actually worked out and we are both very happy to be here so we can practice some and see each other again. It's been a while."
Lutjen graduated from Ole Miss in 2013 and started playing pro tournaments right away. His ranking rose into the 600s pretty quickly and he was looking forward to the future. Unfortunately, during the 2014 preseason, his path took an unfortunate detour.
"I was in a perfect position and actually had a good preseason and then the last week of preseason I hurt my knee," Lutjen said. "The rehab was taking a while, so I came back here and helped out with the team as a volunteer."
It wasn't until December of 2014, that Lutjen played again. He played a couple of tournaments in the preseason, but then in the third tournament back, he got hurt again, this time it was his groin.
"At first I didn't think it was that bad, but then I needed surgery that was going to put me out another year. Fall of last year it started getting better three months after the surgery. Thankfully, I'm 100 percent now, so maybe that year where I had my groin injury was a good thing for my knee. It gave me another year to recover."
Lutjen said he is glad to be back out on the grind playing tournaments. At the beginning of March he reached the finals of the Futures in Israel.
"I'm doing great now; I'm surrounded with good people at the Schüttler Waske Tennis Academy and great coaches back at home," he said. The difficult times were never easy but I'm really glad that I kept playing and kept trying. I'm in a great place and I feel good and confident about this year."
Over the years the tennis center has seen improvements thanks to the success of the program, including players like Scholtz and Lutjen, who have a combined six All-America honors between them. Lutjen said he likes the additions to the tennis center.
"This place looks amazing now," he said. "It's always been a nice place, but it's even better now. I follow all the matches on the road, but I am looking forward to being able to watch them with the live streaming. That's a huge addition."
Players Mentioned
