By Catherine Laroche
Anytime an athlete’s name is put in the same sentence as former University of Louisville hoopster Taquan Dean and former U of L tennis greats Damar Johnson and Jakob Gustafsson that can only mean good things for the athlete. Freshman tennis player Austen Childs has been nothing but good news since he stepped on the U of L campus.
“If U of L fans remember Taquan Dean and that he was a quiet guy but a ferocious competitor with a lot of fire on the inside,” U of L head coach Rex Ecarma said. “That’s how Austen is. He’s very shy off the court, but he competes so hard. You can tell there’s an inner-fire of competitiveness in him. “
Childs is already making noise on the court for the Cardinals. Only 11 games into his collegiate career, and he has defeated five nationally ranked tennis players.
“I’m very pleased at how well Austen has started his U of L career,” Ecarma said. “He’s the first U of L player to win his first five matches against nationally ranked players. That’s very rare in the game and it’s nice to have a Cardinal tennis player achieve that. If I had all my players start off like this then I’d be the happiest coach in the world.”
Childs’ tennis journey began when he was nine years old. Tennis, however, wasn’t the only sport the New Zealander played growing up. He also has skills in soccer and the poplar English sport cricket.
“[Cricket] got a bit boring, fielding,” Childs said. “I would be waiting all day and only get one ball and one bat. And it takes only 10 minutes, whereas in tennis you play for about an hour.”
Childs’ was influenced by his sister to take up tennis, after he watched her play when he was younger. Since then, he’s accomplished many great things in tennis.
At the age of 15, he represented New Zealand at the junior Davis Cup in Sri Lanka, where he won three out of four matches. He also experienced competition in the national under-16 championships in Melbourne, where he managed to beat four seeded players.
Childs was the national junior champion of New Zealand. He also won the International Junior de Leiria and the South Pacific Junior Championships. He also was a quarterfinalist in the Australia Open Junior Championships and the Asia/Oceania Closed Championships.
Although Childs has quite the resume, he feels that his biggest accomplishment is playing for U of L.
“The coaching staff and the opportunities here are really good,” Childs said. “I love the team atmosphere and being a part of a good team.”
His teammates aren’t complaining about his decision to attend U of L. Sophomore tennis player James McArthur, who plays doubles with Childs, enjoys sharing the court with his partner.
“For a freshman he’s stepped up pretty well and filled the void of last year’s seniors,” McArthur said. “Despite his shy nature, I think he’s quite a good teammate. He works hard in training, and he leads the team pretty well on the court.”
Despite the fact that Childs and McArthur are from two different parts of the world, it hasn’t affected their doubles play at all. If anything, it has created a greater chemistry between the two.
“We seem to click really well and we’ve got a lot of things in common that we can relate to,” McArthur said. “Growing to understanding Australia and New Zealand, you can’t really seem to be close, but our similarities allow us to have a really good chemistry.”
Ecarma is confident that Childs will continue to be successful at the collegiate level, but feels that there are a couple of things on his “to-do list” that he needs to complete in order to continue his success.
“One of my goals for him is to become a very aggressive doubles player,” Ecarma said. “He’s got all of the tools to be a good doubles player, yet his results have not caught up with his potential in doubles. He still needs to add another 10 pounds of muscle to his body without losing speed.”
