By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

JUSTIN Roberts had a great individual performance to lead the Arizona State University Sun Devils men’s tennis team to a 2-1 win-loss record in their collegiate matchups over the weekend.

Despite a 4-3 loss to No.10 ranked Texas Christian University on Sunday in Fort Worth, Texas, Roberts gave the Sun Devils a 2-1 lead with his comeback 4-6, 6-3, 6-12 victory, playing from the No.3 spot.

While it was their only win in singles, it turned out to be Roberts’ fifth-straight victory as he now leads Arizona with seven dual match wins.

Roberts also teamed up with Makey Rakotomalala as they clinched a 6-4 decision to secure ASU’s first of two victories in their three doubles matches against TCU. Two days earlier in Waco, Texas, at the Hurd Tennis Center on Friday, ASU fell 5-2 to the Baylor Bears as Roberts pulled off a 7-5, 6-1 win over No. 82 ranked Will Little.

“Justin played fantastic in the singles tonight because his opponent is one of the best competitors in college tennis by far,” said Sun Devils’ coach Matt Hill.

“We have a lot of respect for Will, and I thought Justin had his best performance tonight from a focus standpoint. He was relentless with not giving anything away deep and free.”

Earlier that same day also in Waco, Texas, Roberts got started with an impressive 6-0, 6-1 decision over Paco Bendana as he helped the Sun Devils to a 4-0 sweep over Incarnate Word.

“His leadership off the court is huge because this team is a young team,” Hill said. “The way they interact and work with each other is still to this day being formulated, and Justin has a lot of experience leading and has also been on one of my teams before so he understands what I want.

“It’s invaluable. You can’t put a price tag on that.”

Roberts, a 6-foot graduate student who transferred from the University of South Florida with Hill, who was his coach at the time, said he was thrilled about his accomplishment over the weekend. “Overall it was a good individual performance. I played well. I was very pleased with my performance,” Roberts told The Tribune. “I’ve been training well and I’ve been working hard. “I know that I have been improving my game over the past few weeks, so it was kind of where I had hoped to pick up from last year where I was playing very well. I know I can play at this level, but it’s nice when you can go out there and prove it.”

Roberts, 22, said he’s not surprised at all because he’s been putting in the work in practice.

“It definitely feels good to go out there and show what you can do,” said Roberts, whose Sun Devils are midway through their season.

“I’m hoping that I can build off the level of performances that I’ve been doing over the last few weeks.

“As a team, we are just hoping that we can continue to improve.We’re playing against some of the best teams in the country and we are only getting better,” he said.

“We just want to get on a good streak and we can get a good ranking so that we can win our conference and get into the end of the year tournament,” added Roberts.

Arizona State University will be back in action on Saturday against Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. They have five more games before they prepare for the PAC-12 Championships in Ojai, California, April 24-27.

As for his game, Roberts admitted that he has to “improve in everything” in order for him to continue to make a contribution to the Sun Devils’ success down the stretch.