TEMPE, Ariz. – Sargis Sargsian wondered how he’d celebrate.
Up 5-2 in the third set of the 1995 NCAA Men’s singles championship against USC’s Brett Hansen, Sargsian was feeling it. He was moments away from becoming Arizona State’s first national champion. History was at his fingertips as he served for the match.
As his mind drifted, Hansen dug in.
“Well,” Sargsian recounts, “I double-faulted. I lost that game. He held, and now it’s 5-4 and I’m not thinking about a celebration anymore.”
Sargsian, the top-seeded individual at the ‘95 championships, rebounded to look the part of the country’s top player. A “monster game” propelled him to a narrow 6-4 win in the third-set, and ultimately, legacy. He remains the only Sun Devil to be crowned a national champion.
“It was just a relief,” he said. “When you play a match this close and match this big, it was just a happy relief. That tournament just felt like it was meant for me to win it.”
It’s been thirty years since Sargsian was perfect. Nobody was better than the Sun Devil sophomore in 1995, and certainly not at these NCAA Championships. Days before play began, Sargsian had a practice match against ASU’s No. 6 singles player – and hardly broke a sweat in a clean 6-0, 6-0 win.
It couldn’t have been better timing for Sargsian, who grappled with physical and mental fatigue in the month leading up to the championships.
“That whole year, I was playing unbelievable. I won a lot of matches, but when we got closer to NCAAs, I kind of burned out. My game, I took a couple of losses, but my game fell apart a little bit. One month before NCAAs, I remember just working really hard and pushing myself really hard. My game wasn’t near my best, not even close, and when we went to the tournament, I remember having a practice with our No. 6. I drilled him, 6-0, 6-0.
“At that moment, I was like, I guess this is meant to be. I’m going to win this.”
“He was a great athlete and a tremendous mover,” former Arizona State head coach Lou Belken said. “A really, really awesome mover. He had a great backhand. He obviously competed well. Not only was he a great match player for us, but he was the kind of guy who did not like to lose in practice. If you beat him in practice, you beat him. Quite frankly, I don’t ever remember guys beating him. He was there to compete and did a good job with it. He was a dominant player.”
Sargsian’s journey to both the collegiate space and Tempe, Arizona was rather circuitous. While attending the Institute of Sport in Armenia, he came to the United States by way of the national team in 1993 to compete against Ivy League schools in the northeast. While playing stateside, Belken was tipped off by several guys who were wowed by Sargsian’s talents at a local tournament.
“One of them called me and said, ‘Coach, this kid can really play and he’s looking for a school,’” Belken remembers. “I was actually recruiting somebody else at the time and didn’t really act on it. Another guy called me and said, ‘Coach, this kid can really play.’ Finally, the first guy called me again and said, ‘This kid can really play.’
“Well, he was right.”
Sargsian largely flew under the radar prior to this, and Belken’s priorities quickly shifted to bringing him to Tempe. Despite writing to a number of schools and coaches, Sargsian received just two offers once he became dedicated to pursuing a collegiate career – the University of Miami and Arizona State. The Sun Devils offered a full-ride scholarship and Sargsian packed his bags and headed west.
In the fall of 1994, it was evident the Sun Devils had a unique talent in Sargsian.
“The first tournament I took him to,” Belken said, “they had a thing called the national clay courts, and he started off in the qualifying draw there and then lost in the final of the main draw. I had a pretty good idea then that he was a good player.”
He quickly established himself as one of the country’s most elite players before a back injury suffered at the conference tournament halted what was sure to be a lengthy run at his first NCAA Championships. Instead, Sargsian headed home that summer to address his nagging pain.
“We were just hoping he got through the surgery and could continue on playing,” Belken said. “He ended up being the most dominant player in the country the next year.”
Sargsian returned to Tempe for his sophomore year as a more polished product. He won three grand slam championships in 1995, capped with the singles championship on May 21.
Even today, thirty years removed from hoisting the singles title, Sargsian is amazed by the gravity of being an NCAA champion.
“What’s funny about the NCAA, is I go on tour and I was top-50, and so many times people say, ‘Oh, cool, you’re top-50.’ But whenever I say I won the NCAAs, it feels like it has more pull than when you were a professional. Top-100 [on tour]? Yeah, no big deal. ‘Oh, you won NCAAs? Wow.’
“If I didn’t go to Arizona State, there was no way I would make it to professional tennis. Unquestionably. How much I improved in college is just crazy. I’m really not exaggerating when I say this: If I don’t go to college and I don’t get a scholarship and I try to play on the tour, I don’t make it. It helped me tremendously. Without it, I would not have achieved what I have achieved. It was my gateway to [professional] tennis.”
