July 5, 2017
By Christian Page
"Let's do it!" That's how Auburn alum Andreas Mies answered when asked to join Matuesz Kowalczyk in doubles for the Poprad Tatry Challenger professional tennis tournament in June in Poprad, Slovakia.
Those three simple words of confirmation turned into an ATP Challenger Tour victory for the 2013 Auburn graduate and his Polish teammate.
"It usually doesn't happen too often when you play with someone for the first time and win the tournament," Mies says. "It kind of clicked between us during that week."
Mies' usual double partner, Oscar Otte, withdrew the day before the clay court tournament began and Mies, still wanting to compete, had to scurry to find a teammate to compete the next day. Kowalczyk reached out to Mies and they quickly entered the tournament as a pair.
Pairing with a new partner "is a lot different," Mies explains. "When you have a partner you play with all the time, you practice together, you work out things together, and you're so used to playing with each other, some things just happen automatically.
"You have your own plays. If you're friends with your partner, and get along off the court, it helps with your chemistry a lot."
The unfamiliarity was a factor in the second round as the lack of understanding of each other's game, at first, almost cost them the match.
"We had a tough one in the second round where we could've lost the match easily," Mies says. "We came out on top 10-8 in a super tiebreak but it was really close. That [win] gave us a lot of confidence and we played a really good semifinal and final. We got better every match. It was just really nice to finish the week with a win."
The win paved way for Mies' highest doubles world ranking of his brief professional career -- No. 138. The win at Poprad Tatry bumped his win total up to two on the season (he and Otte won the Roma Garden Open doubles title in May) and gives him a comforting feeling going forward after seeing what his career was in his rearview window just a year ago.
In his senior year at Auburn in 2013, Mies tore his meniscus and put off surgery for years into his professional career. After multiple flare-ups of the knee injury, he decided to get knee surgery.
As expected, it was not easy.
"It was a rough start for me," he says. "I lost all my (rankings) points, so I had to go back to zero in singles and doubles. It was very tricky, but there was no other way around the surgery because it got worse and worse by playing."
It took 10 months of rehab for Mies to get back in shape enough to resume competitive tennis.
"I came back and wanted to start again with singles," he says. "That was my priority. I always wanted to play both (singles and doubles). When I came back, my body wasn't at 100 percent like before when I was fit. I didn't have the trust in my knee that I could achieve my goals.
"My goal is to always be a top 100 singles player," Mies says. "That's probably what everyone wants. I felt that my knee was still hurting so I had to decide if I was going to play more singles or more doubles but both would be tough with the knee."
With his knee still hampering him in some matches, Mies decided that competing primarily in doubles was his best option to prevent any missteps.
Dealing with the game mentally and physically, the native of Niederkassel, Germany, gives a lot of credit to his time spent at Auburn.
"The physical part and the physical training and also the mental part at Auburn prepared me," he rcalls. "I wasn't ready when I was 18 years old, mentally or physically, and after I played so many matches for four years at Auburn, playing the best teams and the best players in the country, it prepared me well for future challenges.
"I just got a lot tougher in college," Mies, an all-SEC player who combined with Daniel Cochrane to win the 2012 ITA All-American national doubles title at Auburn, remembers. "It prepared me very well for the pro tour overall. That's why I made the decision to go to college and not to start to play on the professional tour after I graduated high school."
Auburn was an easy decision for him.
"I knew Auburn was a good tennis school and they have had success," the All-American says. "They were good at developing players and I felt a good connection with (former Auburn head coach) Eric Shore right away."
Auburn was an important stepping stone for a boy who eyed a professional tennis career. "My goal was to always become a professional tennis players since I was a child," he says. "I started playing tennis at six years old. I knew going to Auburn would help prepare me for the professional tour."
Christian Page is a student assistant in Auburn Athletics Communications