LIVE OAK — Evan McMillan’s introduction to tennis came a handful of years ago when his brother, Alexandor, played at Suwannee.
The younger McMillan, close to his brother, began hitting balls back and forth with his brother and started going to lessons with him.
“I kind of just picked up the sport from him,” McMillan said.
He’s now following in his brother’s footsteps as a standout at Suwannee as McMillan capped his junior year with an 11-4 record at No. 1 singles to earn the title of LCR Boys Tennis Player of the Year.
That background in tennis helped lay the foundation for McMillan’s success. Some new competition in practice also provided a push for the junior.
While Axel Johansson, a foreign exchange student at SHS this year, went just 4-10 in matches, he provided a capable hitting partner in practice. Someone who could compete and make McMillan work.
“He’d give him a pretty good run,” Suwannee coach Damon Wooley said of Johansson’s impact on McMillan’s game. “When he had him as a hitting partner every day and someone to challenge him, that helps you raise your game up a little bit.”
McMillan agreed. But he said Johansson’s impact didn’t end there. The two also were doubles partners and became good friends on a close team.
“It was like steel sharpens steel almost,” McMillan said of his matches with Johansson in practice. “We had a lot of fun times out there, especially my doubles partner, the foreign exchange student named Axel. It’s not going to be the same without him next year, always joking around, just being positive. It really helped me throughout the whole year.”
On a young team without a lot of experience, McMillan’s past with the game helped provide a steadying presence. That also aided his play with a variety of shots that he could utilize as well as a deeper understanding of the game, Wooley said.
“He understands you don’t have to hit every shot as a winner,” he said.
McMillan, too, said at times he would treat a tennis match like chess, trying to dive into the strategy of the game, trying to play a few moves ahead. It would help, as well, if he could identify his opponent’s weakness and then attack.
That is where his wide array of shots could come in handy. Through his years of practice, McMillan said he’s come a long way from someone who had quickness, good hand-eye coordination and the ability to just get to balls and get them back.
Some of that work turned into what McMillan described as a “pretty good approach shot,” one he could bury deep in the corners.
“That’s what my coach always has me working on, hitting it within like a square inch of the corner,” he said.
But it wasn’t just his only strength. Both McMillan and Wooley said the junior’s serve became a reliable weapon as well, thanks to additional growth and strength, as well as improved form.
“Just going out there week after week and just hitting, hitting, hitting,” McMillan said.
That work and that hitting is not over.
While McMillan had a good year for Suwannee, the Bulldogs resided in a tough district where McMillan ran into great players in Santa Fe’s Derek Jesseman and Rickards’ Shravan Kambham. Both will be back next year as well.
Still, McMillan said his loss to Kambham at the district tournament was probably the best match he played all season. It’s one that he is using as motivation heading into his senior season.
“It was back and forth, it was really good shots from both ends,” he said. “In the end, he was just a better player than me and he found weak spots in my game.”
Those weak spots, areas McMillan is working on before next year, include his backhand and making that serve even better.
That is what Wooley wants to hear. He said he had a conversation with McMillan after that district tournament, looking at Jesseman and Kambham both.
“We had a little conversation, ‘Look, you know what you’ve got to do to get to where you need to get to take it to that kid next year,’” Wooley said.
Those aren’t the only players McMillan is thinking about taking it to, though, at least not mentally.
Taking up the sport because of his brother, McMillan said the two constantly debate who is better or who would win if they played each other at the same stage.
“It’s like and MJ versus Lebron thing,” McMillan said.
In fact, Alexandor McMillan told one of his brother’s friends during that district match that he would have beaten Kambham. And perhaps he would have. Alexandor McMillan did advance to the state tournament his senior season.
But McMillan notes Suwannee’s district is tougher now than what his brother faced.
“I think, now, I could beat him,” he said, adding it would be debatable against where his brother’s game was in high school. “I like to say yes I can. He would very much disagree though.”