CU’s number one going strong in second year

Nicole Bartnik, the top singles player on the women’s tennis team, may be the best athlete at Columbia you’ve never heard of. Bartnik, a sophomore, has played No. 1 singles since the moment she stepped onto campus and has gone a combined 24-10 at the top spot in her two years here, including 13-5 this spring. Bartnik has played her best against Ivy opponents this year, going 5-2 at the top spot—including winning her last three against Cornell, Yale, and Brown.

Bartnik came to Columbia as the No. 5 ranked recruit in the nation and reached a career-high international girls ranking of No. 86. She scored what was called the “biggest upset of the year” in 2008, when she took down then No. 1-ranked player and 2008 Wimbledon girls’ champion Laura Robson in three sets.

Bartnik made a splash on day one, winning one tournament and reaching the finals of another and going 11-5 in singles in the spring at No. 1, but she struggled with injuries that held her back early on.

“Last year, both in the fall and the spring season, I was sick frequently,” Bartnik said. “I had a few injuries—nothing too serious—but it kept me out for a while and out of some really important matches.”

Bartnik used that experience to help her stay healthy more often this year.

“I really focused on my health this entire school year,” Bartnik said, “whether that be getting a little bit more sleep or if I started feeling something in my arm, I would sit out and get some rest.”
“Nikki spent most of last year either sick or injured, and that has motivated her this year to come back and prove herself,” head coach Ilene Weintraub said. “She put in the extra work to get stronger and fitter and as she puts it, is ‘the epitome of health.’”

Bartnik started this spring on a tear, winning her first five matches without dropping a set, and running her winning streak to eight matches, including a 3-0 record against Ivy opponents from Yale, Cornell, and Dartmouth.

The start of Ivy play in April didn’t bring out the best in Bartnik right away, however, as she went winless against Dartmouth and Harvard, including a loss to No. 86 Holly Cao of Harvard.

“They were both on their A game, and I wasn’t for whatever reason that day,” Bartnik said. “But you really need a short-term memory. Maybe the day of those matches I was a little bit upset, because one of them I had beaten at ECACs, but then in my match against Cornell, I never once thought about them. In fact, I didn’t think about anything else except that match.”

“She is really good at mentally staying in the moment, playing one point at a time, and letting the results come as an effect of her good play,” Weintraub said.

But Bartnik found her game soon after, as she has gone undefeated since then and has notched impressive wins against the top players from two top-45 teams in No. 35 Yale and No. 43 Brown.
“They were both outdoor matches, which made it extra difficult,” Bartnik said. “We don’t really get a chance to practice outdoors unless it’s in Riverside Park, and I think that made me focus more on my matches in the moment because there was another opponent—I was dealing with the wind and the sun, and it doesn’t sound like much but it was quite challenging.”
According to Bartnik, the losses against Harvard and Dartmouth helped her refocus her game.

“I think in my first two matches, I was looking too long-term, which is maybe what hurt me,” Bartnik said. “But what I think I got out of those matches was that once I start focusing in the moment at one point at a time, that kind of brought me back to how I play my best.”

In a conference with five nationally ranked teams, the competition at the top is among the best in the nation.

“The girls that I play in the Ivy League are definitely the strongest I play in my season,” Bartnik said. “And I personally think that the girls that play at No. 1 are some of the best in the country, even if their ranking doesn’t reflect that.”

“The league is extremely competitive and her winning in the No. 1 position proves that she is one of the best,” Weintraub said. “Something I always knew from the moment I met her.”

With the trajectory of her career individually, along with that of her team on the rise, the records will undoubtedly show Bartnik as not only the top player during her years at Columbia, but also as one of the best women’s players to ever don light blue.