When then first-year Jack Lin was chosen by Tennis Canada as the wild card pick for the spring 2018 Challenger Banque Nationale de Drummondville tournament in Drummondville, Quebec, Lin had to make a decision. Either leave his teammates in the middle of a crucial road trip to Texas or compete in the tournament.
Lin already had a packed schedule and, having just completed midterms, was scheduled to fly to Texas with the men’s tennis team to practice on outdoor courts—which Columbia’s facilities do not provide. But being selected as the wild card pick was a huge honor and at Lin’s insistence, his coaches allowed him to fly from Texas to Montreal and then to Drummondville to compete, albeit reluctantly.
In the tournament, Lin fell in the first round, failing to secure a victory in Drummondville. He left Canada not with a trophy, but with a nasty case of pneumonia. Even his meticulously conditioned body could not handle the full brunt of the illness, which took an undeniable toll on his tennis performance.
For the Lions, his recovery was a long process, and Lin was not himself. This was made evident in his match against Dartmouth, where Lin’s three-set defeat dealt Columbia its first home loss in Ivy League play since 2011. Lin faced off against Dartmouth’s Dan Martin, an opponent to whom head coach Bid Goswami felt Lin should have never lost.
“After midterms, he had no time to relax,” Goswami said. “So, the early part of his results [of the Ivy season], he lost to Dartmouth, and he shouldn’t have. At number three, he should not have lost to anybody. But clearly he was under the weather; he had pneumonia.”
Lin ultimately recovered from his illness and finished the season with a 12-5 singles record in the spring. The team won its fifth straight Ivy League title, and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Championships after a dramatic two-borough victory over Virginia.
Yet Lin’s defeat against Dartmouth lingered throughout the offseason, as Lin and his coaches alike pondered on what could have been. There was no question that his talent was evident, as associate head coach Howie Endelman, CC ’87, noted that Lin stood out from the get-go.
Lin tallied a 12-5 record in singles play in his first year at Columbia, playing primarily in the third singles position.
“We knew he was both a really good player and an excellent student, so naturally we thought he would be a great fit,” Endelman said. “From there I remember talking on the phone with him a lot when he was playing with Tennis Canada over in Europe. We just developed a really good relationship. Thankfully, he ended up here at Columbia.”
Goswami and Endelman initially recruited Lin because of his status as both a talented tennis player and a top student. His strength from the back and at the net, combined with a sharp return of serve, made Lin an all-around powerhouse, like many of the players recruited to join the five-time defending champions.
However, what differentiated Lin was a desire to make a name for himself within the Canadian Tennis Federation, even after leaving to the United States for college.
Before committing to Columbia, the former Canadian Junior Nationals champion was encouraged to go on the Canadian Pro Tour by his previous coaches, which would have nullified his NCAA eligibility.
Yet Lin, who had always excelled in his studies and has continued to do so at Columbia, chose to attend an American university, in order to focus on his academics while also playing high-level tennis.
“If I were to go to school in Canada, I would have to pretty much stop playing tennis because their varsity teams are not nearly as competitive as the schools in the U.S.,” Lin said.
However, the university Lin chose has built a reputation of dominating the Ancient Eight over the last decade. Former Columbia standout Winston Lin, CC ’15, who played against Lin in a tournament in Canada, excitedly contacted his former coaches to gush about what he had seen.
Given the culture the program has built, an endorsement from a former standout player carried significant weight to Goswami and Endelman, who took the elder Lin’s words to heart, and eventually convinced the younger Lin to join the team.
The transition from high school to college presented a challenge for Lin: The level of play in college tennis was higher, and the Canadian was expected to balance a full academic course load.
“Now it’s not just tennis. [Lin] needs to go to school, one of the better schools, and he needs to study hard. [In Canada] he was bred to just play professional, now it’s a little different,” Goswami said.
Lin’s academic priorities came to a head during the team’s most recent fall season, in which he was forced to miss the 2018 ITA All-American Championship because of a chemistry exam that could not be taken remotely.
According to Goswami, the tug between being a Columbia student and a Columbia tennis player has somewhat stymied Lin’s development, when compared to players he used to compete against.
“I thought he’d be even better. He beat guys like Taylor Fritz, who is top 50 [in the world], and [29th-ranked Denis] Shapovalov…I thought he would have worked on a few things,” Goswami said.
Nevertheless, Goswami acknowledged that unlike his former competitors, Lin has a full course load, which makes fully devoting himself to his varsity sport difficult at times.
Lin has seemingly arrived at a crossroads between his academics and his tennis career. Whether he plans on pursuing a career or tennis is undecided, but for now, he will continue to juggle both until graduation.
“I just want to improve in all areas and see what options open up for me after every year,” Lin said.
His sparkling fall singles record of 11-1 and doubles record of 9-0 suggest that he could continue to improve his game going into the dual season in the spring. Should Columbia hope for a sixth straight title, it will need Lin to perform at his best.
And that will be up to Lin himself.
“He was made to be a champion. He was bred to become a champion,” Goswami said. “But to win NCAA you can’t just talk about it. It has to be from the heart, not from the mouth.”
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