How the All-American men’s tennis career of WSU’s Murkel Dellien almost didn’t happen
The All-American career for Murkel Dellien of the Wichita State men’s tennis team almost never happened on multiple accounts.
WSU coach Danny Bryan can laugh at the story now, but back in 2016 when he was hired by WSU and was looking to secure his first recruit as a head coach, he was a nervous wreck trying to decide if Dellien was the right fit by watching spotty cell phone video of him competing in Bolivia.
“You can see the technique looks good, the shots look good, but you don’t know how someone will compete in a college setting,” Bryan said. “What’s this guy going to look like in a team setting when it gets down to the last match? You don’t know how they’re going to react. Are they going to thrive in that moment or are they not going to want that? It’s hysterical to think about now. But you should have seen me back then. I was so tight.”
Ultimately, Bryan took a chance on Dellien as his first recruit and it has led to one of the best careers in program history.
In doubles with partner Marius Frosa, Dellien reached the quarterfinals of the 2019 NCAA Tournament and earned All-American honors. In singles, the senior has won 11 matches in a row entering this week’s American Athletic Conference tournament in Orlando and was ranked No. 35 in the latest ITA rankings — the highest ranking for a Shocker in the spring since Andy Castle was also No. 35 in 1985.
But a standout collegiate career almost never happened for Dellien, who came to Wichita, Kansas speaking very little English and immediately became homesick. There were many calls home to his family in Trinidad, Bolivia in that first semester of his freshman year.
“I remember talking to my parents and saying, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here,’” Dellien said. “It was really difficult for me. But the second semester wasn’t so bad because of the connection with my teammates was really good. That summer I stayed here and things became a lot better.”
In Dellien’s five years at WSU, he’s had teammates from 12 different countries — United States, Italy, Japan, France, Brazil, Chile, Romania, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Serbia, Israel and Taiwan.
Bryan said almost all of his players come to WSU speaking very little English. They take English speaking classes while they’re here, but the coach says the biggest development comes from learning a new language together. In a way, it brings the team even closer together.
“When they first get here, sometime we’re not able to communicate very much because we don’t speak the same language,” Bryan said. “It can be difficult. But they all end up doing pretty well because these guys are so tight. They’re not clique-y at all. It’s not like we have four or five guys from the same country. They’re from all over the world. So they have this bond because they’re together all the time and once they get through that hard first bit, they always become a tight-knit group because they went through it together.”
Dellien not only stuck it out for his teammates, but also because he wants to follow in his brother’s footsteps as a professional tennis player. Hugo Dellien, who is 27, was ranked as high as No. 72 in the world last year.
“He sees the game at that level and he sees how they practice and how they train,” Bryan said. “He’s been in the locker room before. I think those things, knowing what it takes, what it’s supposed to look like and how to handle yourself has really helped Murkel out this last year.”
“He’s a good picture to have up there to look up to,” Dellien said. “It’s motivation for me to keep going.”
After most of his success came in doubles with Frosa, Dellien has carved out his own path in singles in his final season with the Shockers. He recently took down No. 4-ranked Gabriel Decamps of Central Florida and No. 29-ranked Hamish Stewart of Tulane during his 11-match winning streak.
At 6-foot-3, Dellien is able to generate a lot of power not only in his service game but also on his ground strokes. He’s always had the power, but the difference this season has been the consistency that he’s striking the ball.
And when his time came when he could clinch the match against No. 28-ranked Pepperdine at home, Dellien delivered in the moment that Bryan was imagining all those years before when he decided to recruit him. Dellien won his No. 1 singles match in the third set to give WSU a ranked win, which has boosted the Shockers to a No. 33 national ranking as a team.
“Sometimes with these guys, you know they’re going to be good but you don’t know if it’s going to happen in that window while they’re in college,” Bryan said. “Sometimes you wish you had them for one more year. But with Murkel, we got lucky. It’s just clicked in the last year for him. From the very beginning of this season, he’s been a different guy. You look out there now and you can tell this guy is on a mission this year. It’s really cool when it works out like that.”
This story was originally published April 21, 2021 at 3:28 PM.
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