Back in the fall of 1993, the women's tennis team added a freshman from Kenilworth, Ill., who brought with her tremendous athleticism but mild expectations. Even though she had recently become the first girl from Illinois to win both the singles and doubles state titles, in a program like Duke's-which makes Atlantic Coast Conference titles a yearly tradition-she was a project, a player who may or may not make a significant contribution.
Three-and-a-half years later, the project label has long since been dropped from Wendy Fix's name.
Now, as the Blue Devils prepare for next month's NCAA Championships, they will look to Fix, a senior co-captain, to lead the third-ranked team in its quest for the national crown.
While Fix steadily progressed in skill from her freshman year to the present, her game really took off this spring. Fix won at least 22 singles matches in each of her first three years, but she did so at the lower singles spots; this year, she has played 12 of her 34 matches at No. 2 singles, compiling a 9-3 record.
Her 27-7 overall mark has vaulted her to a No. 50 ranking nationally. The highlight of the season-and one of the biggest wins of Fix's career-came in the National Team Indoors in late February when, playing at No. 2 singles, she was the only Blue Devil to win a match against second-ranked Stanford.
The improvement in Fix's game has been not so much a result of physical ability-that was never in question. Instead, Fix's game has risen as her mental attitude has changed.
"I think it's always been a steady progression-I think every year I've gotten better," Fix said. "This year my game took a big jump because of my mental attitude. I've always been a player to get really frustrated with myself and let each point carry over to the next one.
"This year I've tried to be aware that I'm going to make mistakes, and my opponent is going to hit good shots. I just try to focus on the next point and play relaxed and have fun with it, rather than stress out."
Apparently, Fix began to have more fun toward the end of last year, when she went on an 18-match singles winning streak to close out the spring season. The final win in the streak came in the NCAA semifinals, when Fix downed Pac-10 singles champion Julie Scott in three sets, earning one of Duke's two points in a 5-2 loss to Stanford.
During the summer, Fix chose to continue playing tennis rather than take a break. She traveled to France for five weeks, where she backpacked during the week and played tennis on the weekends. From there, she hit England for four weeks on the satellite tour.
"My improvement started [with the 18-match streak]," Fix said. "And then I played this summer and kept the focus going throughout the whole summer, which was a big change because I had never done that before. It's not that I found so much success over [in Europe], but just that I kept on playing. It was fun-I really brought fun back into tennis."
This season, Fix joined senior Karen O'Sullivan as co-captain of a team that returned all eight letterwinners from 1996 and added top-flight recruit Karin Miller. Duke has vaulted to a 22-3 record and the No. 3 national ranking, having won its 10th straight ACC Tournament title last weekend.
Now the Blue Devils begin preparation for the ultimate goal-a national championship. The NCAAs begin May 15 in Palo Alto, Calif., and stretch through May 18-ironically, the same date as the University's graduation.
"I'm missing my graduation this year, but I've always said to everyone that if I walk away with a ring, it'll beat graduation any day," Fix said. "I'd love it. That has been my ultimate goal. A national championship for the team is so much more important than individual stats, I think."
For the team to succeed in Palo Alto, it will have to mimic Fix's mental turnaround from last season to this one. The Blue Devils have fallen to national powers Stanford and Florida each of the last two seasons; they'll have to conquer their mental demons to overcome the same foes this year.
"I look at our team, and talent-wise, we're right there," Fix said. "I think the difference between a Stanford and a Florida and our team is, in the past, those teams have walked out on the court, and they walked with that confidence that they were going to win. If we walk on the court and believe that we can win, we can do it."
Fix used to not walk on the court with the confidence she now possesses. Teammates and coaches describe her as a person who used to let her mind disrupt her game, and even now, Fix is often the most vocal Blue Devil on the court. But she has learned to control her frustrations and, in turn, to control her game.
"Wendy's much more positive on the court," Duke coach Jamie Ashworth said. "When things don't go her way now, she still finds a way to win. At the beginning of her career, she played lower. But she's worked to get to where she is now. She's someone you can always count on to win."
Fix is dependable because, in addition to her strengthened mentality, she displays an abundance of athletic talent. Highlighting Fix's uncanny ability to run down balls most players cannot, Ashworth said he considers her the best athlete on the team.
Fix describes her style of play as "controlled aggression." Using adept control of both her mental and physical aggressiveness, the senior has asserted herself this season as a leader on the team. And although Miller and sophomore Vanessa Webb are unquestionably Duke's two best players, Ashworth said Fix has found her niche as a "leader off the court."
"As captain, I hope I can provide that extra bit of leadership as maybe a role model," Fix said. "I make a lot of mistakes-I definitely have made my mistakes in my time here-but I hope my teammates look to me as someone who's fighting hard."
Fix is uncertain, however, about how long she will continue fighting hard. She plans to travel to Europe with O'Sullivan after the NCAAs and compete in five satellite tournaments in England and Ireland. But she has not decided whether or not she will pursue the professional circuit.
"Turning pro is such a huge step," Fix said. "I can't imagine my life without tennis, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to drop everything and train all day, every day and travel across the world by myself.
"To turn pro, you have to have that inner desire and dedication. Just graduating from college, it's not the easiest thing to do to just jump on the tour. I really want to go give it a try, but I think I know personally that if that dedication's not in me, then there's so many other things I want to do in my life."
The uncertainties Fix has about her life resemble the uncertainties she used to face in her tennis game. She enrolled at Duke as an underdog, and she has turned into the team's backbone. Although she admits she is still susceptible to the occasional mental slip, she no longer lets her mental game dominate her tennis game.
"Wendy and I came in together and have been through a lot in four years," O'Sullivan said. "She's grown a lot and matured-she's really peaked this year. It's been great to watch her improvement and to see how well she's playing."
Thanks to this transformation, Fix has written herself into the Blue Devils' record books. This month, she became only the eighth Duke women's tennis player ever to win 100 singles matches in her career-all of this from a player who started out at the bottom of the totem pole. Judging by numbers alone, it would seem that the Wendy Fix project was a huge success.
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