BENTONVILLE -- Emma Baker had the talent to be successful in the high school tennis singles ranks, and flashes of that showed last year when she reached the Class 7A state tournament semifinals.
All it took for the Bentonville sophomore to go further this fall was a little different mindset, and it even caught her by surprise.
NWA Media Girls Singles Tennis Player Of The Year
Emma Baker
School: Bentonville
Class: Sophomore
Height: 5-2
Notable: Won the 7A-West Conference and Class 7A state tournament girls singles titles, defeated two-time defending state champion Alye Darter in both tournament finals. … Advanced to the semifinals of the state overall tournament.
"I definitely wasn't expecting it," Baker said. "I mean, I was going in as an underdog. (Rogers Heritage's) Alye Darter had two other championships and was definitely the favorite. I thought I could put up a good fight. I was just going to go in there and do the best work I could."
Baker's best work was good enough. She knocked off Darter, the two-time defending state champion, to win the 7A-West Conference girls singles title, then did it again in a three-set match in the Class 7A state tournament singles championship.
That was enough to make the choice as the 2014 All-Area girls singles tennis player of the year by NWA Media, and an honor that Bentonville tennis coach Nick Nersesian said was well deserved.
"If you look at Emma and the body of work she has put in, she does everything without bringing glory to herself," Nersesian said. "That is in her mindset. She is really focused, and I think she learned from several freshman mistakes.
"She learned to grow through them, and she put some of that frustration into her game. She learned to handle it and become more mature in the way she enters a match, works through a match and the way she finished a match. That was the most important thing: her mindset and her focus."
There was still times when Baker had to learn a few lessons this year. One of them came in a early-season loss to Haeleigh Long, and the Rogers High senior was able to expose a few things about Baker's game that could be corrected.
It didn't take her long to get things fixed, and that proved to be a major difference in Baker's game this season.
"Honestly, the way she presents herself -- she's so unselfish," Nersesian said. "I could put her in doubles, and she would excel with a partner. She really has that desire to think through things and become meticulous.
"She's hard on herself, more so than most players, because she has that lifelong goal to probably get on with her career and advance it. She has to take the things she's learning from the different venues she's playing and the different coaches she's working with, and she's learning from all of them."
That mindset Baker had built would be tested when she ran into Darter again in the state final. Baker lost the first set, but she bounced back to take a three-set victory.
"At state, I lost the first set and my confidence was a little shaken at first," Baker said. "I was expecting myself to do better, but I started to relax more in that second set, and that helped a lot. It just took me a while to get into the rhythm and the feel of the match.
"Whenever we split sets, I knew I had to start off strong in the third set because I knew Alye wasn't going to give me anything. I felt I had to work for every point, and I was able to get up 3-0. I knew I had to press hard on her and not let up at all because I knew she was getting a little mentally fatigued. I knew I had to keep playing my best."
Sports on 12/23/2014