If you’re walking around Elon University on a sunny afternoon, you may see a loud moped cruising around at 20 miles per hour with the rider’s blond mullet flapping in the wind.
The rider is none other than men’s tennis sophomore Stefan Fortmann.
The moped has a name, too: Monique. Monique is Fortmann’s pride and joy and he loves riding around on the 1980 Honda Express.
He was first introduced to bikes in his native South Africa when a man would ride to his youth group on an old black bike. Despite constant pressure from Fortmann, the man would not sell the bike. Yet when it came time for the man to move, he was forced to sell the bike after all.
“He played some tennis and I knew he was looking for a new tennis racquet,” Fortmann said. “I had an unused tennis racquet laying around so I said, ‘Let’s make a straight swap. I’ll take the moped and you’ll take the tennis racquet.’”
He had traded one passion for another, and that was Fortmann’s first bike as a boy.
When Fortmann came to the United States, he needed some form of transportation. After looking on Craigslist, he found a man who shared Fortmann’s passion for mopeds and had one for sale.
“He was putting a down payment on a house and he didn’t really want to sell it,” Fortmann said. “He actually shed a tear because he was so attached to it. Right before he left he said, ‘By the way, her name is Monique.’”
Fortmann is one of the many international students at Elon and one of five on the men’s tennis team. His hometown of Wartburg, South Africa is a small farming town in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Though fond of his roots, the sophomore always had ambitions of leaving his home country.
“From a young age, I always knew I wanted to come to the United States to play tennis,” he said.
The sophomore was able to achieve his goal of playing tennis in the United States through College Scholarships USA, a London-based group that matches international student-athletes with colleges in America. He explained that College Scholarships USA helped create a profile full of videos, statistics and academics. Coaches and schools in the United States would then receive the profile and contact him.
There was a catch, though. Fortmann had never visited any of the schools he considered, and he’d never met with the coaches face-to-face before deciding where to go.
He is the first to admit that coming to Elon was by chance and not initially something that he thought would really come to fruition until he talked to the coaches.
“There were a lot of other schools I was looking at, and there were other coaches looking at me,” Fortmann said. “But I got along with the coach at Elon really well. It just felt right, so I just packed my bags, took a chance and came. It was the first time I had come to the States.”
Fortmann said he has no regrets displacing his life, but he also said the environment at Elon made the adjustment easier.
“It was more exciting than tough because it was something I had been looking forward to for a long time,” Fortmann said. “Everything was new. Everything was exciting.”
The hard part, he said, was listening to a new coach, one he had never met prior to agreeing to play tennis at Elon.
“I had the same coach for 11 years,” he said. “It was a big adjustment to have a new coach.”
In just his second season with the Phoenix, Fortmann has become an integral part of the young team that is facing a difficult schedule. Fortmann said the schedule is pulling the best out of the team and preparing them for the stretch at the end of the season and the Southern Conference tournament.
“We are a young team, and yes, we have done well,” Fortmann said. “Three of our first four matches were against [Atlantic Coast Conference] schools. It was a tough start, but we were only a point away from beating North Carolina State, who’s nationally ranked. That alone tells you the potential this team has.”
But the rigorous schedule the Phoenix consistently plays year in and year out against teams like N.C. State, Duke University and the rest of the conference schedule was a reason Fortmann was interested in Elon.
“I knew when I came to college I wanted to play against the best players in the nation,” he said. “As a sportsman, that’s exactly what I wanted. I want to be in matches where it is tough and even if I do lose, it’s a good battle.”
In Fortmann’s three matches against ACC competition, he has a 1-2 record. His only win came against Austin Powell of N.C. State in straight sets 7-6 (7-6), 7-5. But in his two losses, Fortmann played all three sets. He was the only Elon player to win a set against Duke in the season opener. Overall, Fortmann has prevailed in most of his battles compiling a 14-5 record through April 7.
“He’s a good competitor,” said Elon head coach Michael Leonard. “You know what you’re going to get with him. He’s a tough out.”
With a young team, slip-ups and inconsistent performances can happen. Fortmann and the rest of the Phoenix slipped against Georgia Southern University April 7 in a match that saw junior No. 1 Cameron Silverman miss the singles portion of the match because of illness. The match against the Eagles was the first conference match of the season in which the Phoenix found itself on the losing end.
“We do need to mature a bit, but we are moving in the right direction,” Fortmann said. “Losing to a team you shouldn’t have lost to should motivate you to do better.”
He thinks the Phoenix will bounce back even though the team dropped its first conference match with two matches remaining before the SoCon tournament.
Fortmann has certainly proven himself as Elon’s No. 2 singles player, but his doubles play has been as equally as impressive. He provides a one-two punch at the top as the No. 1 doubles team with Silverman.
“Cameron has to be the most interesting tennis player I’ve ever met,” he said. “He understands his game extremely well and plays to his strengths. He hits some shots that sometimes you just stand back and think, ‘How does he do that?’”
The two have great chemistry on the court and it shows in their record. Fortmann and Silverman are 13-3 when they play together and a perfect 8-0 in conference play, good for a national ranking of No. 34 as of the March 26 Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings. They are the highest ranked duo in the Southern Conference, as the only other pair to rank in the conference is senior Zac Dunkle and junior Garrison Laduca of Samford University.
“It’s great when you get to play with someone on a consistent basis to get to know them better,” Silverman said. “It helps you on the court. We’ve done very well this season. We have won a lot of matches.”
According to Leonard, putting the two together at the end of the 2012 season was enough to make up his mind well before the 2013 season started.
“They played great together at the end of last year,” he said. “It was pretty obvious they were our No. 1 team.”
As talented as Fortmann is at tennis, he is equally as talented with another passion of his: photography.
He can be seen taking pictures at almost any Elon sporting event and his pictures of the Elon Luminaries became famous on Facebook and Twitter last December.
Though still unsure of his future as an undecided major, Fortmann knows he wants to pursue opportunities in photography or “an array of other possibilities.”
“I would like to do something with photography someday,” he said. “That and tennis are my two passions.”
He forgot his third passion, though: Monique.
From his early days of youth tennis in Wartburg, South Africa to his time at Elon, Fortmann said he is thankful for all tennis has done for his life, but he knows there’s a lot of life ahead for he and Monique. He doesn’t like to predict, though.
“Tennis has gotten me places,” he said. “I came here with an open mind and to try and reach my full potential. Now, I try to just focus on what I can control, which is going to class, getting better on the tennis courts and keep taking pictures. We’re having fun, though.”