The scoreboard tells you who won, but it won’t tell you who left their home, their family and their entire world behind to represent the Wisconsin Badgers.
For freshmen Ferdinand Kloesters, from Germany, and Edouard Aubert, from Switzerland, success on the men’s tennis team isn’t just about rankings or records — it’s about adjusting to an entirely different way of playing the sport.
Kloesters and Aubert are among six players coming from outside the United States on the Wisconsin men’s tennis team. The program has become a living example of how athletes are adapting not only to college tennis, but to a new cultural and emotional framework for competing.
Tennis is a solitary pursuit in Europe. Junior athletes grow up training and traveling alone, competing not for a team, but for personal ranking and advancement. By contrast, the college system in the U.S. is built around shared goals, vocal sideline support and the idea that your win means nothing if it doesn’t serve the team, Kloesters said.
“In Europe, you play for yourself. If you’re not playing, you don’t really cheer for your teammates,” Kloesters said. “But here, even if you’re injured or on the bench, you’re expected to support the team loudly. It’s really meaningful for them.”
The shift from individual mindset to collective identity is one of the defining culture shocks many international athletes say they feel. This adjustment goes deeper than gameplay — it’s about reshaping their entire mindset. Suddenly, a sport that has always revolved around the individual becomes about shared identity, group accountability and showing up for something bigger than yourself.
Kloesters, who arrived from Grunwald, Germany just months ago, said he remembered what set Wisconsin apart. He had already made a name for himself back home, ranking as high as No. 10 nationally in Germany and No. 2 in Bavaria. But he said the competitive environment in the U.S. is on another level.
“In Germany, you have very, very good players with very good techniques,” he told The Daily Cardinal. “But here it’s just much more competitive. I love my emotions on the court. I love more team spirit as well.”
And that team spirit drew him to Wisconsin.
“I talked to a lot of different coaches from different universities…But the talks I had with Danny [Head coach Westerman] were just the best, the most nurturing. I thought, if he would choose me, then he would probably choose players who are also good people,” Kloesters said.
That instinct paid off when he arrived on campus. While his on-court debut is still on the horizon, Kloesters said the transition off the court has already exceeded expectations. He credits this smooth start to how quickly the team embraced him during a trip to Florida after his arrival.
That early support gave him confidence that he had made the right choice, and found something deeper than just a roster spot, he said.
Kloesters isn’t alone in that feeling. Aubert had similar hesitations before joining the team.
“I didn’t know what to expect, but when you train every day with the same guys, do everything with them, you win and lose together, it brings us really close. It’s basically the same as family,” he told the Cardinal.
This sense of closeness is built in the team’s daily routines: team dinners, bus rides and early-morning lifts, Kloesters said. But cultural integration doesn’t happen overnight. Aubert said the biggest shifts were in expectations around team dynamics.
And adaptation happens fast. Kloesters, who admits he’s now loud on the sideline, also laughed as he listed the very American habits he’s picked up.
“I started drinking more coffee. I put ice in my water now. And I learned a new word here — ‘yapping.’ I use it sometimes. Also, I’m louder now when I cheer on my teammates. That’s definitely new,” Kloesters said.
None of these things were part of his routine back home. But that’s the point. This experience is about more than just tennis — it’s about transformation.
Neither Kloesters nor Aubert had Wisconsin at the top of their list from the beginning. In fact, Aubert wasn’t even sure he wanted to come to the U.S. at all.
“It was a last-minute decision,” he admitted. “But I liked the coach. My parents wanted me to go. And I heard the campus was really nice.”
Now, despite Madison’s unforgiving wind, Aubert is glad he made the move — “except the weather is a bit cold, though.”
And while many athletes agonize over rankings, records and resumes, Kloesters said those numbers don’t even come close to the true value of this journey.
“At the end, you won’t remember the wins or the losses or what the team’s ranking is… or even what the school as an academic institution ranks,” he said. “It’s basically what people you meet and how you get along with them… people should probably put much more emphasis on that when they choose their school.”
