By John Brice
Special Contributor
When Yo Gotti waxed poetic about how life “goes down in the DMs,” it’s doubtful anyone envisioned that approach as origin for an incredible – and still unfolding – Notre Dame tennis success story.
Yet, here was Ryan Sachire and the rest of his veteran Irish tennis staff, scouting and then sliding into the direct messages of burgeoning international tennis star Sebastian Dominko.
A digital trip, at least on initial contact, was vastly more feasible as opposed to the transcontinental, multi-leg flight from South Bend, Indiana, to Graz, Austria, that still left an hour-long drive to Dominko’s native Maribor, Slovenia.
“Our sport is one where there are international rankings, and basically every school goes down the ranking list and will reach out to as many kids as you can find contact info or social media for that you think will fit your program,” Sachire said. “I’m sure that Instagram direct message was that way for many schools with him, but he replied to us, and we hopped in a couple calls.
“It was going into his senior year of high school, and we went to see him at the U.S. Open junior event.”
By that time, Dominko had familiarized himself with the University of Notre Dame – and not just its Paris namesake. That was in stark contrast to his initial message from the resourceful Irish coaches.
“The only Notre Dame I knew was the church in Paris,” said Dominko, an ITA top-70 player. “I really didn’t know about any schools. Back home, the only thing you hear is Harvard. Harvard is from the movies. Maybe sometimes UCLA. But when I looked into it, I was like, ‘OK, Notre Dame is a big part of things I know. Athletics, culture.’ I learned a lot about it.”
These days, Dominko is crafting his own Hollywood narrative: 2023 All-America selection in his debut season of collegiate tennis, a season-ending No. 15 national ranking at the time and already a stalwart for a Notre Dame program a perfect 4-0 at home a month into the 2024 season.
More importantly, he is just two weeks removed from toppling then-No. 50 and now 47th-ranked ATP player Zhang Zhizhen in the Davis Cup World Group finals competition in Guangzhou, China.
A momentous, globally resonant triumph that further accentuated Dominko’s status both within his native Slovenia as well as Notre Dame and the collegiate tennis community writ large, the victory unfolded 6-3, 6-4 with the rangy, powerful Dominko never cowed.
“I…