US Open Qualies Friday: Perseverance Pays Off

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By Scoop Malinowski

Congratulations to Danielle Lao, the 26-year-old Californian who qualified today for her first main draw of a Grand Slam with a three set 16 61 62 win over J. Fett. Author of The Invaluable Experience e-book and former USC standout, Lao has proven that tennis perseverance pays off.

On her blog, Lao wrote:

https://thelittlegiantblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/09/delayed-gratification/

“When I concluded my college tennis career in May 2013, I deemed myself finished with tennis. Throughout my senior year, I told myself that this was it. This was as high as I was going to ride my tennis and was set on moving on with life as every college graduate does. Get a job, make money, advance your career, maybe go to grad school, and save for a house.

My parents would have supported me in whatever I chose to do, but it was my coaches that wouldn’t let me give it up. Richard Gallien, my USC coach at the time, kept reminding me about my love for the game. West Nott, my other USC coach back then, insisted that my best tennis was still ahead of me. Then there was Kal, my personal coach since I was 15, convincing me day by day that he can still make me better.

With my parent’s love and support, I was able to go on a whim and pursue this career as a professional tennis player. At the start of my life on tour, I would have seen being top 400 as a relatively successful career for me. When I snuck barely inside the top 300, I told myself, “Danielle, you’re completely overachieving.”

As I got to the mid 200 range, the reality started to settle in that a grand slam qualifying was totally possible. That’s where things got tough. For the past 2 years, I have been within striking distance of a grand slam qualifying, but something always came in the way when I was about to push through that extra bit in the rankings. Whether it be injuries or fallible mindsets, a setback manages to appear when I get close.

Every cut I failed to make ate at me inside. I felt it killing me softly when my ranking dropped below 300 and I seriously thought of giving everything up again. As I was soul searching for the purpose behind this brutal grind, my expectations slowly disappeared. By the end of 2016, I figured I would give myself one more year to make a grand slam qualifying. If I was unsuccessful, I would hang it up and see what else life had to offer me off the court.”

25-year-old Darian King also qualified for his first major main draw with a three set win against Lukas Lacko, 36 64 63. A few years ago King was telling me at the US Open he was a hitting partner for Sloane Stephens and how hard it was for him to crack his way into the top 150. Again, tennis perseverance paying off is a beautiful, inspiring thing.

Allie Kiick, the 22-year-old daughter of former Miami Dolphin running back Jim Kiick, qualified for her third US Open main draw with a 63 10 ret. vs Vicky Duval. The last time I saw Kiick was about three or four years ago at the Miami Open where she got a wildcard and lost first round to Madison Keys 06 06 and was seen weeping uncontrollably outside the court.

31-year-old Adrian Menendez-Maceiras qualified with a 63 63 win over Belgian De Loore to reach his third Grand Slam main draw. AMM has only won two career ATP matches, one in Bogota and the other in Newport this year vs. Stefan Kozlov.

26-year-old German Anna Zaja qualified for her first career Grand Slam main draw with a 64 57 64 win over Su Jeong Jang, 22, or Korea.

29-year-old Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania, qualified for her first Grand Slam main draw with a win over 67 62 64 Mariana Duque Marino.

26-year-old Lesley Kerkove of Netherlands, today reached her second Grand Slam main draw (both this year, Wimbledon) with a 75 64 win over Georgia Brescia of Italy.

25-year-old Evan King, qualified for his first ATP main draw of a Grand Slam with a 63 63 win over Michael Mmoh. King who has only won one career ATP singles match and was playing Futures doubles in Puerto Rico last December with one of my playing partners, defeated Mmoh before a packed house on Court seven.

32-year-old Kaia Kanepi, a five time Grand Slam quarterfinalist reached her first Grand Slam main draw since US Open 2015 with a 62 64 win against 31-year-old Su-Wei Hsieh.

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Short Stories & Observations…

I obtained a few interesting scoops today:

A former Swedish US Open champ invited his girlfriend into the locker room shower for some intimate relations/celebration after his monumental win.

A former controversial star was witnessed absorbing a powder substance into his nose in the old locker room before his match on Armstrong.

Pete Sampras was a big fan of the locker room pizza and chocolate chip cookies and when his request for more was obliged, he shared a pair of his classic Nike Oscillates.

Jeremy Chardy, Nicolas Escude and Patrick Mouratoglu watched Nico Mahut win the first set vs Stefano Tsitsipas and guess which one was asked for the most selfies and autographs? Yep, Mouratoglu. Chardy, wearing a blue New York Giants cap, and Escude, were not recognized.

I interviewed Kent Kinnear and Alberto Mancini about their Facing Pete Sampras memories.

Fernando Verdasco was practicing in the morning with a shirtless Gilles Simon and in the afternoon with Pablo Carreno Busta and both sessions Verdasco expressed a lot of frustration and dissatisfaction with his performance in the few minutes I watched.

Ryan Harrison has a lot of points to defend here from last year’s run and was practicing with the Japanese number two player, but his first round draw is Tomas Berdych, whom he has never beaten.

Carlos Berloq and Pablo Cuevas were practicing into the late afternoon as were Leander Paes and his latest partner Raja Purav.

Rafa Nadal was supposed to practice with Grigor Dimitrov on court 17 at one but never showed up. Carlos Moya was there waiting and practicing with IPTL teammate and friend Marcelo Melo.

Francesca Schiavone was practicing on court four into late afternoon and was totally ignored. The former French Open champion signed one autograph as she walked alone back to the locker room.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

Hartt writes:

These players who keep trying despite so many difficulties are inspiring. I had read Danielle Lao's blog earlier, so was pleased to see she made it through the qualies. A great pic - she looks fierce!

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Hartt; It seemed there were a lot more late bloomers this year breaking through qualies for the first time. I imagine it's the Victor Estrella effect/inspiration. I saw Lao in the first round and she looked ordinary, good counter puncher, consistent. Obviously she has something special and it's really nice to see her dreams come true.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

Dan Markowitz writes:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/...alifier.html&eventName=Watching-article-click Nice piece on Allie Kiick and Vicky Duval in today's New York Times. Sad to hear that Allie's dad, Jim Kiick suffers from early-onset Alzheimer's and will not even be able to understand that Allie qualified for the US Open.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

jg writes:

Also I read an amazing story about JC Aragon, he's a diabetic and wears a monitor when he plays and checks his sugar levels during changeovers, he interned on Wall Street last summer and received job offers but is taking his chance on pro tennis. To see how deep UVA is, he played number 5 singles.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

Dan Markowitz writes:

No way, a guy who qualified for the Open was no 5 on his college team!!?? That's freakin' amazing. Who are the top 4 and were any in the qualifying draw? I remember Mitchell Frank and Jamere Jenkins were both No. 1's at UVA and I don't think either of them came close to qualifying.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

jg writes:

There's a story from today in world tennis magazine, I just googled it

 

[TFBlogGuest]

Hartt writes:

You may have heard that Murray has withdrawn from the USO. He said his hip injury would not allow him to compete effectively. He will decide about the rest of the season in the next few days. So his section is being reshuffled.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

No surprise about Murray, Hartt. I saw his practice with Kwiatkowski and he was hobbling around, not so clearly during the points but how he walked between points and to the chair it was clear he is hurting. He should take off the rest of the year.

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

I saw JC being used as Isner's hitting partner in Citi Open two or three years ago, when Gimelstob was still coaching him. Was definitely competitive. I guess being fifth best on the team and qualifying for US Open by beating Santillan really shows how tough NCAA tennis is. There are a lot of ATP prospects and they probably don't even know it.