World Tennis Magazine

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kevin kim

Falconi, Kendrick, Lucic Highlight US Open Qualifiers

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It was a memorable Saturday for 20-year-old Irina Falconi, the former Georgia Tech All-American who easily defeated Canadian Stephanie Dubois in the final round of qualifying to earn her first entry into the U.S. Open main draw.

In fact, make that her first entry into any Grand Slam main draw. And it will be even more memorable if she can build on three qualifying wins by getting a win or two when the Open begins on Monday.

Falconi won 6-3, 6-1 over Dubois, the No. 25 seed, but is the only U.S. woman to qualify, and that won’t sit well with the people who run the USTA Player Development program in Boca Raton, Fla., and Carson, Calif. — the two main training sites.

It may be a big step forward for Falconi, who used two years in college to mature, but it’s a small step back for U.S. women after two Americans (Shenay Perry and Carly Gullikson) qualified at the 2009 Open and three (Alexa Glatch, Kristie Ahn and Perry) in 2008.

Meanwhile, only two American men qualified — No. 22 seed Robert Kendrick, who is ranked 147, and No. 219 Ryan Harrison, who got through his final round of qualifying on Friday. Kendrick on Saturday defeated Tatsuma Ito 6-3, 6-3. It’s the second Slam in a row in which Kendrick has qualified, having won his way into the Wimbledon main draw in June.

The U.S. had a chance for a fourth qualifier, but 32-year-old veteran Kevin Kim was beaten in the final round by Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania by 6-1, 6-3. Like Harrison, Berankis trains at the Bollettieri IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

A year ago, three American men qualified for the Open — Donald Young, Michael Yani and Jesse Witten.

There are 16 qualifiers in both the men’s and women’s tournaments and none of them has had a higher career ranking than onetime wonder teen Mirjana Lucic, who at age 16 had reached No. 11 in the world and who, a year later, was a semifinalist at Wimbledon.

Tall, physically strong even as a teenager, she appeared headed for a heralded career in tennis, but was beset by injuries and personal problems before re-committing to the game a couple years ago.

Now 28 and ranked No. 153, she qualified and is playing her first U.S. Open in eight years.

Harrison Impresses, but other Americans Mostly Lag in Open Qualies

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Feisty 18-year-old Texan Ryan Harrison not only beat the rain this week, but some dangerous cramps and three opponents to qualify on Friday for his first U.S. Open main draw, which begins Monday.

With a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Ricardo Hocevar of Brazil, Harrison becomes the first of possibly four Americans who could qualify for the Open. Kevin Kim, Robert Kendrick and Irina Falconi all could follow him into the Big Show with final-round wins Saturday.

Still, even if all three join Harrison, it will be, on balance, a disappointing performance this week by the 35 U.S. players entered in the men’s and women’s qualifying tournaments.

“Of course we want to qualify as many Americans as possible, but we’re happy for Ryan, who really earned his way through,” said USTA men’s national coach Jay Berger. Harrison, who needed three sets to win his final two qualifying matches, was cramping badly on Thursday, but didn’t lose his competitive edge.

The U.S. had qualified seven players at Wimbledon — Kendrick, Ryan Sweeting, Brendan Evans, Taylor Dent, Jesse Witten, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Shenay Perry. It was expected that even more would get through qualifying at the U.S.’ home Grand Slam.

There were some isolated outstanding performances. Chase Buchanan, 18, another of the U.S.’ top prospects beat No. 127 ranked Federico Del Bonis of Portugal, but then he went down meekly in the second round.

Krista Hardebeck, only 15, won a round, and another 15-year-old, Madison Keys, won a set in her first-round loss. It was great experience for both, who appear to have significant upside.

But, overall, more was expected of the country’s younger players. While everyone in the USTA is happy to see Kim and Kendrick get through, Kim is 32 years old and Kendrick is 30. They’re in the final stages of their careers.

Twenty U.S. men and 15 U.S. women were in the 128-draw qualifying events. The men went 7-14 in wins and losses, the women 8-11.

On Saturday, Kim plays No. 9 seed Ricardas Barankas of Lithuania, another Bollettieri Academy student, for a spot in the main draw. Kendrick faces Tatsuma Ito of Japan.

There are far more young women prospects than men in the U.S. camp, but most of the veterans lost early — Jesse Levine, Rajeev Ram, Michael Yani, Alex Kuznetsov, Lester Cook and Alex Bogomolov. None of them impressed.

On the women’s side, the USTA will be happy with a few good moments.

Julia Boserup, 18, had a win before going down 6-3, 6-2 to former main draw fixture Lourdes Lino Dominguez. Sloane Stephens, 17, had a good win in the opening round before falling 6-3, 7-5 to Zuzana Ondraskova, who has a lot of main draw experience.

But when you get to the bottom line, this was not a successful qualifying tournament for the U.S. It was more a signal of how the American development system is in difficult competition with any number of national programs around the globe.

Sixteen qualifiers will be decided today and main draw play begins Monday.

The US Open Finished the First Round of Qualifying

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It took three days and a lot of dodging raindrops, but the U.S. Open finally finished the first round of qualifying and lesser known U.S. players have done well.

Nine of 20 American men reached the secondn round and young Ryan Harrison of New Braunfels, Texas, is one of the few into the third and final round. He had won his first round match on Day 1 and Thursday defeated No. 10 seed Rui Machado of Portugal to edge within one win of getting the Open main draw next week.

Meanwhile, seven of 15 American women reached the second round, though one of them, 17-year-old Sloane Stephens, lost her second-round match to No. 13 seed Zuzana Ondraskova of the Czech Republic.

Play continues Friday. The U.S. men survivors: No. 22 seed Robert Kendrick, No. 25 Kevin Kim, Jesse Witten, Alex Bogomolov, Chase Buchanan, Michael Yani, Bobby Reynolds, Blake Strode and Harrison. Strode, of St. Louis, was the winner of the recent U.S. Open Challenge, in which grassroots players were invited to compete in a series of tournaments to win a wild card into the Open quallies.

On the women’s side, No. 5 Varvara Lepchenko, Julia Cohen, Julia Boserup, Nicole Gibbs, Irina Falconi and Krista Hardebeck are into the second round.

IN HIS 203rd CAREER CHALLENGER, KIM REFLECTS ON LIFE IN THE MINOR LEAGUES

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By Charles Bricker

When obscure, 31-year-old ATP veteran Kevin Kim got the news of his probable record, he had a one-word response.

“Serious?” he said, sounding a bit dumbfounded.

Yes, serious. When he went on court earlier this week to play his first-round match at the BMW Tennis Championships in Sunrise, Fla., against Michael Berrer, it was the 203rd Challenger tournament of his 12-year career.

Kevin Kim
Kevin Kim

This is far too arcane a statistic to become an official ATP record. It’s not even an unofficial ATP record. But longtime tennis officials, even after giving the issue full thought, couldn’t come up with anyone who has played more of these second-level, bush-league events than Kim.

“If there’s a tournament next week, Kevin will be at it,” said fellow American and good friend Bobby Reynolds, half in jest. Kim, ranked only 125, has built his career on playing Challengers and it’s a tribute to the ATP minor league system that he could make a pretty good living without reaching a great number of regular ATP events.

As of this week, Kim’s career earnings were over $1.5 million.

This is the 11th week of the year and he has worked eight of them, starting at Chennai, India, the opening week of the season, then moving on, in succession, to Melbourne, Honolulu, San Jose, Memphis, Delray Beach, Fla., then across the pond to Cherbourg, France, and now back to Sunrise, Fla. He’ll be down the road on Key Biscayne next week for the Sony Ericsson Open.

Kim contemplated having played 203 Challenger tournaments. “That’s quite a number. I know I’ve played a lot, but I wouldn’t have guessed that many,” he said. Sunrise was also the 320th tournament, overall, of his career, giving him an average of 28 tournaments a year — a prodigious sum which is attributable largely to the fact that he’s not had a serious injury since . . . well, since. . .

“Since I was 14,” he finally filled in the blank. There was an ankle injury his first full year on tour, after he left UCLA after a freshman All-American season. And he’s retired from a few matches. But only twice did he take more than a week off before hitting the tournament trail again.

Roger Federer has played 19 tournaments in the last 52 weeks. Nicolay Davydenko, who has a reputation for over-playing, has been in 27 tournaments the last 52 weeks. Kim? He’s been in 32. Of course he doesn’t regularly go as deep into draws as top-10 players, but sometimes the travel itself can be nearly as exhausting as the playing.

Here are his key numbers:

* Kim is 44-95 in regular ATP Tour matches — 95 tournaments and no titles.

* Kim is 37-22 in Futures tournaments, the absolute rock-bottom on the pro food chain — 22 tournaments with no titles.

* Kim is 257-211 in Challengers — 203 events with nine titles.

He’s never been past the quarters of a regular ATP tournament, so it’s obvious that the bulk of his money has come in drips and drabs from all those Challengers.

“I never really thought about how much money there would be. Never went into a tournament thinking about money issues,” said Kim, who lives in Westwood and practices at nearby UCLA with a platoon of Southern California buddies that sometimes includes rising American Sam Querrey.

“I’ve always just been interested in improving my game, being excellent at tennis. I still have a love for the game and I’ve never been stressed out or been playing just for the money.”

How does he explain never getting seriously injured? “Luck is part of it, but I also have a pretty efficient game,” he said. There is no one blockbuster Kim weapon and he doesn’t play with nearly the physicality of, say, Rafael Nadal. No doubt that has helped him avoid strains and sprains.

There’s no question about how much of the world he’s seen. He played 36 tournaments in 2009, 35 in 2008, 35 in 2007 and 34 in 2006.

Last year during one stretch, he went from Mexico City to Tallahassee, Fla., to Rhodes, Greece, to Savannah, Ga., to Eastbourne, England. Later in the year, not interested in having an off-season, he hit another three Challengers, going in consecutive weeks from Calabasas, Calif., to Lyon, France, and back to Charlottesville, Va., where he won his ninth title.

Seriously.

Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com