Making it at the US Open
For American tennis hopefuls it takes blood, sweat, tears - and plenty of money.
For American tennis aspirants all dreams point east. The sprawling grounds of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, N.Y. are, without a doubt, tennis Mecca. The US Open, the final leg of tennis’ Grand Slam season, with its bright lights and big city vibe, go big or go home mentality and iconic only at the Open moments, represents the dream job for American men who are taking a crack at making it on the pro tour.
But the road is long and loaded with potholes. Dreaming about playing the main draw at the US Open is one thing, but actually doing it is entirely another. Once in a lifetime you may get a result like Emma Raducanu, but that is extremely atypical.
Guys like Marcos Giron, one of the thirteen American men that reached at least the second round at the Open in 2021, know of the treacherous road that must be traveled to get there.
Giron, a former NCAA champion at UCLA and the current World No.63, turned pro way back in 2014. The last seven years have not been a cakewalk for the talented Thousand Oaks, California resident.
"I definitely didn't expect it to take so long for me,” Giron said this week at the Open, after he notched a straight set victory over France’s Antoine Hoang in the first round. “I had the vision, I had the level to compete with the best players, I would practice a lot with the top players and see that I had the level, but it really took time.”
Giron was an absolute force at UCLA, but he found it extremely hard to hit the ground running after he turned pro.
“After college it was about a year and a half where I would play tournaments and I would struggle. I don't feel like a small guy but I'm 5'11" and everyone else is 6'5" and 6'6"-plus and movement is critical. The margins are so small, especially for a guy like meーif I'm not moving my best I have no shot."
"I think the biggest thing I got with the challengers is learning how to win,” he says. “Learning how to win is the biggest thing on tour. At the end of the day it's about figuring out how to beat the opponent that day. Those are skills that are transferable at any level.”
Giron realized he needed double hip surgery, and a long stint of rehab, before he could really maximize his inherent strengths and become a giant killer at the pro level.
"It was really a frustrating time because I knew I wasn't able to play my best tennis, I wasn't able to play well time after time and I wasn't able to build momentum,” he said. “Honestly when I had the surgeries it was kind of, for me, ‘Here we go, we have a solution and after that let's make a push and see where I am.’" American Bradley Klahn, who is currently rehabbing from his back surgery, was also a college standout. An All-American in singles and doubles at Stanford in 2012, he reached the NCAA singles semifinals that season.
Two years after turning pro he reached his career-high ranking of 63 in the world, but Klahn hit the wall soon after. He had conquered the challenger level, but could not manage to parlay that success to victories on the ATP Tour.
"I think it was interesting actually in my own career, it was very different I guess when I first came on the scene versus a few years later,” he says. “When I first broke in the Top-100 I didn't play a game style that I felt could necessarily get me there. I just didn't have as much confidence, and I also was dealing with injuries and I kind of fizzled out quickly, where most of my success was at the challenger level and not at the tour level."
Klahn says he didn’t make a challenger semifinal during his first year on tour, but he didn’t let it discourage him.
"I think the biggest thing I got with the challengers is learning how to win,” he says. “Learning how to win is the biggest thing on tour. At the end of the day it's about figuring out how to beat the opponent that day. Those are skills that are transferable at any level.”
It takes time. So many of the 13 Americans that reached the second round at this year’s US Open have been at it for quite a while. Maxime Cressy, another UCLA standout is another player who continues to show progress, tick by tick. Two months after falling in the final round of qualifying at Wimbledon (bummer, but it pays better than ever), Cressy qualified for the US Open and stunned No.9 seed Pablo Carreno Busta in the opening round. It was one of the most exciting matches of week one, with Cressy, 24 and ranked 149, saving four match points to stun the Spaniard, who was a semifinalist last year in New York.
Cressy is a rare species of player, who serves and volleys on half of his service points. That type of game takes time to cultivate and Cressy is patiently powering through the process.
"I think with this style of game I'll be dangerous,” Cressy said at Wimbledon during qualifying. “A very dangerous player out there. And my goal is to be dangerous consistently with a very good mindset. I have a huge belief in myself and I'll see where it takes me in the years to come but I hope very far."
The 6’6” California resident (Cressy was actually born in Paris) hopes that playing against top players, whether it be at the US Open or in the qualifying rounds at Grand Slams, will help him grow into the player he wants to be.
"Since I am a very ambitious player, it was very important for me to see where my level is at, relative to these players,” Cressy says. “I think my level is right there, I just need to have confidence and stick to a process mindset, and hopefully I'll get there soon, but it really inspired me to work even harder and really believe, these experiences really help my belief."
Giron says that having to learn the ropes at the challenger level and in the qualifying rounds of Grand Slams can be a blessing in disguise.
"It definitely took me longer than I expected but everyone has their path and I think it makes me honestly tougher and I appreciate what I have today more,” he says. “I know I can't take it for granted. I have to keep working hard every day for it. And so it's a blessing in disguise and I still want to maximize the rest of my career."
“I think my level is right there, I just need to have confidence and stick to a process mindset, and hopefully I'll get there soon, but it really inspired me to work even harder and really believe, these experiences really help my belief."
Klahn, now 31, says that the best way forward is to soak up the lessons learned along the way. Make the most of your chances against top players and continue to think strategically about ways to improve results.
Klahn, who has had three back surgeries since his college days, says that winning brings confidence and confidence brings courage. For him, the most important step was to learn to play a bigger brand of tennis.
"What helped me after my last surgery was just drawing on that experience of winning, and then I think what really worked is that I broke through when I qualified and won a round at Wimbledon. I had been piecing together matches here and there but I just realized that I had to play a bigger game style, a more aggressive game style, and use my attributes a little bit better.
“I beefed up my serve. It really just takes doing that at the level. That's the biggest thing. There's no way around it, you just have to do it. It's really challenging, it takes a conscious effort, mentally, to overcome those hurdles of self-doubt in the bigger moments at the bigger events."
Players like Klahn, Giron and Cressy are living proof that the road is hard, but with hard work dreams do come true. They’ve all achieved a high level of success on tour and plan to use what they’ve learned to generate even more.
Another Challenge? Solving the Prize Money Puzzle
These days, aspiring tour-level pros are also getting help on tour by recent increases in prize money that reward qualifiers and lower-ranked players. Money to pay for luxuries like coaching and a physiotherapist has been hard to come by in the past. But changes in allocation of prize money is levelling the playing field ever so slightly.
Every bit counts.
"It's great to see that qualifying prize money is going up and it's great to see [at the US Open] how it's $20,000 for the first round qualies and now it's $42,000 for the last round of qualifying,” Giron says. “Of course I'd love to see it going up, but for me, the last couple of years it has been really nice to have freedom and not have to worry about it."
"I think it's critical," Giron says of prize money increases for qualifiers and first and second round losers at the Grand Slams. "You like to think that doesn't play a role but absolutely it does. I think maybe for the top players of course they don't maybe have to worry about it to the same extent. But it gives you freedom, it gives you comfort. I think a lot of guys playing on the futures and challengers, they can't afford a coach full time, you have to go to these tournaments and you have to be alone and maybe share a hotel room, but it's hard.
“You have to make the investment in yourself and believe you are going to do it, so maybe you do add a coach that's on the road with you full-time but it also adds stress and pressure, and if you don't perform you are thinking: "How am I going to make ends meet?"
Giron has played well enough to earn $614,637 in prize money through the US Open. But not all players are so lucky. Cressy has earned about half of that and Klahn hasn’t earned a dime as he sits off the tour, rehabbing his back.
On tour, coaching and travel and lodging expenses can eat up prize money pretty quickly.
"It's great to see that qualifying prize money is going up and it's great to see [at the US Open] how it's $20,000 for the first round qualies and now it's $42,000 for the last round of qualifying,” Giron says. “Of course I'd love to see it going up, but for me, the last couple of years it has been really nice to have freedom and not have to worry about it."
No matter what the exact figures, the reality is that living the dream costs money. That’s why it is a dogfight at the lower levels in tennis, where many Americans are pouring in blood, sweat and tears so that they can one day live their dream at tennis Mecca in New York City.
“You have to make the investment in yourself and believe you are going to do it, so maybe you do add a coach that's on the road with you full-time but it also adds stress and pressure, and if you don't perform you are thinking: "How am I going to make ends meet?"
"It's difficult,” Giron concludes. “There are so many good players out there and it's tough that there's only about 100 guys that get into the main draw at a Slam. These Slams are a big percentage of the money that we make per year. I think as a pro player your goal is to really make the main draws of Slams, so when you play in qualifying it's tough. Everyone is playing for the bread. And so everybody is hungry."