Tennis Prose




Apr/12

29

Brian Baker Is My Hero


Some of you may know the name Brian Baker. A top American junior, #2 in the world, lost in finals of junior Roland Garros to Wawrinka. Beat #9 seed Gaudio at the U.S. Open, took a set off Moya on the Grandstand. Has lifetime wins over Monfils, Djokovic, Murray.

Baker’s body broke down before he could reach the top 100 in the ATP, hip and elbow operations put him out of the sport for four years. FOUR YEARS. Did some college assistant coaching, healed, regalvanized.

Baker returned to pro tennis last year and won a Futures in his first event back. Defeated Junior French Open champ Bjorn Fratangelo in the final.

I spoke with Brian in Sarasota and he said he’s still not feeling 100% healthy but he’s able to play. He says he does a lot of stretching now. Corrected me that his four set loss to Moya was on Armstrong, not Grandstand. Baker is ranked outside the top 300 now so he had to qualify for Sarasota. He made the main draw and I saw him brutalize Ryan Sweeting 6-1 2-0 before Sweeting retired because of illness, or so he said, but he looked perfectly fit until he started to lose. One week earlier, Sweeting took Isner to two tiebreaks in Houston, which showed what a good win it was for Baker to defeat Sweeting.

Baker run in Sarasota came to and end when he lost in three sets to eventual champ Sam Querrey.

This week Baker entered the Savannah Challenger. He zipped through qualifying again and made the main draw. His first round opponent was Houston finalist and Sarasota semifinalist Michael Russell. Russell was forced to retire down 2-4 in the third set to Baker because of a “hamstring” injury.

Baker cruised from there, defeating Kendrick 63 61, Ginepri 64 64, Strode in the semis 64 61. In today’s final, Baker will meet Frances Augustin Gensse for a prize of $7,200 and valuable ranking points.

Out of tennis for four years, now 26, it appears Baker is on his way from the abyss and on to becoming perhaps one of the most amazing comeback stories in recent ATP history. Let’s hope so anyway. Hoping for continued success and health for Brian Baker.

4 comments

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 29, 2012 at 11:06 pm

    Baker defeated Gensse in the final 63 64 and picked up 80 ATP points. He should crack the ATP top 250 with this win.

  • Steve · April 30, 2012 at 12:13 am

    NICE!

  • Dan Markowitz · April 30, 2012 at 12:57 pm

    Scoop,

    You’ve got to pick better heroes. Just kidding, Baker’s comeback is inspiring, and pretty amazing that he’s beaten Russell, Sweeting, Ginepri and Kendrick in this last sweep. That’s like the entire U.S. contingent of Challenger players. Got to give him a lot of credit. Except, a guy who’d been out for four years and says he still doesn’t feel 100% is always in danger of his next injury. That being said, Baker will be a fun guy to see how he does in the summer U.S. hard court events and possibly qualifying for the Open.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 30, 2012 at 2:23 pm

    Dan, with the win Baker gets a WC into the French Open. There is a big Q&A with Baker today on the ATP site, very much worth a read, talks about his journey and specifies all the injuries, surgeries, operations. I saw him take down Sweeting 61 20 (ret) just a week after Sweeting forced Isner to two TBs in Houston and that was a world class performance by Baker. Baker told me he does a lot of stretching now, but not quite yoga which I suggested to him. Hope he picks up on yoga. And of course that another injury does not happen to him.

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