Former ATP No. 38 Sargis Sargsian Walked On My Court

By Scoop Malinowski

Miracles happen in life and one happened to me yesterday on a tennis court. A former ATP world no. 38 walked on my court and then we hit.

I kid you not. Former 1997 Newport Hall of Fame Champion Sargis Sargsian literally walked on my court at Demarest NJ Nature Center and I actually recognized him instantly. “Are you Sargis Sargsian?” He smiled and said yes.

I easily remembered the Armenian who was All American and NCAA champion at Arizona State before achieving a successful eleven year ATP career from 1995-2006, with a match record of 155-209.

Here’s how it happened. I had to go up to Palisades, NY to pick up a Larry Zox framed print before a scheduled mixed doubles match at Tenafly Red Clay Racquet Club at 5. I picked it up and on the way back to Tenafly had time to stop and hit some serves at the Demarest Nature Center which has two courts. A few minutes in, a kid and coach arrived and crossed my court. Then a few minutes later another kid came and crossed the court to join the pair and then another man did as well and as I was telling them I’d only be a few more minutes serving – because I didn’t realize the group was all together, thinking they would want to use my court – I recognized the man in a second… it was Sargis Sargsian. I asked him are you Sargis Sargsian? Which he confirmed with a smile with a hint of surprise.

My most recent memory of Sargis was using his US Open press conference quotes as part of my book Facing Andre Agassi, which were especially interesting because he was very close friends with Andre and trained with him frequently. Sargis said he was visiting Andre in Las Vegas while he was working on his book “Open” and added that whenever Andre “does something he does it big.”

Noticing Sargis was carrying his Wilson racquet – it was his son who was training with his nephew with either the brother of Sargis on the court next to me – I asked if it would be all right for us to hit for a few minutes? “Sure,” was the response and so we did.

Having just won the last three tournaments I’ve played this summer – two USTA Level 7 Opens and a mixed doubles last weekend 64 76 in the final – I am playing possibly my best ever right now. So we start hitting and the first thing I notice is those perfect compact and loose strokes, how easily he can rip the ball like perfect every time. He never missed one ball. But neither did I. Though my balls weren’t always hit cleanly or timed just right and some had some loop and slowness while all of Sargis’s strikes were perfect laser beams but only hit at about 50-60 percent effort. He could do this all day.

I could keep up though and despite some stray shots and accidentally well struck hits that landed very deep, the Armenian machine handled it all with no trouble whatsoever. Finally after a few minutes he smiled and said, “You don’t miss.”

We kept trading shots hit to each other and then a couple minutes later Sargis, maybe growing bored with the drill, decided to accelerate the ball a little more. I handled them but it was becoming a struggle and then he fired a good one down the middle to my backhand which I sailed well long. He cracked another smile, “I had to try to make you miss.”

It was just a few minutes but it was unbelievable to hit with a world class level operator. Walking on court ice cold with no warmup he never missed one ball or shanked anything. Like a perfect tennis machine. It was a joy to even encounter such tennis perfection, we can only imagine how it feels to be able to walk on a tennis court any day, every day and hit the ball so cleanly with such precision.

Sargis played in three Olympics for Armenia and made the fourth round of Australian Open in 2004 (defeating Calleri, Gaudio and Philippoussis before losing to Wayne Ferreira in four sets). He also won two ATP doubles titles, with Yevgeny Kafelnikov in Washington DC in 2003 and with Karsten Braasch in Bucharest in 2003 – after losing in his first three ATP doubles finals earlier in his career. In 2001 at Roland Garros, Sargsian won the first two sets vs. Roger Federer only to fall 79 in the fifth. Sargis also beat Nico Massu in the second longest match at 2004 US Open five hours and nine minutes.

Some of his singles wins were over Federer, Roddick, Kafeknikov, Courier, Blake and Ferrer.

That qualifies as an excellent professional career, though most tennis fans barely remember him or talk about him today. I mentioned this adventure to my friend Patrick Jun in our mixed match and he instantly lit up remembering being at the Sargis vs Paul-Henri Mathieu five set thriller on old grandstand at US Open.

Sargis is visiting family in New Jersey as he does every summer. He lives in Prague now and has a high performance junior academy.

Miracles really do happen on tennis courts and in life. I never could have imagined an ATP champion and Olympian would walk on my court and then hit a few balls for a few minutes. Wildest dreams beyond comprehension can become reality. What will be the next tennis miracle. Stay tuned…

Andre Agassi · AO · ATP · Demarest Nature Center · Olympics · Roger Federer · Sargis Sargsian · Yevgeny Kafelnikov

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