Tennis Prose




May/17

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Congratulations to Tennys Sandgren

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One of the hottest players on the ATP Tour right now is 25 year old American Tennys Sandgren.

The Tennessee native won the Savannah Challenger final today against Juan Sorgi 64 63 for his second Challenger title of the year and third overall.

Sandgren, who names Agassi and Kuerten as his tennis heroes, was a quality junior but never reached the fourth round of a junior Grand Slam though he did achieve an ITF ranking of 9 in the world. He played collegiate tennis at University of Tennessee for two years – reaching the semis of the NCAA singles championship in 2011 (losing to teammate Rhyne Williams in three sets) – before deciding to hit the Tour.

On the ATP Tour Sandgren has won three Challenger singles titles and seven in doubles. Last month he played his first ATP main draw in Houston, losing in the first round.

By winning Savannah and finaling in Sarasota has earned the USTA French Open wildcard into the main draw, which will be his first Grand Slam main draw appearance.

Just two years ago Sandgren’s ranking dropped all the way to the 700s following a hip surgery but the 6-foot-2, 190-pounder has battled his way back to a career high ranking of 134.

Previous Grand Slam qualifying attempts:

Sandgren played US Open qualies in 2011 and lost first round to Bradley Klahn in three sets.

Played US Open qualies in 2012 – beat Guido Pella but lost in second round to Franko Skugor 63 67 75.

In 2013 at Australian Open he won a quali round vs Bogomolov then lost to Potito Starace 64 64. Roland Garros he lost 9-7 in third first round to Ruben Bemelman. At US Open qualies he lost in three sets to Peter Gojowczyk.

2014: US Open lost first round qualies to Peter Polansky 64 57 26. In Australia he lost in straight sets to Dusan Lajovic 67 36.

2015: Lost to Yuichi Sugita in three sets in Australia qualies.

2016: Lost to Jurgen Melzer at US Open qualies 57 16. In Australia won a qualies round vs Uchiyama but lost to Tatsuma Ito 64 62.

So Roland Garros will be Sandgrens tenth appearance at a Grand Slam and finally his first in a main draw.

Sandgren has some interesting wins. In 2009 he beat Steve Johnson 6-2 in the third in a Florida Futures. He also beat Serena’s hitting partner Robbye Poole 6362 that same year in a Futures. He also lost to Poole 64 in the third two years later 64 in the third at a NY Futures.

At a 2009 Futures in Dominican Republic Sandgren beat current ATP top 50 Nikolay Basilashvili 61 in the third.

Congratulations to Tennys Sandgren for his perseverance and dedication.  He is a leading contender to be awarded the ATP Comeback Player of the Year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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15 comments

  • Andrew Miller · May 7, 2017 at 8:55 pm

    Sandgren, we’re behind you! He was so close to the Australian wildcard several years ago and was right there with Klahn and Johnson. I’m thrilled he’s in the French Open and as he’s partial to the clay, frankly I’m looking forward to his hitting through his first round match.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 7, 2017 at 10:09 pm

    Sandgren won his QF and SF both 76 in the third! Versus Paul and Laaksonen – Winning battles like that fill up a guy’s confidence tank – Nobody expected Sandgren to step up like this so it’s a great story of another longshot underdog rising out of obscurity –

  • Andrew Miller · May 7, 2017 at 11:12 pm

    That’s true Scoop. I think that’s what scorelines show, first a player loses the three set battles. Then they win them. Then they win then in two close sets. Then they win with better scorelines, and on and on. It starts by winning matches they used to lose, then winning those same matches frequently.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 8, 2017 at 6:17 am

    Tennis is about solving puzzles or having the puzzle beat you. Sandgren is solving and smashing puzzles right now. Lets see if he can ride this wave and do it at the main Tour level. I imagine he will.

  • Andrew Miller · May 8, 2017 at 11:07 am

    Sandgren has good clay instincts. He should Hunger Games his first round opponent.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 8, 2017 at 12:48 pm

    Depends on who the opponent is but I would guess a lot of players will take Sandgren lightly – Like Raonic did to Harrison last year at US Open –

  • Jg · May 8, 2017 at 5:17 pm

    I watched the Sandgren/Paul match, I thought Tommy Paul would pull it out, he had a loose game and Sandgren looked tired. But they were both getting everything back, it was good to see US players grinding it out on clay courts and constructing the points. I think Tommy Paul is an excellent clay court player who may have his confidence back.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 8, 2017 at 5:37 pm

    Agree jg – Paul had a huge win vs Krueger and hit several insane shots to steal the second set and then rolled over Kreuger in the third 60 – Valuable win for Paul but Sandgren is red hot right now –

  • Matty · May 9, 2017 at 3:47 am

    Yes, he’s actually been getting good results for the past year but he’s underfollowed. He looked like he’d solved Laakson in Charlottesville, but he had some horrid calls against him. Next time out in Columbus, he left no doubts. The finals this year have been in some strong fields — no shame in dropping a final against Tiafoe. He’s got a reasonably good draw in France this week with a stellar field of to 100 players aboard.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 9, 2017 at 7:54 am

    matty; I saw Laaksonen take out Kecmanovic in Sarasota and he looked lethal with that big inside out forehand – Sandgren is breaking out right now – It took a while but this is his breakout – Yes I saw that Tiafoe is playing that Challenger in Aix En Provence France with a tough field – These are the kinds of smaller events which Tiafoe needs to continue to show his best tennis rather than just in the big events on the big stages where he always seems to shine bright – Welcome to the site matty –

  • Chazz · May 9, 2017 at 9:00 am

    Hey Scoop, in that same French Challenger, it bears mentioning that Opelka had a quality win today over Lajovic, who can be a tough out.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 9, 2017 at 9:32 am

    That is Opelka’s first match since losing to Sandgren in Sarasota 76 in the third in first round. That win really seemed to propel Sandgren. It was an incredible match and a very valuable win. Opelka was steaming after as he walked through the crowd off the court. He really needed this win vs Lajovic.

  • Hartt · May 9, 2017 at 2:01 pm

    Donaldson lost to Thiem in Madrid today but there is no shame in losing to an accomplished clay court player like Dominic.

  • Dan Markowitz · May 10, 2017 at 5:22 am

    Interesting that Harry beat Tomic in Madrid. Here’s two guys who were considered possibly both potential slam winners and no 1 players but they have both faltered greatly with Tomic seemingly on a downward spiral while Harry is making a comeback of sorts. Now Harry gets Kyrgros which should be interesting.

    Harry is only American left standing with Sock-less and Ernie E tumbling out besides JD who did beat Manny. No great clay uprising by the Americans who used to have players like Spadea and of course Sampras and Agassi doing well on clay in Europe.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 10, 2017 at 8:08 am

    Dan it does seem Tomic could be ducking Kyrgios – there is some bad blood there from last year and I think this is the second time a potential Tomic vs Nick matchup was one round away but did not happen – Keep an eye on that match-up – Harrison had been 0-2 vs Bernie but of course we know Harrison is the more confident player right now and both of those previous losses to Bernie were close tough battles –

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