What’s in a name? Tennys has game
Sandgren chugs his way into semifinals vs. veteran Karlovic
The name is pronounced “tennis,” as in tennis. But this is purely a coincidence.
Tennys Sandgren was named for his paternal great-grandfather — a first-generation immigrant from Sweden — not because his parents greatly enjoyed playing tennis, although they did. It’s sort of a blessing-curse thing.
Be assured Sandgren, who has advanced to his first ATP World Tour semifinal in the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship at River Oaks Country Club, has never been tempted to change the spelling.
“Keeping the ‘y’ is the only thing that’s keeping my sanity,” he said Friday after rallying for a laborious, wind-whipped 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Guido Pella. “If there’s an ‘i’ there, I’m done. I mean, just lock me up. I always thought I had to be at least decent. I couldn’t be a really bad tennis player with a name like Tennys.”
This is not a problem. If not for a horrible run of bad luck health-wise in 2014-16, when he endured a series of hip and arm problems, Sandgren, 26, likely wouldn’t be just now checking off a list of firsts in 2018. It has been a year in which he also advanced to his first Grand Slam tournament quarterfinals at the Australian Open, beating two top-10 players for the first time as well, and closed out a first ATP clay-court match victory in the opening round here. He won one in Rio de Janeiro in February, but his opponent retired that day with an injury in their third set.
Sandgren, also seeded for the
first time this week at No. 8, is one of three Americans in Saturday’s semis, joining defending champion Steve Johnson and the biggest surprise survivor in the person of Taylor Fritz, 20, who rallied from a break down in the third set to eliminate his thirdseeded countryman and the tournament’s 2015 champion Jack Sock 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
Fritz, making his Houston debut, is through to his second ATP semifinal in a little more than two years after he reached his first, at 18, in Memphis, where he defeated Johnson in the quarters.
Johnson fought past top seed John Isner in the long day’s fourth three-setter 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (5) to increase his winning streak in Houston to seven matches. Isner saw his eightmatch winning streak, going back to a first Masters 1000 title claimed in Miami two weekends ago, end.
Bob and Mike Bryan, seeded first in doubles, also went down, losing 6-4, 2-6, 10-6 to Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald shortly before midnight. They were trying to win a seventh Clay Courts title.
Karlovic stands out
Isner, the tournament’s 2013 singles champion, did at least mark a milestone in defeat, becoming the fourth player to surpass 10,000 career aces. He hammered 28 this night, but Johnson withstood the barrage from his friend and Davis Cup team partner to earn the right to play Fritz in the second semi Saturday. Isner was eliminated without losing a service game.
“John’s got the best serve in tennis,” Johnson said. “You’re not going to get many chances (to break him). I was lucky in the (third-set) breaker …then hit a good kick serve at 6-5.”
The only foreign interloper in the final four will be Sandgren’s next obstacle, Ivo Karlovic. They square off at 1 p.m. Like Sandgren, Karlovic overcame a firstset loss to eliminate the fourthseeded Australian Nick Kyrgios 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Although Kyrgios was bothered by what has become a chronic elbow injury of late that hindered his serving motion as the match progressed, it was a remarkable milestone victory for the 6-11 Croatian. By prevailing, Karlovic, 39, became the oldest player to advance this far into the tournament in at least half a century, going back to the start of tennis’ Open era in 1968, and the oldest semifinalist on the tour since Jimmy Connors a quarter-century ago.
He’s also a former Houston champion, having won the last title decided at Westside Tennis and Fitness, in 2007, before the event moved across town to River Oaks.
“I’ve lost to him every match up to now (four total, with six of 12 sets going to tiebreakers),” Karlovic said of his record against Kyrgios, 17 years his junior. “But it was always tough matches. I had chances. I am really happy I won today.”
So was Sandgren, especially given that Pella served for the match at the end of the second set. But Sandgren dug deeply and wouldn’t let him have it.
“I’m proud of myself for sticking it out and keeping myself around, doing everything I could to keep the score line close,” he said. “It seemed, from my end of the court, that he was doing a lot better job of handling the conditions on the clay, with the wind and the sun, than I was. There were some tricky points that we were playing — the wind was tomahawking some of my balls; it was just brutal — and he was doing a better job than me.”
From an age and ranking standpoint, little separates Sandgren from Pella, who is 27 and No. 63 on the ATP computer list, seven spots south of the Tennessean. But the latter grew up honing his game on Argentina’s red dirt, where he acquired the patience and resolve to win these gritty wars of attrition. Clay is always an acquired taste for American players.
Sandgren makes strides
Sandgren had begun to turn the tide early in the second set, he said, by “throwing in some serves and volleys” rather than letting Pella continue to dictate the methodical pace.
“I was really frustrated and thinking it was not looking good. But I played a few good points to start the game with him serving at 5-4 and, once you get up 30-0, it’s like, ‘OK, maybe I have a chance if I can just hit some decent returns.’ ”
He would. A break for Sandgren with Pella serving at 5-6 won him the second set and he cruised home.
Sandgren has come a long way from a year ago when he came to Houston ranked 157th, requiring him to qualify for the main draw, after which he promptly lost in the first round. Even as recently as the South American clay-court swing this year, he said: “I didn’t feel like I was making any headway. So you press and play a little stupid instead of pulling back and trying to play some slower points, moving the ball around the court a little bit.”
Having decided to play in Monte Carlo next week — it’s the season’s first Master 1000 tournament on clay — he’s confronting potential transit issues. He’ll be expected on the court there no later than Tuesday. Houston’s final is 2 p.m. Sunday. But that, he said, is a “champagne problem” he would welcome.
“You’d rather be in the previous event for as long as possible,” he said, “and just deal with the travel.”