Olympian eyes US Open’s silver cup
Gold medalist Puig, from Boca, is unseeded
Monica Puig’s shocking run to Olympic gold a few weeks ago catapulted her to national hero status in Puerto Rico upon her return to San Juan this week.
Puig, who moved from San Juan to Miami as an infant but now lives in Boca Raton to be near her coach Juan Todero, was greeted by thousands at LuisMunozMartin Airport last Saturday in her hometown, including Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla and First Lady Wilma Pastrana.
Puig is the first person representing Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States, to win a gold medal since becoming a separate delegation in the 1948 Olympics. On Tuesday, Puig was feted in a 5-mile-long parade and even had a street named after her.
The $3.5 million question is, can Puig, ranked No. 34 in the world, turn gold into green at the upcoming U.S. Open, where she will be unseeded but certainly not unnoticed.
Tennis legend Chrissie Evert has witnessed the slowprogression of Puig, 22, whoismanaged by IMG, a partner of the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton.
“Is she a fluke? No,” asked
and answered Evert, who will analyze U.S. Open matches for ESPN. “She could be in the top 10. Could she be No. 1? I’m not going to go that far. ... If she continues this wave of momentum, yes, she could be.
“She could always hit the ball hard, but was never that consistent. [In Rio] she was out-rallying players with a lot of power, and I hope she can keep it up. That big elephant, that big word, pressure, you don’t know what that’s going to do now that she’s won the Olympics. The expectations, what we’ve seen do to other players. Hopefully, she won’t fall into that category.”
Evert also tabbed big-hitting, ninth-ranked Madison Keys, 21, a semifinalist in Rio who lives in Delray Beach and has trained with the Everts in her formative years, as a possible dark horse.
“I always think Madison inevitably will come through,” Evert said. “She’s beaten Venus [Williams], and she’s played Serena [Williams] some good matches, and I always think if she’s on her ‘A’ game, and Serena is off, I always give her a shot.”
Plantation native Sloane Stephens pulled out of the tournament Friday with a foot injury.
Puig, whose furthest foray into a Grand Slam was the fourth round in the 2013Wimbledon, has won one WTA title in Strasbourg (2014). Granted, Puig didn’t have to face the top-ranked Serena Williams in Rio after the Palm Beach Gardens great was bounced by unheralded Ukraine Elina Svitolina in the third round.
But Puig did dispatch three Grand Slam champions in a row. She crushed French Open winner Garbine Muguruza and then took out two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova before stunning Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber in a three-set final.
During the dramatic final, all of Puerto Rico was reportedly at a standstill watching on televisions throughout the island. National pride was soaring for a few hours Monica Puig moved from San Juan to Miami as an infant but now lives in Boca Raton.
as Zika-infested mosquitos and the moribund economy were swatted aside.
Puig, who speaks fluent Spanish after spending summers with her grandparents in San Juan, named her puppy Rio, before the Games. She closed most of her tweets with the hashtag, “Pica
Power,” now emblazoned on Tshirts with a photo of Puig draped in the Puerto Rican flag.
Spurred on by chants of, “Sí, se puede!” (It can be done!) throughout the tournament, Puig shed tears of joy on the podium during the gold medal ceremony while listening to the Puerto Rican national anthem, “La Borinqueña,” for the first time in Olympic history.
“I knew that I had to win that medal for Puerto Rico, to brighten up many people’s lives,” Puig said.
Serena Williams has a sore shoulder which could affect her dominating serve. The rest of the top 10, incuding 36-year-old sixthranked Venus, certainly are beatable as Puig showed in Rio by defeating No. 2 Kerber and No. 3 Muguruza.
“If she can keep believing in herself the way she did in the Olympics she can keep it up,” Todero said.
Puig, a 5-foot-7-inch aggressive baseliner ranked 92nd after 2015, agreed.
“Now that I’ve shown that I can win a tournament of this caliber, a lot of people are going to be looking for reasons why thatwas a fluke or why I’m not meant to be here,” Puig wrote in The Players’ Tribune. “They’re going to say I was a surprise. But I’m so much more than that. I want to show everybody that I’m here to stay.”