By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Top American WTA pro Taylor Townsend received a good deal of exposure and props for her effort to get from the National Bank Open tournament in Toronto after losing in the quarterfinals to the Cincinnati Open by traveling by car overnight in order to get to her match on time. The story is outlined here: A tennis player’s race: Taylor Townsend drives to Cincinnati for qualifying | TC Live | Tennis.com
An almost equally heroic effort, one the complete opposite end of the pro tennis spectrum, was also made over the weekend by local Vero Beach, Florida standout player Ching Wang. His effort, however, was just to get into the qualifying rounds of a $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Huntsville, Alabama, the bottom rung of pro tennis, and it involved driving six hours the day of his match! And to boot, it came the day after teaching tennis for almost eight hours!
But first, let’s set the scene.
Wang, a popular teaching pro in Vero Beach who has worked at Sea Oaks Beach & Tennis Club and also with the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation, has been teaching at the Linville Golf Club in Linville, N.C. in the summer, but over the last few years, has dipped his toes in competitive tennis by trying to get into entry-level pro events on the ITF World Tennis Tour. In 2023, one year after finishing playing college tennis at Division II Lees-McRae College in North Carolina, Wang earned a main draw doubles wild card in doubles and a qualifying wild card in singles via wild card events at the $15,000 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships at the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club. Wang was able to win a round in the qualifying singles tournament that year beating a player from Texas named Matthew Vos, as you can hear about here: https://youtu.be/R71OEMXqEzw?si=YtKZHTei915sP8rP
While this win didn’t earn him any money, and was still one round shy of getting in the main draw of the event, it did earn him an International Tennis Federation (ITF) ranking point that, although not an ATP rankings point, can help him get into the qualifying rounds of these introductory pro-level events when the entry lists run out of players with ATP points. It is very difficult to get into the qualifying rounds of these events unless you have at least some ITF ranking points.
While Wang was able to earn a ranking point with his first round qualifying win at the Mardy Fish event in 2023, he did not play another ITF event until the following year’s Mardy Fish event 12 months later. He was only able to sneak into the qualifying rounds only based on his ITF point earned the previous year. Wang, however, lost in the first round of qualifying, so his point would soon drop off the computer, making it more difficult, once again, to get into the qualifying rounds. His ITF point, however, would still be used for entries in the next two tournaments after the Mardy Fish, in Orange Park, Florida and Pensacola, Florida, based on the rankings for the event used for entries. Wang was able to slide into both draws. He suffered a first-round qualifying loss in Orange Park to Fabian Hansch Mauritzson of Sweden by a heart-breaking 7-6(7), 5-7, 11-9 margin. The win would have replaced the ITF point that he was soon going to lose. In the last tournament where his ITF point would be used for entry a week later in Pensacola, Wang was able to win another first round qualifying match, beating American Daniel Prado Contreras 6-2, 6-1, to replace his ITF ranking point. He, however, lost in the next round to American Phillip Jordan 6-0, 6-3.
So, with his new ITF ranking point replenished, Wang, while teaching tennis in Linville, N.C. over the summer, awaited opportunities where he could get into events that were relatively close by, so as not to severely interrupt his tennis teaching responsibilities. As the $15,000 event in Huntsville, Alabama approached, Wang was getting closer and closer to getting into the qualifying rounds as players dropped out of the tournament, which is customary as players decided which ITF World Tennis Tour event to play that particular week. Two days before the start of the event, Wang was 14 spaces out of qualifying, but there were going to be at least seven spots that opened up with withdrawals. So if a few players in the qualifying tournament got bumped up into the main draw with wild cards (which happens often) and there were some no shows from the alternate list that Wang was on, he could get into the tournament. Wang and I were texting as we monitored the entries and watched who was pulling out. I estimated that he was about four spots out, which with a few more no shows, would allow him to get into the tournament
Recently, the ITF changed the sign-in rules for the qualifying tournament where you could sign in over the phone, where previously you had to show up on site, so Wang called ITF supervisor David Littlefield from Linville to sign in on Saturday evening. As luck would have it, Wang made it into the qualifying tournament as the second-to-last direct entrant. Wang was still in Linville when the draw was published Saturday night around 8 pm, confirming his spot in the draw to play the next day, albeit 350 miles away! Luckily he took the advice I gave him to request a late start time so he could get to Huntsville. (“Yes. I requested a late start. Thanks to you. I didn’t know you could do that.” He texted me.) His match was scheduled on the last wave of matches, to start not before 2:30 pm. So Wang, after teaching tennis for almost eight hours during the day, left in his car from Linville at 6 am Sunday morning and arrived in Huntsville around noon. He took the court for his match at 3:30 pm.
Not only was Wang lucky to get into the tournament, but he had luck in the draw. Originally, Wang was scheduled to face Andrew Delgado, a 19-year-old from High Point, N.C. with an ATP ranking of No. 1755. However, Delgado pulled out of the tournament and was replaced in the draw by an alternate, a player named Robert Sarosi, who hold an mediocre good club player UTR rating of 7.75 but still manages to get into an ITF World Tennis Tour event with persistence and just by signing up, showing up and signing in as an alternate. He sometimes gets very lucky and gets in a few tournaments, as he also did as an alternate at the 2024 Mardy Fish event, where he lost in the first round of qualifying to Meecah Bigun, the twin brother of French Open junior champion Kaylan Bigun, 6-0, 6-0. Sarosi also lost to Sea Oaks Beach & Tennis Club pro Christian Docter 6-0, 6-0 in the Mardy Fish pre-qualifying event.
So the effort and six-hour drive on the day of the match for Wang was worth it. He easily beat Sarosi 6-1, 6-2 and was able to get another ITF ranking point that will help him even more get into more events. It’s not like a player like Wang is going to take off into a professional career, but just being able to compete and get into these tournaments and test your skills in competition against great players from around the world is something that players of a certain level aspire to. Every player, no matter the level, has tennis dreams. Some may dream and fulfill aspirations of playing on the ATP Tour or at Grand Slam tournaments – and winning matches, doing deep, playing on big stadium courts, etc. Some just want to play some pro tennis and see the world, or play college tennis or many just want to win a club championship, or maybe a USTA Gold Ball as a winner of any various USTA National Championship event. So, just getting the opportunity to play in the qualifying rounds of ITF World Tennis Tour events can be a goal for a certain level of player. On that scale, it is exciting and a worthy goal in competitive tennis.
On Monday, Wang played his second-round qualifying match – the final round of qualifying – but it did not go that well. He lost 6-1, 6-0 to a player named Carson Baker, who was the No. 6 player on the University of Mississippi’s team last season and who is ranked No. 2057 on the ATP computer in doubles. Wang said he was affected more than usual with the 90-degree temperatures during the match bit it beating Baker in itself was a tough ask on paper to begin with based on his more recent playing experience at a higher level. “He was definitely more consistent on the decisive points,” texted Wang about the match.
It was then back in the car for Wang for another six-hour drive back to the Linville Golf Club where he would again return to the courts.
“Back to work tomorrow,” he texted.
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