Marc Polmans made a ballgame of it on the first day of the qualifying draw at Washington’s storied tennis tournament, these days called the Mubadala DC Citi Open, at Kennedy and 16th St. in Rock Creek Park. Polmans went down 3-6 in the first set to a dominating Thai-Son Kwiatkowski but he dug in against the big-serving Virginian in a close second set, 7-5, and then kept his nerve while using every chance to maintain the shift in momentum to take the third set, 6-2. That’s how it sometimes goes.
The fact remains that when you are on the Tour year after year and get into the main draws and get through a round or two, that is not nothing.
There must be a lesson there, and not only in Washington during an election year, where hopes rise and fall by the week. Kwiatkowski looked unbeatable in that first set. He held in the fourth game with repeat aces clocked at 136 and 140 mph, followed up by breaking Polmans at love with aggressive groundstrokes, 4-1. He lost the next two games, but took charge again on his next hold which included a huge ace to the T to get to 40-love, followed up by a quick put away on Polmans’ weak return of serve. On Polmans’ next service, Kwiatkowski quickly got a triple break point and it was over on the next rally as Polmans sent a backhand into the net.
It was a warm day, upper 80s, but the Stadium court had a respectable crowd for a qualifying match. Polmans played more steadily in the second set, saved a match point in the course of holding the tenth game, suddenly stepped on the gas in the eleventh and, surprise, broke the Virginian’s huge serve. A few flubs and shanks followed, as the tension rose, but Polmans held his serve for the set and in the process evidently got into Kwiatkowski’s head — tennis players call this disrupting the other man’s game — and made the third set almost an embarrassment, winning it 6-2 to close down what had been a close contest.
Both in their late 20s, the Australian Marc Polmans and the American Thai-Son Kwiatkowski are still young enough for the breakthrough that they had, and still have, every reason to expect; after all, this is their profession and they both hit beautifully when they want to. That is the problem of course, wanting to do the right thing all the time, another lesson the politicos downtown ought to take to heart. Kwiatkowski played for the Virginia Cavaliers and won the NCAA Men’s singles championship in 2017. Polmans was an Australian Open boys’ doubles champion in 2017 and is a permanent threat in doubles draws, as well as a danger in singles: he has made the second round in all the majors except the U.S. Open. Everyone has heard about winning being not the better thing but the only thing, the fact remains that when you are on the Tour year after year and get into the main draws and get through a round or two, that is not nothing. (READ MORE from Roger Kaplan: The Next Generation Closes the Citi Open)
It does not always work out as planned. In the second day of the qualifiers, Polmans almost pulled off another brilliant come-from-behind, going down 3-6 against Maxime Cressy, bouncing back 6-2 in the second, and finally accepting a bagel in the third as the big (six-seven) Max steadied his serve (which had been awful in the second set) and got his serve and volley game going, one of the best on the Tour. He had an uneven 2023 season but the French-American (born in Paris, high school and college in California, he represents the USA in competition) is looking fit and powerful even if the consistency — that mysterious quality again — can slip.
There will be a handful of big and strong Americans, all with some consistency questions, at the Mubadala Citi Open. At least two other big service men, Ben Shelton and Reilly Opelka, are ready to trade ace for ace with Cressy. Favorite son Frances Tiafoe, who gets a bye in the first round, will face Cressy in the second if the latter gets there.
And there is also a women’s draw, and doubles in both genders, which is more than enough to take distracted minds off politics and the Olympic Games: enough even to be thankful for the weather, which promises to be balmy all week.
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