By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

Successful tennis careers are usually started by a series of incremental victories moving a player from a lower level of tennis upward.

Jordan Lee of Orlando, Florida chalked up another one of these cumulative match wins Monday from the first round of the U.S. Open qualifying tournament.

Less than four months ago, Lee turned 16 years old and was earning his second career ATP point at the $15,000 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships, an entry level USTA Pro Circuit event in Vero Beach, Florida. From there, in a matter of six weeks, he was the Wimbledon junior boy’s singles champion. And a month after that, he was reaching the singles final of the USTA National Boy’s 18s Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he unfortunately had to retire from the final after only three games with a chest problem.

However, the runner-up finish accorded him an automatic wild card into the U.S. Open qualifying rounds where in his opening match on the opening day he defeated the No. 152-ranked player in the world, Mark Lajal of Estonia 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 for his best career victory in a spawning tennis career.

Lee became a buzz-worthy character in American tennis with not only his Wimbledon junior title, but how he won it and who he beat in the final. He only got into the Wimbledon junior singles field by advancing via the qualifying rounds and then beat Cruz Hewitt, the son of Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Lleyton Hewitt, in the final after losing the first set and coming back from Hewitt serving for the match in the final set.

Lee again showcased this “never-say-die” attitude also against Lajal, an experienced player who is seven years his senior. Lee had his serve broken in the opening game of the match, but stayed toe-to-toe with Lajal for the rest of the set, but was not able to break the Lajal serve to get back on serve. Benefitting from a flurry of mishit forehands by Lajal, Lee broke serve for a 2-0 lead in the second set, waving his hands in the air to work to get the New York crowd behind him. He fought off a break point while serving for the second set at 5-3 before tying the match at one set apiece. In the third set, both players had their serves broken in the first five games before Lee finally held serve for 4-2 and then again for 5-3, capping his service game with a leaping overhead that harkened back to another athlete who has the last name of Jordan, leaping to make slam dunk in basketball. Lee was able to avoid the pressure of serving for the match by closing out the match in the next game on Lajal’s serve to give him the biggest pro singles win of his career so far.

“I’ve always dreamed of this moment and when I knew it would come, I would be ready, ” Lee told the USTA’s Tom LaDue following the victory. “I did a good job at that today, handling the nerves and I’m happy.”

Next up for Lee in the second round of U.S. Open qualifying is No. 208 Daniel Rincon of Spain.

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