posted May 30, 2003
 Photo by Reuters Ashley Harkleroad after her second-round upset. |
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ESPN.com's Greg Garber has penned an interesting article on former Chattanooga Valley's Harkleroad.
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"She celebrated her 18th birthday earlier this month, but Ashley Harkleroad had been building toward this moment for most of a lifetime.
Only a year ago she was a finalist in the junior championships here at Roland Garros. And then there was an unconscious week in April when she took out three players ranked among the top 20 in Charleston. Then she reached the semifinals of a modest tournament last week in nearby Strasbourg, France.
And now, she was leading Daniela Hantuchova 5-1 in the third set of their second-round match on atmospheric Court 1. Harkleroad had already beaten the No. 9 seed in South Carolina, but this was a Grand Slam event. She had only won her first major match on Monday, beating Japan's Saori Obata in straight sets.
Almost predictably, the scenario darkened.
Harkleroad tightened visibly, her balls started getting shorter, and Hantuchova's fragile game found an equilibrium. Harkleroad dropped five straight games to fall behind 6-5. It disappeared so swiftly, it was almost difficult to comprehend. During the subsequent changeover, she looked like an emotional teenager, crying, almost hyperventilating.
Indeed, Harkleroad gathered herself and won the 12th game to level the match. And when she prevailed 7-6 (2), 4-6, 9-7 on Wednesday, it was just as she imagined it so many times.
It was the biggest victory in a career that is rapidly gaining momentum.
The match, which featured dozens of mistakes and frustrating missed opportunities, required three hours and eight minutes -- the longest women's match here so far.
She has yet to graduate from high school -- her mother, a school teacher, helps homeschool her when time allows -- but the education of Ashley Harkleroad continues.
While the early 20-somethings Williams sisters and Belgians Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne dominate the top spots in tennis these days, for years the now the middle-aged Americans (by tennis standards) dominated the top 10. But they might have their best matches behind them. Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati and Chanda Rubin, the No. 6-8 seeds, respectively, are all 27 or will turn next month. Monica Seles is 29.
The rest of the future of American tennis lies in the hands of Laura Granville, Meghann Shaughnessy and Alexandra Stevenson.
Granville, who just turned 22, reached the fourth round at Wimbledon last year. Shaughnessy, 24, made the fourth round at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in 2001. Stevenson blasted into the semifinals of Wimbledon in 1999 -- as an 18-year-old -- but she has failed to win more than one Grand Slam match in the subsequent 15 events.
Now, it appears, it is time to add Harkleroad to that list of potentials. If she can get past Magui Serna and advance to the fourth round at her tender age, she might actually be ahead of their collective curve.
She has been on the radar for several years, but said she has been held back by the WTA Tour rules that limit the number of tournaments for players under 18. She was ranked No. 115 at the end of last year because she could only compete in 13 regular events. When she torched Shaughnessy, Elena Bovina and Hantuchova in Charleston -- losing to Henin-Hardenne in the semifinals -- her ranking jumped a neat 50 spots, from No. 101 to No. 57. Three victories in Strasbourg brought her to No. 52.
A few more victories in Paris and Harkleroad could be inside the top 30.
Right now, Harkleroad is operating in that pressure-free zone. Soon, when her opponents come to expect a struggle, she will begin to feel it."
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Adapted from article on the ESPN.com website.
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