Krajicek making the slow climb to big-time tennis

Austin Krajicek advanced to the championship of the St. Vincent Tour De Paul tournament with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Darian King on Saturday. Krajicek will face Luke Saville in today’s championship at Pleasant Valley Country Club.
Austin Krajicek advanced to the championship of the St. Vincent Tour De Paul tournament with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Darian King on Saturday. Krajicek will face Luke Saville in today’s championship at Pleasant Valley Country Club.

The journey that turns someone from an All-American collegiate tennis star to a profitable professional can be a long, arduous slog.

Austin Krajicek is navigating his void of many speed bumps, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t tested his patience.

Krajick, a three-time All-American at Texas A&M in his second full season on the USTA Pro Circuit, beat Darian King of Barbados 6-4, 6-1 on Saturday afternoon in the semifinals of the Tour de Paul tennis tournament at Pleasant Valley Country Club. It was one of Krajicek’s shortest matches of the tournament as he beat the No. 8 seeded King in less than 90 minutes to move on to today’s final against No. 2 seed Luke Saville of Australia, who beat No. 5 seed Benjamin Mitchell 6-2, 6-2 in Saturday’s other semifinal.

The fourth-seeded Krajicek, 22, will be going for his fourth Futures event title since turning pro last year, which has Krajicek looking toward appearances in some of tennis’ biggest events by the end of the summer.

That’s if everything goes according to plan, and to make that happen, he has to win matches in outposts such as Little Rock, Champagne, Ill., where he won a Futures event in November, and Lexington, Ky., where he won another last July.

“You just have to be patient. It’s a couple-of-years process when you start playing pros,” Krajicek said. “You’re pretty much starting over after school. As good as college is, it doesn’t pay the bills.”

The prize money on the Pro Circuit doesn’t pay much more than travel expenses - the total prize money for the Tour de Paul is $15,000 - but the only way to get to bigger paydays is to win as many matches as possible.

Krajicek’s latest came in nearly perfect weather conditions Saturday. He fell behind King, a 20-year-old making his third semifinal appearance in a Futures event in the United States, 3-1 in the first set before winning 6-4, capped by a lengthy final game. He then fell behind 40-0 in the first game of the second set before rallying to win and finished off the second set in less than 30 minutes.

“When you can win a big game, a momentum game like that, it helps a lot,” Krajicek said of the final game in the first set. “It was pretty intense.”

Now his sights are on Saville, whom he said he’s never played, and then next week’s Challenger event in Sarasota, Fla., which is considered a step up from a Futures event. Win a few matches there, and his current ranking of 353 will continue to rise, hopefully enough that he’s back in the U.S. Open in August.

Krajicek’s career highlight so far was playing in the 2008 U.S. Open, when he won a USTA 18s title to earn a wild card into the main draw. He lost to Augustin Calleri of Argentina, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1, and his goal ever since has been to make it back.

To do that, he’ll have to raise his ranking to around 250, which could get him into the qualifying rounds of Grand Slam events. His ranking is 353 as he approaches the opportunistic summer season with tournaments within driving distance or a short plane ride every weekend. Considering it was No. 449 a year ago at this time, getting to that point by the end of the summer is doable.

But Krajicek, who also teamed with Chase Buchanan to beat David Rice and Sean Thornley 6-2, 6-3 in Saturday’s doubles final, said he’ll have to take small steps first. He’ll be in Sarasota next week, then will begin to map out his summer with tournaments that provide the best chance to raise his ranking.

Schedule strategy, he said, is another part of pro tennis that he never had to worry about with the Aggies.

“Not playing too much because there’s an injury risk,” he said. “There’s a lot of other things that go into it that makes it a lot tougher than it seems, but that’s the game.”

But if you don’t play, you can’t win, and that’s the only way he can end up in New York at the end of the summer.

“If I can get into some of those tournaments and do some damage, I can be gearing up for the Open. So I’m looking forward to that,” he said. “It just takes time.”

Tour de Paul At Pleasant Valley Country Club, Little Rock

SINGLES Semifinals (4) Krajicek (USA) def. (8) King (Barbados) 6-4, 6-1 (2) Saville (Australia) def. (5) Mitchell (Australia) 6-2, 6-2

DOUBLES Final (2) Buchanan/Krajicek def. (1) Rice/ Thornley 6-2, 6-3

Sports, Pages 36 on 04/21/2013

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