Grace Min Seen As Hope for US Women's Tennis

US Open Girls' Champion Grace Min is the USTA's top young prospect to fill part of the void being left by the great Williams sisters.

2011 US Open Girls’ Champion Grace Min is the USTA’s top young prospect to fill part of the void being left by the great Williams sisters who are now both in their 30s — retirement age in professional tennis. The 5-4 17-year-old Korean American is feeling the pressure to prove herself in a sport increasingly dominated by big women.

Last month Min got a taste of just how hard it is for a talented junior to handle the power tennis that has become standard fare in women’s pro tennis. In December she faced Alison Riske, a 5-9 21-year-old from South Carolina — ranked 137 in the world — in the first round of a mini-tournament organized by the USTA to pick the US wild-card entry into next week’s Australian Open. In less than an hour Min was trounced 6-0, 6-0, the first time she had been double-bageled since the age of 10.

Still Min remains the brightest prospect among the small elite group of teens the USTA has selected to develop through its resident training program. Min has already spent two and a half years at the training center in Boca Raton, Florida under the tutelage of the USTA’s national coach Kathy Rinaldi. The program has been a godsend to Min’s parents who had struggled to finance Min’s tennis training since the age of eight with the earnings from her father’s shoe repair business and her mother’s seamstress work.

Grace Min has adjusted comfortably to the training center but continues to defy the stereotype of a future sports star in training. Rather than outgoing and aggressive, her temperament is scholarly and introspective. She has maintained a 3.98 GPA and deeply regrets her sole B from 9th-grade algebra.

With the same kind of discipline and focus she invests in academics she has cultivated a reliable forehand and excellent court movement. Those strengths have helped her win enough juniors tournaments to get into the US Open and the girls’ championship there has given her as good a shot at a pro career as anyone.

“You go through moments of doubt: why can’t I play like they do?” she told a New York Times reporter the day before losing her match to Riske. “Smaller players have to be more agile and have more variety in their game. You have to work with what you have. Mix up your shots. Make them move up and back. You can’t be trying to hit a million-miles-per-hour serve. Keep things simple. That’s my main motto.”

Min has had to learn to accept her limitations, as frustrating as they can be. She calls it a “a daily struggle.”

“She had gotten a little bit lost, playing the wrong way — like a big girl,” said Ola Malmquist, head of women’s tennis at the USTA. “She’s starting to be on the right track.”

“At her size, she’s not going to go out and blow people away,” said Patrick Manager, general manager of the USTA’s player development. “To take it to the next level, she needs to grind it out a little more.”

One role model is Melanie Oudin, a fellow Atlantan and shortie whose 2009 United States Open run into the quarterfinals galvanized American tennis fans. That run shot her ranking up to 44th in the world. Since then Oudin seems to have lost some of her magic. At the age of 20 she has slipped down to 166th.

The USTA sees Min as likely to break into the top 100. With Serena now at No. 12, Venus at 100, and only five others in the top 100, American women’s tennis is in need of new stars to remain a tennis power. Fortunately, Grace Min is fighting every day to keep alive her dream of becoming number one in the world some day.