Lilly's Story

Flushing Meadows, Final Day of Qualifications, (Friday) Larry is in the stands and said he would write this portion of the story. Larry here, Lilly is the lower rated player than Anna, so they will introduce Anna, and state her career accomplishments which include a couple of championships at 250 level tournaments, plus a quarterfinalist at both Wimbledon and the Australian open. Lilly is being interviewed before the match by Brad Gilbert, basic questions. Asked how it feels to finally be here at the possibility of qualifying. Lilly was good at answering with her southern draw, basically saying, I always knew I could be at this level it just was very hard to do without sponsors, and without the US Tennis Association support. Brad then asked her how it was that she is here representing South Korea? Lilly was so good at this question, said that she was honoring her grandmother, and that South Korean Kia Motors had given her enough money to enter Futures and 125’s this year to get the points required to make it here. Brad just finished the interview by saying good lick Lilly. Then he said to the ESPN audience, this is what qualifications are for to allow those without the pedigree or sponsors a chance at making the main draw. ESPN Discussion: Brad Gilbert - Anna is an experienced player and being here will not make her nervous, so expect an easy journey here, predicted about an hour or less to win the 2 sets. Pam Shriver disagreed, I am predicting that Lilly is so hungry, she is playing so well, look for her to qualify this afternoon. What a great story, without a major sponsor, she was outside the top 500 in singles this year, and now is playing for a chance to make the biggest tournament of the year. Just shows you what can happen if someone helps you out and sponsors you. Patrick McEnroe was the tiebreaking predictor, and he agreed with Brad and said that Lilly has a great year to get to this point, but she has never played a player with this pedigree, and she will be likely overmatched. Introductions: The players today are Anna Georgiev, career highlights include top 40 and reached the quarterfinals of two majors. Anna has won four tour level championships in singles and 2 in doubles. Anna is playing on a protected ranking today and is the number 13 seed for seed for this tournament. Now introducing her opponent, who represents South Korea, and recently won the tournament in Bethany Beach, Delaware receiving a wildcard into the tournament. Lilly Jarman is from Virginia and played collegiately at Longwood University. This is her first appearance at the US Open. No applause for Lilly, except for her parents and me. I told Lilly this morning I was going to be at the match no matter what work had me do. The First Set: The coin flip then warm-ups went off on time, as the match before ended early with a player retirement. Lilly called heads and the coin was a head. Lilly chose to serve, as she has a very hard serve and can often get up to 110 plus. Lilly starts off the match with a service winner, that Anna could not return. Shortly after she holds off Anna for a 1-0 advantage. Anna’s serve is well placed and after 2 aces she also holds for a 1 all. The remainder of the set goes that way, strong service games and no potential break points for the opponent. At 5-6, Anna was serving and up 40-30, and Lilly hit a backhand down the line to make it deuce. We were hoping she could break but alas an ace and a service winner later the match was tied up at 6 all forcing a tiebreaker. For those not familiar with tennis set, at 6-6, a 7-point tiebreaker decides the set. The winner must get 7 and be ahead by at least 2 points, thus 7-5 or better. If tied at 6 each they keep going until someone gets 2 points ahead. During the tiebreak, each server was holding easily, but at 5-4, Anna served a soft second serve that Lilly hit down the line, putting Lilly 6-4. After Anna held her second service point, Lilly was up 6-5. Lilly then steps up to serve and with a strong 100 mile an hour serves up the middle, Anna can only put her racquet on the ball, and it does not clear the net. Lilly wins the set 7-6 after the tiebreak. Second Set: Anna appears to be recommitted to the match in the second set holds early and the for the first time, breaks Lilly to go up 2-0. After another strong service game Anna, is up 3-0. Anna looked like she had this gear that Lilly was not going to be able to match. But after an 8-minute 3 deuce game, Lilly finally got on the board and down, 3-1. It took Anna less than 3 minutes to take a 4-1 lead and it was looking bad for Lilly. Lilly looked like she was pressing and at 30-40, double faulted so she was behind 5-1. Anna served out the set with her 8th Ace of the day and completed the set 6-1. Third Set: Now with the match tied at 1 set all, Lilly initiated the set, and just like the first set won easily the first game of the set. Anna matched with an easy hold only giving up a point when she double faulted at 15-love. The rest of the set went quickly and soon it was 5 all with Lilly serving with a chance to go up 6-5. At 40-30, Lilly hits a wide serve which Anna simply barely gets over the net, Lilly hit the ball into the opposite corner for a clean winner. Anna is serving to force a match tiebreak and immediately goes up 30-0 and we fear for a match tiebreak. Anna shows her rust and double faults to let Lilly back in and with the opening Lilly fires another backhand down the line, and the game is 30-all. Now with a new intensity, Lilly returns another strong serve, and wins the point when Anna hits the ball into the net with her shot. For the first time Lilly has the chance to win the match. At that point Tennis Channel coverage again goes live with the match Anna showed her veteran ways and hit a strong serve wide Lilly was able to get the ball back to the baseline but Anna hit behind Lilly for a winner. Deuce now, and Anna hit a serve down the T and Lilly must have guessed it well and hit an inside out backhand cross court out of the reach of Anna to give Lilly a second match point with a break point. Anna hit the net with her first serve and set-up a match point with her second serve to Lilly. Lilly caught the wide second serve and hit a backhand screamer down the line out of Anna’s reach. With that shot Lilly qualified for the main draw of the US Open. Lilly screams with the results, falls to the ground, and covers her eyes. We can hear her sobbing intently and we could see the tears streaming down her face when she got up to give Anna a handshake at the net. ESPN Broadcast booth: Well Pam I guess we must tip our hat to you. Lilly Jarman was much more the aggressor in this match. Patrick McEnroe says, who would have thought that this American who could not get enough money to continue her play, now plays for her grandmother’s home country, and now South Korea will have a flag in the main draw. On court Interview: Brad Gilbert says to still shaking Lilly, so Lilly we can see how much this win means to you. I want to ask you what you thought after the first match point was lost and Anna was then serving at deuce. Lilly responded, I thought 2 more points to play, and you will achieve the dream for the year. No seriously, all I could think of what my coach kept telling me in practice, it is one point at a time, and remember what your weapon is and figure out how to use it. Lilly, I see your parents are here for the match what do you have to say to your family and boyfriend. Can you please take me shopping I only brought enough clothes to get through 2 days of qualification. I think I need some clean new clothes for the first round.