BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Stanford alum
Alex Kim, practicing at the LATC on Friday, won
the NCAA 2001 singles title.
By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Pete Sampras did it. Andre Agassi did it. Michael Chang did it.
And several of the up-and-coming Americans are also doing it.
In tennis, it’s just not a big deal when a kid decides to
turn pro without the benefit of a college degree.
Andy Roddick (age 18), Taylor Dent (20), Mardy Fish (19) and
Robby Ginepri (18) are just some who turned pro while they were
still in high school or fresh out of it. Though all except Roddick
have yet to win a tournament, some have already wondered if these
guys are the “Next Big Thing” in American tennis.
Dent, whose calling card is his big serve (clocked at 144 miles
per hour at Wimbledon, a tournament record), earned a wild card
into the Mercedes-Benz Cup and a first round match against
sixth-seeded Carlos Moya.
Dent says it wasn’t a hard decision to turn pro, which he
did just before turning 18. In fact, he decided when he began
playing at age 11 that he would skip college to turn pro.
“It was easy because my dad (Phil) played professional
tennis so it didn’t seem like that big a jump,” he
said.
 BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Taylor
Dent, who turned pro just before turning 18, snarls while
serving during a practice session Saturday. He set a Wimbledom
record with a 144 mph serve. Dent only knows the name of one
college that recruited him, USC, where his brother played.
That’s not to say that other schools didn’t recruit
him. He simply didn’t bother to look at all the mail he
received.
“For where I want to go I made the right decision,”
Dent said.
And where does he want to go?
“I want to be at the top of the game,” he said with
a definitive nod.
That’s why for Dent turning pro wasn’t just about
the money. He points out that he wanted to experience higher
quality tennis sooner.
“If I want to be one of the top players in the world, I
think I needed that at a younger age (instead of) ““ I
don’t want to say “˜wasting’ ““ a few years
of college, but you know, just not getting the same tennis for
those couple years,” Dent said.
He has no regrets about skipping college. “Not yet. I may
down the road. I love learning, so I could see myself after my
tennis career is over actually going (to college),” he said.
“As of now I like the choice I made.”
Alex Kim (20), who won the wild card shootout Friday to earn a
first-round match against Paul Goldstein, actually got his
degree.
After the shootout he pulled on a faded, well-worn Stanford
baseball cap. Asked if he was satisfied with his choice, Kim
answered, “110 percent. I’ve had an unbelievable time.
I’m totally happy that I got to graduate.”
Kim says turning pro after high school wasn’t an option;
he wasn’t good enough yet. It didn’t become an option
until after his junior year, when he won the 2000 NCAA singles
title.
“I thought about turning pro after winning the NCAA, but
my intention the whole time was to come back to school,” he
said. “It was a matter of doing well over the summer and fall
to change my mind to turn pro.”
That summer and fall, Kim, battling injuries, didn’t
perform as well as he’d hoped. So he decided to give Stanford
one more year.
“I was so close to graduating,” he said, “I
just figured I might as well help the team out.” In the
process he won another NCAA singles title and earned his economics
degree.
Kim didn’t get to walk in commencement, though. That week
he was playing in the finals of a tournament, though he made it
back in time for the economics graduation.
He points out that there are plenty of intangible benefits to
college, like “just having fun, being on your own, being able
to meet a bunch of people, party. Some of the Americans never went
to college and I think they’re missing out on a great
experience,” Kim said.
“I’m glad I got my degree. There aren’t that
many guys here that have them. You set an example for other kids
that you can get your degree and still do well in sports,” he
added.
But Kim doesn’t have a problem with all the young players
turning pro. He sees the practicality of it.
“College is all about securing yourself for the future,
and if you’re able to do that ““ like a lot of high
school NBA players ““ then I say go for it if the opportunity
is there.
“But these days, besides the Andy Roddicks and …”
he paused, then added, “besides Andy Roddick, you know,
there’s just not that much money out there.”
Bob Bryan (23), who played at Stanford for two years before
turning pro, can tell you about both sides.
Highlights of his Cardinal career include two national
championships, a singles title and a doubles title with his twin
brother Mark (the Bryans are now vying for a doubles spot on the
Davis Cup team).
They could’ve gone pro after high school, but chose
college instead.
“I was just physically immature,” said Bob, who will
play Anthony Dupuis in the first round. “We probably
would’ve been doing as well as we have been but we needed two
years to get stronger and grow as people.”
January of their sophomore year the agents began calling,
offering them deals and putting the idea in their heads that they
could make it in the big leagues. The Bryans debated all year about
what to do.
It was one of the toughest decisions they had to make. They were
settled at Stanford. They had joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon and were
completing all their basic school requirements. Most importantly,
they were part of a team and were afraid that if they left they
would let the team down.
But at the end of their sophomore year, the Bryans were on top
of college tennis with their triple titles. They decided it was
time to go pro.
“We did everything we wanted to. There was really nothing
else to do,” Bob said. “It might’ve just held us
back if we stayed another year.”
Their collective conscience rested a little better when Stanford
head coach Dick Gould, who they thought would be angry, instead
told them, “Go get them out there guys.”
To Bob Bryan, college was a positive experience, but he never
forgot what he was really there for. When asked what he majored in,
his answer was immediate: “Tennis.”