FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. - With Arthur Ashe Stadium providing the backdrop, more than 170 tennis players of all ages and levels came out on Day 1 of play for the US Open National Playoffs USTA Eastern Sectional Qualifying Tournament held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Everyone was competing for the ultimate prize—a spot back at the National Tennis Center in August to compete in the US Open.

 

For the third year, the US Open National Playoffs are being held as a series of sectional qualifying tournaments in 13 USTA Sections throughout the country. The men’s, women’s and mixed doubles champions from each then tournament advance to the championships in New Haven, Conn., in August, which will be held in conjunction with the New Haven Open at Yale, an Emirates Airline US Open Series event.

 

The men’s and women’s singles champions earn a wild card into the US Open Qualifying Tournament, held the week prior to the US Open. The US Open National Playoffs mixed doubles champions receive a main draw wild card into the 2012 US Open.

 

Players from all walks of life battled on the first day in Flushing Meadows, including a professor, a doctor, a violin instructor, a lawyer, charitable ambassadors, a former hockey player, and a journalist, as well as junior standouts, current and former collegians, mothers and fathers, a set of twins and tennis teaching pros. Even though each player had a different background and reasons for competing, the passion for tennis was evident in all players.

 

Fred Weiland, 51, of Mamaroneck, N.Y., was a former tennis pro in Port Chester, N.Y., and was injured in an accident four years ago. His doctors told him that he may never play tennis again, but he was determined to return to the courts. Through training and practice, he has healed and decided that the US Open National Playoffs was the best way to get back to his love for tennis; this event was Weiland’s second tournament since the accident.

 

Coincidently, in the first round, Weiland faced 18-year-old Zachary Jonas, of New Rochelle, N.Y. During the match, Weiland felt that Jonas looked like someone who had attended his New Rochelle camp years ago. The two opponents soon realized that they indeed had a history. For Jonas, the match brought back great memories of playing in that camp. And for Weiland, it brought him a sense of pride to see a young player that he once taught play so well years later.

 

In the end, Jonas defeated his former coach 6-0, 6-2, but both found happiness in finding each other and Weiland was satisfied returning to the game against someone he helped along the way.

 

Another tennis passion was shown through David Spellman, 45, of Melville, N.Y., who has Crohn’s Disease. Spellman roamed the grounds, smiling, on Day 1 after getting a bye in the first round. Since last year, he has had two medical procedures to correct an intestinal clog. Spellman has fully recovered and will hit the courts for the first time in six months by competing in the Playoffs. He was not sure how his body would feel during his upcoming match, but tennis is something his disease will not let him take away.

 

"There is nowhere else I would want to come back than here where the US Open is," Spellman said. "How can I not get excited to play again? This is a great opportunity to see where I am at."

 

Additional winners on Day 1 included 2012 Ivy League Rookie of the Year Winston Lin, who was featured in The Wall Street Journal in April for generating "Linsanity" at Columbia with his strong play, in reference to generating the same kind of buzz around school that the strong play of New York Knicks rookie Jeremy Lin did for basketball fans this year. Also playing was 2011 Eastern Sectional Qualifying Tournament runner-up Magda Okruashvili; Nicholas Leone, who played pro hockey for two years and is now a successful financial executive; former systems and testing analyst and current Cardio Tennis instructor Barbara Ordes; and Anthony Assal, who learned to play tennis through the New York Junior Tennis League, a branch of the USTA National Junior Tennis and Learning network (NJTL).

 

The day concluded with a clash between two promising juniors who train at the grounds of the US Open when locals Rima Asatrian and Louisa Chirico drew each other in the first round. Both teenagers practice with each other every day at the National Tennis Center as a part of the USTA Player Development program, where they also train alongside the No. 2-ranked American woman Christina McHale and 2009 US Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin. After swapping the first two sets, the juniors battled it out in the third set with Asatrian winning 0-6, 6-0, 7-6(5).

 

Play continues through Saturday, June 16, where four players will move one step closer to achieving their tennis dreams and furthering their passion to make it on the US Open stage.