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By Pete Bodo
NEW YORK—This year, Marsel Ilhan learned what almost all pros eventually discover: the better you get at tennis, the harder it is to get better.
It sounds like a contradiction in terms, but the higher up you go in the food chain, the more difficult it is to come up with tweaks of strategy, technique, or fitness that enable you to rise further. It's partly because the more successful players tend to be more diligent and responsible; they all turn over every stone in the search for an edge, and have fewer weaknesses to exploit.
Most of you remember that Ilhan became a big story here two years ago, as the first player from Turkey (although he's a native Uzbek) to win a round in a Grand Slam event. He was ranked No. 231 at the time, so the result was a breakout performance (he had three wins in the qualifying and one in the main draw over Christophe Rochus, 7-5 in-the-fifth). Tennis journalists were not the only ones to notice—good-egg Roger Federer made a point to seek out Ilhan in the locker room to congratulate him and offer advice. Buoyed by his success that year, Ilhan declared that his career intention was to be ranked within the ATP Top 100 for a decade.
Ilhan finished 2009 about 50 ranking spots below his goal, but flush with motivation, he achieved it in 2010, finishing at No. 90, winning a Challenger title and a main-draw match at two majors, the Australian Open and Wimbledon. Then came the inevitable reality check. With a lot to defend and his Turkish countrymen expecting much of him, Ilhan started this year 0-9.
That partly explains why Ilhan wasn't able to make up enough lost ground to get direct acceptance into the U.S. Open main draaw. Although he's presently ranked No. 100, he was outside the cutoff when the entries closed. Thus, he was out on Court 4 today, in the first round of qualifying.
Incidentally, it was another gorgeous, clear and dry day here at Flushing Meadows, and it finally looks like the public has caught on to what has to be the best deal in town—free entry to the National Tennis Center for the qualifying tournament. Chris Widmaier, the USTA's director of public relations, told me that the attendance was 7,000 and change yesterday—today, it had to be double that number, plus.
Still, few of those spectators took notice of Ilhan's match with Poland's Marcin Gawron. At first glance, it looked almost as if Ilhan was playing his doppelganger; both men are hirsute, of slender build and nicely proportioned features, and to add to the confusion they were wearing similar attire—black shorts and predominantly white shirts. But Ilhan's superiority was evident form the get-go, even before Gawron started double-faulting his way out of contention.
Ilhan won the first set handily, 6-2, and scored an early break to go up 2-0 in the second. Serving in the third game, Ilhan played a little too loosely and fell behind 30-40. I jotted: "This is just the kind of lapse that a Top 20 player would exploit to get the break back and maybe turn things around..." But Gawron is far from a Top 20 player, except perhaps in his hometown of Nowy Sacz. Ilhan recovered to hold.
Ilhan's coach, Can Uner, is the original pioneer of Turkish tennis. Born and raised in Istanbul, Uner's father encouraged him to pursue tennis and his son later ended up distinguishing himself at Jefferson State Community College and then the University of North Alabama (go Lions!).
According to Uner, Ilhan's struggles early this year were partly caused by his attempt to incorporate some new, mostly strategic elements into his game. These include a greater willingness to attack the net—something Ilhan did with some frequency against Gawron. It helped Ilhan close out the former junior Wimbledon finalist, 6-2, 6-0.
Later, I asked Ilhan if he felt inspired, returning to the scene of his breakout. "This is a special tournament for me," he said in halting English, "And I like the conditions here. Maybe I can show good results, if not this year then next year."
Ilhan is thinking 12 months ahead because he's still processing the lessons he learned early this year, during that 0-9 start. As Uner said, "It's harder for everyone to get better when they get closer to the best players. And it's especially true for Marsel because he didn't have a junior career that could take him through some of these stages. If he'd had the opportunity we could have dealt with some of these stages earlier, but it's still a learning process for him. Day by day. Match by match."
Of his early-season losing streak, Ilhan says: "Yeah, I felt a little bit the pressure. Everybody in Turkey supports me now, and everybody say I must stay in the Top 100. Also I play second round in Grand Slams already and that makes some pressure."
But it wasn't like Ilhan was taking it on the chin form one palooka after another back in January. He lost in Chennai to the resurgent Xavier Malisse, and at the Australian Open he had a tough first-round opponent in Mikhail Youzhny. For every Lukas Rosol (Dubai) there seemed to be a Milos Raonic (Indian Wells). Having gotten off on the wrong foot, Ilhan lost confidence. "I looked to myself and I didn't understand what happened," Ilhan told me. "But I took lessons from those matches."
"Sure he felt a little bit the pressure," Uner said. "But at the same time was trying to make some changes and that made things a little more difficult. So he feel back a little bit. But we're working hard, at every part of the game and using every tool. Marsel is becoming a better all-around player."
It wasn't too long ago that a player from a remote nation with little tennis history was all alone on the tour, prey to loneliness and, worse yet, unable to avail himself of the resources open to successful players from nations with a stronger tennis history or infrastructure. But resources like video and the Internet have been invaluable in bringing even the most off-the-radar players—and newborn tennis fans—up to speed. Thus, Uner and Ilhan have been able to quick-start a tennis culture in Turkey.
"Ilhan is famous in turkey," Uner told me, when I asked about it. "Everything he does is in the news. He's probably one of the three most well-known athletes in the country."
More important, Ilhan has no financial worries—something that can't be said for, say, a Canadian or German player struggling to make his way on the Challenger and qualifier circuit. According to Uner, Ilhan has a five-year deal with Turkcell, the leading Turkish GSM company. And the suddenly active Turkish tennis federation, as well as the government, has worked hand-in-hand with Ilhan and Uner, providing them with great material support.
Now that he's back in the Top 100, Ilhan is feeling optimistic. In fact, he's modified his original career goal, and now says he believes that he has the makings of a Top 50 player, and feels confident that he'll crack that elite group sometime in the next five to seven years. Sometimes, though, Ilhan's good fortune still amazes him. In Montreal a few weeks ago, Federer contacted him and arranged for a practice session. Ilhan was thrilled, much like he had been back in 2009, when Federer sought him out in the locker room here in Arthur Ashe stadium.
"It is still sometimes hard to believe. Three years ago, I was just watching Federer on the TV," Ilhan said. "Now I am playing in all the same tournaments."