Monday, August 5, 1996
By Grace Wen
Summer Bruin Senior Staff
Stop me if you haven’t heard this before. A relatively unknown
player escapes everyone’s attention until he is standing before
you, ready to challenge a top-ranked player in a semifinal match.
Although he loses the match, you still wonder, "Who is this guy and
where the heck did he come from?"
Every tournament has one or sometimes more of these unknowns and
the 1996 Los Angeles Infiniti Open was no exception.
Meet Sandon Stolle, a six-foot- four-inch, right-handed player
from the land down under that played his way into the semifinals
this week only to fall flat against Wimbledon champion Richard
Krajicek.
The 26-year-old Australian has been playing on the pro circuit
for five years and has been up and down in the rankings. Stolle
ended the 1995 season ranked 182 for the second consecutive year.
In 1993, he finished at 199 and in 1992, he broke into the top 100,
achieving his highest ranking at 71, which coincidentally is the
spot he now holds.
There are hundreds of players like Stolle. So what is it that
keeps these guys motivated week after week when they lose in the
early rounds tournament after tournament?
The chance to play in the quarterfinals and semifinals against
elite players, if they make it that far, is what enables players
such as Stolle to hang in there.
"As long as you can keep getting to the quarters and semis,
you’ll have a breakthrough," Stolle said.
Just about every player in tennis hopes for breakthroughs that
will propel them a notch higher in the rankings. Stolle believes
that exposure is the key to achieving such a breakthrough.
"They play high-caliber tennis, so you try to get your face into
as many matches as you can," Stolle said. "They are always playing
against each other in high-level matches at the finals every
week."
Although the ultimate goal is to be a top-ranked player, Stolle
takes everything on a tournament-by-tournament basis. He sets goals
for himself, but at the same time, he tries not to be swallowed up
by these goals.
"My goal for this year was to break the top 100 and I’ve already
done that," Stolle said.
After qualifying for the main draw, his mentality at tournaments
like the Infiniti Open is that because he is among the top 32, he
has a legitimate chance of winning.
The attitude of taking things one tournament at a time carries
over onto the court as well. During the tournaments, Stolle focuses
on winning each match so that he can advance to the next round.
"You want to get some good matches and you want to win some
matches to be as high up in the rankings as you can," Stolle
said.
Elevating their position in the rankings is the goal of all
players and Sandon Stolle is no exception.
What varies is his performance in these events. Some weeks he’s
the unknown playing fabulous tennis. Other weeks he’s like every
other unknown who loses in the first round. If he repeats
performances like the Infiniti Open, instead of spectators
wondering who he is, they’ll be wondering where he is.