Tennis Atlantic

No, her dad doesn’t own a professional sports team and her mother isn’t related to a Kennedy. Her father was a cabinet-maker, her mother a teacher. The NYC immigrants from Ecuador scrimped and saved to make their daughter’s dream come true. And what a dream it is! Here’s Irina at her very first press conference after advancing to the CitiOpen Semifinals last month. She’s gone from #378 to #79 and is going even higher than that, having reached the final 32 of the US Open on this very night. This GA Tech Yellowjacket is going places fast, especially after her victory on Arthur Ashe tonight over Dominika Cibulkova.  This is her story.