Blink and You’ll Miss It: Jordi Arconada of @TheJTCC Wins Pro Debut in 18 Minutes @CitiOpen
Stephan Fogleman, Tennis East Coast
As I reported early this morning, Jordi Arconada had the Junior Tennis Champions Center spotlight all to himself today at the Citi Open in Washington, DC.
I was thrilled when he won his first game and then proceeded to grab his first break of serve against tour veteran Michael Llodra. I thought the match would go on for quite some time. This was not going to be a typical blow-out qualifying win by an experienced player over a crafty young upstart. I saw on my phone that Kozlov and Groth were headed for a second set tiebreak and decided to duck over to Stadium Court for a few.
I’m now wishing I hadn’t.
A game later, Llodra called for the trainer and called it quits. Arconada got the win in retirement by a score of 3-2.
A win is definitely a win, especially when you’ve made a total of $104 on the ATP tour and your opponent has banked $8.45 million.
He’s one match away from joining his very good friend, Francis Tiafoe, in the main draw.
Tomorrow, Arconada takes on another tour vet in Alex Kuznetsov in an All-American affair. OK, an All-Americas affair. Though they reside in Maryland and sister Usue now represents the USA, Jordi is still very Argentinian. The ‘Neymar’ jerseys in the crowd should have given that away. (Tip o’ the pen to @ARhyneMoment)
Kuznetsov will be wondering why no one is cheering him on.
Nothing personal, Alex. But this is Big Jordi Country now.
Tennis Atlantic 