Tyler Cleveland: Circuit Player of the Week:: usta.com

Tyler Cleveland: Circuit Player of the Week::usta.com~~~

It's not every day that a player that loses first and first (first round of main draw, first round of consolation draw) in Kalamazoo and then goes on to win back-to-back Big Ten Player of the Year awards, let alone win Futures events, but that's what Tyler Cleveland has done.

When his name began popping up deep into Futures draws this summer, I googled him and learned that he'd been an excellent college tennis player at Iowa, although he'd never been an All-American. But until Sally Milano tracked down this story, I hadn't bothered to check the Kalamazoo draws in the years he might have played here. I did tonight, and I discovered that both in 1994 and 1995, when he was 15 & 16 years old, he was two and out when playing the Nationals here in Kalamazoo. I didn't find any record of his having played when he was 17 & 18.

In many ways this is the flipside of the turning pro as a teenager coin and had he not won an event, his story would have been left untold. But it's important to remember that productive second chances like this one are as rare as Andy Roddicks. And by productive, I don't mean lucrative, because the money he's won playing Futures events since May probably hasn't covered his expenses. Rather I mean producing wins, and demonstrating your playing skill is comparable to other aspiring professionals'.
I'm glad Tyler Cleveland took his chance and made the most of his opportunity to compete. It sure beats looking back and wondering "what if?".