King focused following decision to turn pro:: Bonnie DeSimone for ESPN.com

One of the best parts of going to the U.S. Open is being surrounded by hundreds of writers/reporters who know (and love) tennis. It's also great to chat with a few of them, although everyone's always so busy that schedules rarely allow more than a brief conversation.

Bonnie DeSimone and I have been corresponding via email for months now and we finally met in April at the Davis Cup in Rancho Mirage. She's contacted me to thank me to linking to one of her stories back in December, and when I knew she was going to be at the Open for the duration, I made sure to say hello.

On the rainy night when stories weren't quite so pressing, we did get a chance to sit down and talk. She was interested in the Nikita Kryvonos as Davis Cup hitting partner announcement, and I told her what I knew about him and his family. She later interviewed him and I'll be linking to her story when it comes out.

Her story about Vania King is from the first week of the Open, but I missed it somehow in my focus on the upcoming junior event. I managed to catch a couple of games of King's second round women's doubles match on my way from one junior court to another, but that didn't tell me much about the jump her game has taken in the past year.

Because of Bonnie's coverage, I know how difficult a decision it was for King, even with her rapid rise in the rankings. But she didn't rush it, and I suspect she won't have any regrets.