POSITIVE RESULT

 

Check-out time finally came for Jesse Witten.

He spent two weeks at Flushing Meadows, the first working his way through U.S. Open qualifying and the second pulling off two upsets, then putting a scare into No. 4 Novak Djokovic before finally bowing out.

Could this run, which ended with a 6-7 (2), 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-3 loss to Djokovic on Saturday, be a career changer for the 276th-ranked player?

"I hope it is, because I mean, I don't want to deal with being ranked 200, 300 anymore," Witten said. "It would be nice to be able to use this."

Players ranked 200 or 300 travel alone, get few perks and often find themselves in the spot Witten was in earlier in the week, when he and a few buddies who came to watch him all crashed in his hotel room in Manhattan. A night or two, they figured. Instead, the stay lasted a whole week, the fan base grew and Witten found himself trying to parcel out his allotment of 22 tickets.

"Finally, I'm like, 'OK, I can't do it,"' he said. "I put one of them in charge of it."

Witten earned $48,000 for his trip through qualifying and into the third round. His ranking will rise about 70 spots, as well. It will keep him in the game - not always a given for a 26-year-old four-time NCAA All-American from Kentucky.

"It makes me want to keep playing. It gives me some money to keep playing," he said. "I love tennis. I love competing. It's a tough lifestyle, obviously, when you're in the lower levels."

AP