UF freshman Brooke Austin competing Sunday in US Open
Sunday, August 31, 2014 | Women's Swimming & Diving, Women's Tennis, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Brooke Austin's first week as a University of Florida freshman barely lasted long enough to find where the campus Starbucks are located.
“I went to two classes,” Austin said. “That's it.”
Forgive her for bailing so soon, though. One of the newest members of the UF women's tennis team, Austin had a fairly legit excuse for splitting town.
A date at the U.S. Open.
Austin will face Russian Evgeniya Levashova in Sunday afternoon's opening-round play of the U.S. Open Junior Girls Singles competition, thus becoming a rare Gators freshman to compete in the nation's most prestigious tournament. Austin will be just the second player of Coach Roland Thornqvist's 14 seasons leading the UF program to have a player play on the hallowed courts of Flushing Meadows, N.Y., joining Lauren Embree in that elite category.
Anyone who follows Florida tennis knows how that worked out. All Embree did was lead the Gators to back-to-back NCAA championships her sophomore and junior years.
Enter Austin, a 5-foot-3, power right-hander from Indianapolis rated the No. 2 prospect in her signing class. She's no stranger to the Open, having first played there as a 13-year-old. She lost a three-set tiebreaker, cramping up along the way due to a combination of heat and nerves.
She's 18 now (and eligible one last time for the juniors bracket), but that doesn't mean the experience will be any less overwhelming. Or special.
“There's definitely something about that place,” Austin said. “Nothing can describe being an American and playing at the U.S. Open. The crowd support is amazing. Everybody there tries to help you and cheer you on. There's an electricity there that you can't describe.”
Ask Thornqvist about Austin and he gets a little electrified, too.
In his time with the Gators, the prototypical Florida player has been athletic and skilled, excelled at moving, rolling and defending, and looking for points via volleys of 15, 16 and 17 shots.
That's not Austin, he said. Her aggressive tactics and ball-striking ability makes her different. And rare.
“Brooke wants to play points in under four strokes,” Thornqvist said. “She wants to make things happen on first and second shots, and on top of that she has an uncanny knack of finding a way to win.”
Thornqvist accompanied Austin to New York and expects to see her on the attack the very first match -- and for however long she sticks around against the finest juniors field in the world.
“She's going there to try and win,” he said. “Frankly, she could lose in the first round; the competition is that good. But she could also be there the last day, too. If she plays well, there's no junior player in the world she can't beat.”
The "junior" who's really a freshman.
Barely.
“I really want to have a good tournament,” Austin said. “I really just want to go there and play my best, do what I can do. Everyone in the tournament obviously is good. I just want to play my best, fight my hardest and see what that gets me.”
