For the second year, anyone can compete for a wild card into the US Open Qualifying Tournament! Tennis Channel Producer Brandon Moglen again thinks this is his once in a lifetime opportunity. Check back regularly as Brandon chronicles his journey to qualify for the US Open. Want to drop Brandon a line? email him here.

6/13 - Taylor Dent’s Prediction

How about this for coincidence -- Taylor Dent’s former hitting partner was none other than Alexander Reichel. Taylor is probably the only person in the world that has hit with both Reichel and me – so he’s in a unique position to assess our matchup. Below, I post his candid responses to a few emailed questions.

Question #1

BM: I play Alexander Reichel in the first round. How would you describe his game?

TD: Alex has a very solid all around game. There aren't too many weaknesses to exploit.

Question #2

BM: Reichel had a world ranking for 19 years … what is it about his game that allowed him to be so competitive for so long?

TD: Alex hit the ball with a very nice heaviness, or quality to the ball off of every stroke. He struggled with many injuries over his career, otherwise I'm sure his ranking would have been higher.

Question #3

BM: You’ve hit with Reichel and with me. Do I have any chance of beating him?

TD: Zero chance.... I guess there is never a 100% anything in life.... So I give you a .0000001% chance.

Question #4

BM: Alright, you don’t think I can beat him. But if you were a betting man – what are the odds of me winning one game?

TD: Only chance of you getting a game is charity.

Question #5

BM: If I win one game, are you willing to commit to dropping and popping off another 40 pushups?

TD: Alex is a nice guy. So he might donate a couple games... No bet

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June 9 - One Game

The draw came out.    It could have gone one of three ways.  There was a 20% chance I’d face a former pro or D1 college player that would be big, big trouble.  There was a 20% chance I’d go up against a player far below my level that I would handle fairly easily. And finally there was the muddled middle where I’d be in a dogfight. 

Well, the draw Gods have spoken … and they have smited me with big, big trouble in the first round.

Trouble in the form of a 6’4 former pro named Alexander Reichel.  Reichel held a world ranking for 19 consecutive years … most recently in 2007.  His last tour match was against current world #9 Mardy Fish, where he lost a respectable 6-1, 6-4.

I would shave my eyebrows for a 6-1, 6-4 loss to Reichel.  In fact, against a guy like this,  it’s time to revise my US Open Dreams goal, and get a little real.  My goal is to win one game.

Last year I lost 6-0, 6-0 to one of the best 18 year olds in the nation.  This year, I’m going up against one of the best 40 year olds in the nation.   It really is a credit to the US Open Pre-Qualifying tournament that an average Joe like me can have the opportunity to have his ass kicked by players from all over the age spectrum. 

Alexander Reichel is a world class, albeit older world class player.   It would have been nice to sort of play my way into the tournament, work up to a player of Alexander Reichel’s caliber.  But that’s not the case.  I’m playing one of the world’s - and certainly southern california’s - best players in the first round.   

I’ve done my due diligence and got the rundown on Reichel.  Huge first serve. Hard, flat groundstrokes.  Stands close to the baseline and loves to catch the ball early.  One coach that knows his game well hesitated when I told him who I play.  Then he said “Be prepared to run a lot.” Yeah. Thanks. 

Despite the odds and despite the fact that on paper there is nothing suggesting I have a chance … I still, perhaps foolishly, can’t help but believe. Perhaps this is the day I zone out of my mind and he plays the worst tennis of his life.  Tennis can be mercurial and cruel – and that goes for me and the greatest players in the world. 

I’ve been a tennis player all my life.  Foolishly, and perhaps sadly, I have my pride.
For better or worse part of my sense of self and self esteem rests on my abilities on a tennis court.  Last year I lost in the first round of the US Open Pre-Qualies 6-0, 6-0.  Couldn’t even scratch out a game.  And while my opponent was a much better player – that still hurt.  And it’s going to hurt again if I can’t get a game against Reichel.   

So the gauntlet has been thrown down.  Win one game.  I don’t care how big his serve is, how hard he hits or what he’s accomplished – I’m not making any excuses.  Winning one game is an achievable goal and if I don’t get it I’m going to be embarrassed and pissed.  Double Bagels in back to back years?  F*** that.  I am laying it all out.  One game.  One point, then one game. 

And if I get one game … well, then 2 games.  And if I’ve done it twice, why not 3 … 

It’s on. Monday morning.  10:30 A.M.  Claremont Tennis Club.  If you like rooting for underdogs … now’s your chance.

May 15 - Bud's Beat

My goal all along has been to win one round in the US Open.   Accomplishing this, in the most traditional view of this task, increasingly seems insurmountable.  I’d need to win 5 rounds in my sectional playoff, 4 rounds in the national playoffs, then 3 rounds of US Open Qualifiers, and of course – a main draw US Open match.

And while my tennis game isn’t world class, both my sense of delusion and vocabulary are.  And by combining denial with a mastery of the English language – I’ve come up with a plausible way to win a round in the 2011 US Open.  It’s simple really:

I have decided that winning a round in the US Open National Playoffs means a player has won a round in the US Open.  While hard to prove, it’s almost impossible to disprove.  I mean, the winners of the US Open National Playoffs get a chance to qualify for the US Open.  Winning a match in the national playoff causes a small ripple, which is compounded several times before finally – one player reaches the qualies of the US Open.  Indeed, in a small way, last year I was a part of the grand totality of the US Open.

Consider:  Blake Strode won the National Playoff in 2010.  He beat the guy that beat the guy that beat me in the National Playoffs.   He went on to lose in the second round of qualification at the US Open to Ivan Dodig. Dodig went on to qualify for the main draw of the US Open, and won a round.  He then lost to Thiemo de Bakker in the second round, who lost to Robin Soderling in the third round. Soderling beat Alberto Montanes before losing to Roger Federer in the Quarters.  Federer lost to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, who then lost to Rafael Nadal in the finals. 

In short, 2010 Champion Rafael Nadal beat a guy who beat a guy who beat a guy who beat a guy who beat a guy who beat a guy who beat a guy who beat a guy who beat me.   That’s right friends … if you look at it mildly askew – I sort of lost to Rafael Nadal in the 2010 US Open. 

And with this, I go into the 2011 US Open National Playoff with new purpose and even hope – now all I have to do is win one match in June and I get to tell anyone who will listen that I’ve won a round in the US Open.  Even more daunting than winning a round will be to find someone who will listen.  Of course, how much time do you have?  we can delve into the meaning of “listen” … 

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May 10 - Taylor's Serve

We’ve all asked the question.  What would happen if we went up against a real live professional player?  How many games/points would we get against a Roger Federer, a Rafael Nadal,  a Serena Williams? 

For most of us, the answer to the games question is an easy one.  Zero. Zero with a capital Z.  A capitalized, bolded, underlined, italicized Zero.  No way you break their serve.  So that leaves 6 service games - of which you will not win any of them.  Your sneaky slice?  They’ll kill it. Your big banger up the T?  They’ll kill it. Your second serve? Duck, brother - that one could hurt on its way back.

Now - could the typical player win a few points?  That’s a more interesting question. I mean, even the great ones make errors.  And the typical player hits so differently than what a pro is used to, it might take a little bit for the pro to adjust to our sad, slow pace.   So sure, the typical player may win a point or two. 

Way to go.

I had the rare opportunity to go up against a truly world class player.  Taylor Dent has one of the best serves the world has ever seen.  At his top he clocked in at 148 mph, and he routinely was ripping them above 130.    During the course of a shoot for Tennis Channel Academy – he took me up on a bet.  If I could return just one serve out of ten, he’d do 40 pushups. If not, I’d attempt  to do 40 pushups.  I mean, we only had the court for another hour.

Anyways, the video sort of tells the tale of the tape. 

SPOILER ALERT!!!  Watch the video to see how it all went down.  Or just continue the lost art of reading.

Strategy One:  Just play

At first I just tried to return the serve, like I would against a human being. Clearly, that was a flawed strategy.  In addition to the unearthly pace, and the slice going into the fence … the trickiest part was the disguise. The toss was in the same spot every time, the motion unreadable, and the ball was on me quicker than I had time to react.  

Strategy Two:  Guess

For the next few, I realized I had to guess T or wide … because I just wasn’t quick enough to make any adjustments once the ball was on its way.  Naturally, when I guessed wide he’d bang it up the middle. I guessed T and he carved it out wide.  I actually made the right choice on a blast up the middle – and managed to block a backhand into the net tape.  But in this game, hitting the tape meant pushups.   I was down to my last few chances – but I still had one more trick up my sleeve.

Strategy Three:  Bait Him

I had been aced on 6 serves, and got close on one.  So I only had 3 more to go.   If I could make contact, I felt I had a fighting chance of getting the ball back in play. Remember – we weren’t talking about winning the point - all I had to do was block it back in play and Taylor was dropping and giving me 40. 

So I tried baiting him.  On the deuce side, I stood very near the middle of the court along the service line.  He had to have seen the massive amount of court available to him if he sliced it out wide.  Just before he made contact, I took a huge step to cover the wide serve.  I was shocked when I realized my gambit might have worked - he was actually going out wide. 

What happened next was all animal instinct.  I tried to keep my wrist firm, my weight moving forward, aim safely … and incredibly … I had returned one of Taylor Dent’s serves.   The ball fell harmlessly in the middle of the court, but I celebrated like I had just won Wimbledon. 

I was so grateful for the opportunity to try to return Taylor’s serve, I almost asked him not to do the pushups.  Almost.  And like the great sport he is, he dropped and paid his debt.

But the experience taught me a lot.  I mean, we all know the pros are better than us.  But this just reinforced the magnitude of the distance.  I screamed like a schoolgirl because I simply got a serve back in play.  It was like a seminal moment in my tennis career.  And yet that was a far cry from winning that point.  Or a game.  Or a set. Or a best of 5 set match.  Yeah … I’ve got a ways to go before I qualify for the US Open.

On the other hand, if I can get Taylor Dent’s serve back … anything’s possible, right?

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May 9 - And so it begins.....again

Insanity has been defined as making the same mistake and expecting a different result.  If that’s the case … color me nuts.

Once again the USTA is opening up qualification for the US Open to anyone, and once again I’m tossing my wristband into the ring.  Granted, things can only get better from last year. Literally. After a 6-0, 6-0 first round embarrassment, the only way is up.  But I have three reasons for optimism in 2011. 

First, I’m serving bigger.  I win points outright with it, and never get hurt. Second, I’ve spent the past year developing my forehand into a weapon, and I’m super confident with it. Finally, I am motivated like never before – because now I’m a dad.  Tyler Lucas Moglen was born a few weeks after the last US Open debacle (thankfully).  Being humiliated is never awesome. Being humiliated in front of your son sounds worse.  

But I have every intention of doing Tyler proud.  Tyler can’t talk.  He’s only 10 months old, but I definitely sense what’s going through his mind.  Often I hold him and can see him looking up at me, staring deep into my eyes, looking at me as if to say ““Dad, I’m so disappointed in you.”

I know son.  6-0, 6-0 is tough to swallow.  But quitting after a 6-0, 6-0 loss is worse. And so we go to 2011.  Another year. A bigger serve. A refined forehand. A renewed sense of purpose.  2011 is gonna be the year.  For what?  Stick with me dear reader … we’ll find out.

Here’s what former world top 20 Taylor Dent thinks of my chances.