MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — For most young tennis players, and particularly those from the United States, there is no greater dream than to play in the U.S. Open.
For Jacqueline Cako of Brier, that dream came true in August.
A four-time All-American at Arizona State University, the 23-year-old Cako advanced through a national qualifying tournament to earn a place in the U.S. Open, one of the premier events in professional tennis. Indeed, it was easily the pinnacle in Cako’s pro career to date.
“It was definitely the coolest thing for me,” said Cako, who competed in mixed doubles with partner Joel Kielbowicz of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. “I did the junior U.S. Open a couple of times, but that doesn’t even come close to the U.S. Open.”
The two-week tournament “is what people imagine pro tennis to be like,” she said. “You have a car that picks you up at whatever time you need, and the sponsor car was Mercedes so it was a nice car. And anything you could possibly need at the courts, you get. They have a whole salon. Free massages. Basically anything that’ll help you play better, it’s there.”
Likewise, the tennis experience was thrilling but, alas, brief. Cako and Kielbowicz lost their opening match 7-5, 6-3 to Americans Taylor Townsend and Donald Young, a duo that went on to reach the semifinals.
Trailing 4-3 in the second set, Cako was serving with a chance to even the set. The game score reached 40-15, but Townsend and Young battled back to win and then closed out the match in the next game.
“We got really unlucky on my service game,” Cako said. “Taylor shanked a return winner over my partner’s head into the corner. And then I hit a ball down the line at (Young) and I really nailed it, but he hit a volley that hit the top of the net and rolled over. So it was just really, really unlucky.
“We definitely had a chance. It’s not like we got blown off the court. It was a close match, and it really came down to a couple of points here and a couple of points there.”
But if the outcome was disappointing, the overall experience was memorable. In the locker room and elsewhere on the grounds, Cako mingled with some of the game’s top players. She signed scores of autographs for fans. She was photographed repeatedly at practice. And her match was not only televised, it was played on the Grandstand court in front of an estimated 5,000 spectators, easily the largest crowd of her career.
“The U.S. Open is a completely different atmosphere compared to any other tournament,” she said. “Just walking out of the tunnel and into the stadium, I was like, ‘That’s a lot of people!’ And there were so many cameras. It was overwhelming.”
The uniqueness of the U.S. Open was underscored a few days later when Cako played in her next tournament. She was in Redding, California, competing in singles at a club with side-by-side courts, and in matches watched by about 10 people.
It was, she admitted with a smile, “a little bit of a letdown.”
But the grind of traveling around the country and playing in smaller venues for modest paychecks is all part of a journey that Cako hopes will lead to the higher echelons of tennis. In her second pro season, she ranks about 500th in the world in singles, about 200th in doubles, and she is confident of climbing to compete more regularly against the world’s elite players.
“There’s not that much difference between any of the (ranked) players, to be honest,” said Cako, who briefly attended Inglemoor High School, but was mostly home-schooled and did Running Start at nearby Cascadia Community College to accommodate her tennis schedule. “I’ve had wins over people in the top 150, so it’s not like the gap is that big. It’s really about figuring out how to play well on a consistent basis.”
Home for a few weeks, Cako is working on her game with the goal of improving her play and her ranking. She expects to stick with tennis for at least another year, but she also has a pretty good career backup plan. A biology pre-med major in the Barrett Honors College at ASU, where she graduated in three years, she wants to attend medical school someday with the hope of becoming an orthopedic surgeon.
“I decided I wanted to be a doctor when I was 5 years old. But you can only (play pro tennis) once, so I might as well get it out of my system now,” said Cako, who is winning enough money to cover travel expenses with a little bit left over.
“I’m not too far off and that’s why I want to keep going. I want to play a little longer and hopefully get up there and have a little breakthrough to be in those (major) tournaments.”
Competing regularly in Grand Slam events like the U.S. Open is “the dream,” she said. “It’s what I’ve always wanted. To be traveling all over and playing all these tournaments, that’s the tennis life we all want.”
And having been to the U.S. Open, “I’m more motivated now,” she said. “That was a huge motivator for me to want to get back again next year.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
