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Toronto's Adil Shamasdin pulls off a big upset in the first round of US Open doubles
NEW YORK Toronto’s Adil Shamasdin faced one of the most accomplished teams he’s ever played against in his career on Thursday, on one of tennis’s biggest stages and with a partner he was joining forces with for the very first time.
Not a great recipe for success.
But Shamasdin and tall, big-serving Austrian Philipp Oswald make quick work out of the No. 10 seeds, Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil, in a 6-3, 6-3 first-round win.
Their vastly more experienced opponents were as high as No. 3 in the world at this time a year ago, winning five ATP Tour titles and reaching five other finals together in 2014
But on this day, everything clicked.
“I think we just played solid; we didn’t do anything too crazy, we didn’t really force anything, We played within ourselves. We had a tactic coming into the match and we execute it. I think that was the main thing,” Shamasdin told Eh Game. “We came out to a 4-1 lead, double break, I was like, ‘What’s going on here?’. We weren’t thinking too much about the score. I don’t know if they weren’t playing that well or we were playing well. But I felt pretty comfortable.”
It was Shamasdin's fifth victory at the Grand Slam level, his first since 2012. He has never gone past the second round. At 33, he's currently ranked No. 70 on the ATP Tour in doubles and starred at Ivy League Brown University a decade ago.
He lives a pretty itinerant life on the fringes of the ATP Tour, ranked high enough to get into many of the lower-level events, the 250s, filling out his schedule with Challenger-level tournaments mostly in Europe and, for the first time in Belgium in July, representing Canada in Davis Cup.
He has to deal with the logistics of trying to decide each week, when there are options, which tournament he is likely to get into and try to make travel plans. He has to forage for tennis kits and shoes; as much as it seems on the outside that professional tennis players get all this gear handed to them – at least in the minds of the fans who beg for every piece courtside after matches – that’s a privilege accorded to only the very top players.
On this occasion, his parents made the trip from Toronto by car. And his brother, who was coaching the under-14s at a big junior event in Mont-Tremblant, Que., came down from there. Not to mention many friends from his college days who live in Manhattan and generally can only keep up with his results on live scoring and the occasional video.
Shamasdin made less than $45,000 US in 2014, playing just seven tournaments at the ATP level and changing countries 23 times. So far this season, this is his 15th top-level event, but his earnings are still hovering around $65,000 US for the season.
So this victory is big, on several levels. There is the nearly $11,000 US he’ll earn for getting to the second round that will help ease the financial pressure, plus the 90 ranking points that will jump his ranking six or seven spots.
“I’ve been through this many times, so I know. It’s never that easy. We’ve put in some time and work throughout this past week, especially with Philipp being a new thing,” said Shamasdin, who was back out on the practice court later in the afternoon with Oswald, working. “I like playing with him. He’s easy going, his energy is consistent, he’s very calm and he has a very good serve,” he said. “Obviously today was exceptionally in terms of what we wanted to do, but it’s not always going to be like that. We understand that.”
The next challenge will be another unseeded team, Marcus Daniell of New Zealand and Jonathan Marray of Great Britain. They’re also another first-time pairing; it’s a great opportunity to go one more.
