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NEW YORK — There is no doubt anywhere within earshot when Fiona Crawley is playing a tennis match.
The San Antonio native puts the “express” in the word “expressive,” exhorting herself, the crowd and anyone else she can find with her enthusiastic “come on’s!” and “right now!”
Crawley won many fans at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center but at the end of her much-rain delayed match Friday afternoon on Grandstand Court, she was surprisingly quiet.
After an almost-24 hour rain delay that came at the worst possible time — right in the middle of a final-set super tiebreaker — Crawley came out and finished off her second-round U.S. Open qualifying match by winning the last five points over Timea Babos of Hungary, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6.
The 21-year-old University of North Carolina star is now one win away from her first-ever U.S. Open main draw; she played Saturday against Australia’s Kimberly Birrell with the winner getting a spot in the Open.
“Well, I don’t usually scream and yell in the first game of a match, and that’s what this felt like today because we only played a few points,” Crawley said. “So I’m not going to go nuts when it feels like the match just started.
“But to be one match away from the Open … words cannot even express what that would mean. It’s been a dream for so long. I get emotional thinking about it,” she added.
Real storms
Crawley had maybe the most dramatic matches of anyone at the qualifying tournament. In her first-round match on Tuesday, Crawley had a big lead, up a set and a break, but then had to stave off two match points in the third set against Hungary’s Reka Luca Jani before finally prevailing, 6-1, 6-7, 7-6.
Then on Thursday, the Tar Heel star was again up a set and a break against Babos but watched the former World No.25-ranked player storm back and take the next eight games.
Then, the real storms came, and the players spent several hours getting on court, playing a few games, then stopping for more rain.
They came agonizingly close to finishing but had to stop for the night at 5-all in the final set tiebreak, then waited most of the day Friday before finishing.
“Honestly the thing that helps me most is to just not think about it at all,” she said. “I talk to friends, talk to my boyfriend, get out of my head, crack some jokes. And then today waiting all day, I woke up and felt like I had gotten hit by a train. I was so, so tired from all the stopping and starting yesterday, and so today I was thinking about the clothes I need to pack to make it through the day. Like, I need comfy clothes, and I have these flowy white pants that I like but they’re going to get dirty. ... Basically I was thinking about everything but tennis, and that helps.”
Crawley is coming off an outstanding season at North Carolina, her third, playing No.1 singles and leading the Tar Heels to the 2023 national team championship. For her efforts she was named the ITA Player of the year, given to the top collegiate performer, and Crawley also won the NCAA doubles crown with partner Carson Tanguilig.
A long way
For her career, the Alamo Heights High graduate owns a 123-11 singles record, including a remarkable 75-4 mark in dual matches.
She’s come a long way from what she calls “the most amazing place you could grow up,” when she and her family moved from Japan to San Antonio for the second time when she was nine.
“I text all my friends back home and I tell them the score of the match and they’re like “I don’t know what that means but we’re so proud of you!” Crawley said, laughing. “I had such a wonderful time living there.”
While Crawley was scratching and fighting her way toward the main draw, the University of Texas men’s star, Eliot Spizzirri, was also coming very close to his dream.
Spizzirri, who grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, only 26 miles from the U.S. Open site, has won his first two matches in his second attempt at qualifying for the main draw (in 2021 he lost in the second round), after beating fellow American Aleksandar Kovacevic, 6-4, 6-4 between raindrops Friday.
Spizzirri plays fellow American Emilo Nava on Saturday for a spot in the main draw.
“To play here is just unbelievable; I was one of these kids coming to qualifying every year getting autographs,” Spizzirri said, moments after he himself was giving autographs on giant yellow tennis balls to three little boys. “It would be a dream to make the main draw.”
Spizzirri is coming off an historic season in Austin; he became only the second Longhorn male player ever to finish the NCAA season ranked No.1, after Steve Bryan in 1990.
Playing at No.1 singles, the 21-year-old went 36-5 and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals, and he still has another year to improve.
“He was as close to perfect as you could be,” said Texas Head Coach Peter Berque. “He won every award you could, and he was just fantastic for us. I knew he was capable of being this good but you certainly can’t expect it.”
Spizzirri’s father, Peter, has been at the matches along with around 50 people from Greenwich and the Round Hill Club there, where Eliot and twin brother Nick grew up learning the sport.
“It means absolutely everything to us, to be here,” Peter said, sporting a burnt-orange UT hat. “He’s going to make the main draw one day, whether it’s this year or another one. But to see him doing well here on these courts where we used to come and watch [Roger] Federer, it’s amazing.”
