Britton enjoys the experience in loss to Federer
Photo credit: Getty Images | Devin Britton of the United States returns a shot against Roger Federer of Switzerland during day one of the 2009 U.S. Open tennis tournament.
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When virtual tennis comes to life, it turns into something like Devin Britton's major tournament debut against nonpareil Roger Federer Monday as the U.S. Open commenced its two-week run in Flushing Meadows.
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Britton was the lowest-ranked player in the tournament - No. 1,370 in the world - an 18-year-old wild-card entry invited to test himself against the sport's best. It made more sense as some interactive video game than a first-round match in the Grand Slam event Federer has won the last five years.
"My goal," Britton said, "was not to get crushed."
Federer won, 6-1, 6-3, 7-5, a semi-crushing. But Britton, forced to try running before he walked, acquitted himself well, ultimately drawing encouragement from the experience. Not to mention a few rousing ovations from the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd interested in seeing a fourth set.
Britton hoped "to make it interesting for a little while, at least," he said, "which I thought - I got up a break a couple of times and that was fun for the little while it lasted . . . I mean, he obviously looks good on TV, but playing against it was even tougher, you know, and also scary. I was pretty scared."
A native of Brandon, Miss., who took up tennis at 5 and followed the well-traveled road to professionalism through the Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida, Britton won the NCAA title for Ole Miss this year, the youngest male ever, and only third freshman - after John McEnroe at Stanford in 1977 and Cecil Mamitt at UCLA in 1996 - to do so.
But Monday was an ambitious step up in class, and Britton knew it. Informed by his agent late Wednesday night that he had drawn Federer in the Open's first round, Britton at first "thought it was just a bad joke," then was "excited," then "just a little bummed," given the odds.
He found the huge Ashe Stadium setting "overwhelming" and Federer's skill "unbelievable . . . his forehand is just crazy. I tried to keep it away , but sometimes I hit it there just to see it. I didn't start thinking about my own game until late in the second set. You know, [Federer's] is such a pretty game, it's fun to watch."
Given their disparity of experience, age and accomplishment, their whole show was attractive enough, though Federer was never in the least danger of losing any control. Compared with Federer's 15 major tournament titles - the record locked up with his Wimbledon victory in July - Britton could offer only a single pro-tour match, a loss in Indianapolis last month to Rajeev Ram, a fourth-year pro from Colorado ranked 114th.
Certainly, Federer understood the dynamic: "These guys start to be, like, 10 years younger than me," he said, "and they followed my generation. So it's interesting, with the new generation coming up and almost idolizing some players. Some, maybe me, I don't know, because that's what happened with me. All of a sudden, I was in front of Pete Sampras at Wimbledon and I couldn't believe it."
During changeovers, Britton said, he was thinking, "this is pretty cool. I'm sitting out here on Ashe and playing against Federer. That's awesome."
Once it was over - and it was real - Federer told Britton, "Good luck with your career."
