NEW YORK -- Christina McHale came to her first U.S. Open when she was 10 years old, which seems like a long time ago until you realize she's only 17 now.
The Englewood Cliffs native won her first professional tennis match Tuesday in the tournament she has always loved so much, defeating Slovenian Polona Hercog in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, before a throng of family and friends who packed the bleachers on Court 10.
"The U.S. Open's my favorite tournament of the year, so it was really exciting to come out there and get a win,'' McHale said. "When I first got out on the court, I got a rush of excitement and nerves. It's a great feeling to play here.''
With the win, McHale, 5-foot-5 and ranked No. 381 in the world, will get to play another match in her favorite tournament -- a second-round meeting with former No. 1 Maria Sharapova, who defeated Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova, 6-3, 6-0, Tuesday night.
"I think it'll be real exciting,'' McHale said.
But that's something McHale will worry about Wednesday night, after she plays her doubles match with Asia Muhammad. Tuesday night was a night for feeling good, and for going out for a nice dinner after the match, and then home for a good night's sleep -- if that was possible.
McHale, who is starting her senior year of high school (she has gone to school online since attending The Academies at Englewood as a freshman), got a wild-card entry into the U.S. Open after winning the USTA Girls' 18 National Championship last month in California.
She has improved rapidly over the past two years because she has been "getting more match play at this level, and getting more confidence playing against pro players.''
In January, McHale played in the Australian Open, and lost a three-set match to Aussie Jessica Moore, 6-1, 3-6, 7-9. So Tuesday night's result, beating a player ranked 300 places higher than her (Hercog is No. 81 in the world) represents a major leap forward.
Not that McHale had really thought much about all that.
"It's still kind of sinking in,'' she said.
It had been a long day at the U.S. Tennis Center for McHale. She splits her time living part of the year in Englewood Cliffs and part in Boca Raton, Fla. For this tournament, she is staying at home, and she got to Flushing Meadows around 12:30 p.m.
She had already hit for 45 minutes in New Jersey, so when she arrived at the Tennis Center she had a little lunch and then hit again at 1:45 p.m. Then she sat around until her match started, at about 5:45. That's a lot of time to think.
Still, she'd played on these courts many times as a junior player, so that part was okay, and everything worked like clockwork, as Hercog folded up in the second set.
When she got to match point, McHale insisted she didn't start celebrating early.
"I never really was like, 'I got it, this is over, now,' '' she said. "I was like, 'I want to get this over right now, and not give her a chance to come back.' ''
Original article can be found at http://www.nj.com/sports/njsports/index.ssf/2009/09/englewood_cliffs_native_christ.html
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