Clervie Ngounoue, a 17-year-old Washington native aiming to become the next American tennis star, will play in her first Grand Slam main draw at the U.S. Open.
It was an impressive win in her first WTA event, a full circle moment that also felt like a kickoff: Ngounoue was fresh off winning the Wimbledon girls’ singles title with blue braids in her hair and an audacious backhand slice. After losing her second-round qualifying match in Washington, she went on to San Diego, where as the second-ranked girls’ junior player in the world she won the U.S.
Ngounoue turned 17 in July, the middle child of Cameroonian immigrants who settled in Washington and found the city’s vast network of park courts a perfect place to foster Ngounoue’s father Aime’s longtime love of tennis. Jenkins knows every juniors player has a strenuous ascent to the pros. Losses, especially in an individual sport, can wreak havoc on a still-developing mind without the right support system in place. Drive can fade or wither under pressure. Injuries can pile up and halt momentum before a player really gets going.But Jenkins says Ngounoue is meeting all of the right checkpoints.
“At this stage in their career, if you’re looking to play professional tennis, those habits have to match up with being a professional,” Jenkins says. “Our job is to make things clear. Here’s the path. Here’s the blueprint. There’s been millions of players before you, and success leaves clues and hints.”
The win unlocked a new level of self-confidence that was previously unfamiliar to the teen, a feeling that she’ll try to replicate as she plays in New York. She wants to be free of expectations at the U.S. Open — where she can still compete in the junior tournament, which takes place during the event’s second week, if she loses early in the main draw — because she had none at Wimbledon and that worked out all right.
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