In 2011, 1,380 players (690 in men’s singles, 306 in women’s singles, and 384 in mixed doubles) competed in the US Open National Playoffs, ranging from experienced professionals—including former doubles world No. 2 and 2001 Australian Open mixed doubles champion Ellis Ferreira, two-time ATP singles champion and 1999 French Open doubles runner-up Jeff Tarango, and former NCAA singles champions Amanda McDowell and Bea Bielik—to recreational players of all talents and walks of life—including ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, who teamed with six-time US Open champion Chris Evert in mixed doubles; jewelry store owner and young-adult fiction writer Shawn Cormier of East Brookfield, Conn.; 65-year-old senior USTA League player Glenn Baxter, of Granbury, Texas; and the teenage brother-sister team of Samantha and Harrison Adams, who won the USTA Texas Sectional Qualifying Tournament.

 

In the end, former University of Arkansas All-American Blake Strode, who deferred Harvard Law School to pursue a pro tennis career, won the US Open National Playoffs men’s title for a second straight year to earn a wild card into the US Open Qualifying Tournament, where he reached the second round (also for a second straight year). Teenager Robin Anderson won the US Open National Playoffs women’s singles title, prevailing over a series of more experienced opponents. Anderson was a girls’ singles quarterfinalist at the 2010 US Open and now plays for UCLA.

 

The winners of the inaugural mixed doubles title were Christina Fusano and David Martin, who between them have won 34 USTA Pro Circuit doubles titles. The duo lost to No. 5 seeds Daniela Hantuchova and Mark Knowles, 6-2, 7-5, in the first round of the 2011 US Open mixed doubles tournament.