Welcome to the stage, Elizabeth Mandlik.
The 21-year-old American of famous heritage made her own mark in week three of the US Open Series in San Jose, Calif. After getting a wild card into qualifying, she had a sizzling WTA main-draw debut at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Calssic.
Mandlik is the daughter of International Tennis Hall of Famer Hana Mandlikova, who reached No. 3 in the WTA rankings in 1984 and won four Grand Slam singles titles for what was then Czechoslovakia—including the 1985 US Open. Mandlik, who goes by Elli, and her twin brother, Mark, were born to Mandlikova in 2001.
Mandlik reached the main draw of the WTA 500 event with wins against Fernanda Contreras Gomez and Jil Teichmann, the top seed in qualifying. World No. 21 Teichmann would've been into the field directly had she entered on time, but instead, ran into a surging Mandlik on the Sunday before the tournament began.
From a set and a break down, Mandlik won 11 straight games in a 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory to reach her first-ever WTA main draw.
Mandlik's efforts in the main draw were equally impressive: In Round 1, she took out Alison Riske-Amritraj, ranked No. 33, in straight sets, before nearly posting the best win of her life against world No. 4 Paula Badosa. In 2 hours, 31 minutes, she fell just short after serving for the match twice, and Badosa won, 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(5).
After the match, the Spaniard said she felt fortunate to escape. "I'm still a little bit shocked about her level today," Badosa said. "I think I didn't play badly either ... She has big, big potential. I saw her the other day, and I said to my team, 'I don't know why she's not Top 100 already.'
"I think she has a great future ahead and she will be there soon playing like this."
Though the event's only been staged in San Jose since 2018, the Bay Area has a storied history in women's tennis; Mandlikova, in fact, won two of her 27 career WTA singles titles when the event was held in Oakland—a fact that her daughter learned only after her first-round match.
"I didn't know she won it twice. I didn't even know she played!" she joked after beating Riske-Amritraj. "It's super special to me. My first-ever WTA point was in California and now I'm into the second round of a tournament like this."
Mandlik was on the rise in 2022 even before arriving in San Jose, thanks in part to three $25,000 titles on the ITF World Tennis Tour. She started the season ranked No. 491 and had cut her ranking in half to her current perch of No. 240—but with her efforts in San Jose, she'll crack the Top 200 in the world for the first time in her young career.
As a junior, Mandlik reached a best-ever world ranking of No. 17. Prior to San Jose, she had previously played qualifying in four other WTA events, including at last year's US Open.
