From tennis fan to world-class competitor: Though Jason Keatseangsilp's US Open debut didn't go as he wanted on the scoreboard, the 27-year-old American is only taking the positives from his first-ever Grand Slam match.
"I've been to the US Open as a spectator before, and to actually be a player now, it's crazy," he said Wednesday after a 6-0, 6-1 loss to 11th-ranked Ruben Spaargaren in Round 1 of the men's wheelchair singles event at the US Open Wheelchair Championships presented by Deloitte.
"I mean, just passing by players in the locker room, just being around everyone ... It was a tough loss, definitely a tough experience being on the match court, but I think towards the end, even though it was a tough match, I enjoyed it and I gave it all I had."
Keatseangsilp, ranked No. 35 in the world, is one of four Americans competing at this year's US Open, joining Casey Ratzlaff, Dana Mathewson and David Wagner. Though Wagner was the only one of the quartet to win his singles match on Wednesday, the home country having representation in all five of the competition's events (including juniors) is a notable accomplishment. Over the last 12 months, the red, white and blue has been staking its credentials to the top of the game: Keatseangsilp reached a career-high ranking in June; Ratzlaff cracked the Top 15 in July; Mathewson became the first American woman to win a Grand Slam title when she triumphed with Yui Kamiji at Wimbledon; and Maylee Phelps is the second-ranked junior girl in the world.
While Wagner and the recently-retired Nick Taylor have had legendary, Hall of Fame-worthy careers in the quad discipline, no American man has won a Grand Slam title in men's wheelchair singles or doubles in the sport's history. Ratzlaff, 23, hopes that he, Keatseangsilp, 22-year-old Conner Stroud, and the U.S.'s highest-ranking junior boy Charlie Cooper could be the ones to change that.
It's, in fact, already started: Earlier this year, Ratzlaff, Stroud and Keatseangsilp helped the U.S. to a fourth-place finish in the men's division at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup: the wheelchair counterpart to the Billie Jean King Cup and the Davis Cup. The was the highest finish for the U.S. in the competition since 2003.
"We're the next generation," Ratzlaff said after a tight 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 Round 1 loss to Tom Egberink, who's ranked No. 8 in the world. "We're the young generation. Dana is finding a second wind in her career. She's had a little bit of a longer career, comparatively to us anyway, and she's finding a second wind and playing very well right now. She's doing great on her side. As far as U.S. guys, we're young, we're learning and we're talented.
"The World Team Cup, it was an incredible result for us. I think that really did a lot for our confidence as a team, like we are capable of this. We definitely see ourselves as the next generation and we're the up-and-comers replacing all the greats on tour. That's our potential."
For now, the goals are much shorter-term. Keatseangsilp says that the US Open's decision to expand its wheelchair player field in the men's and women's events to include 16 players, and the possibility of that growth coming to other Grand Slams, is something that motivates him to keep getting better.
"The Paralympics is the pinnacle of wheelchair sports, and I would say that it also is in tennis, but I think tennis is unique in that we have four majors," he said. "When I first started playing wheelchair tennis, one of my dreams was the Paralympics, and I wasn't even thinking about a Grand Slam just because it was just eight players with then one wild card. It was a tall task.
"Now that they've expanded it, it's given opportunities not just for me, but just players around the world. ... There's a tangible goal, a target goal, for players to achieve."
