Coin Makes US Open Her Coming Out Party

Earlier this summer, Julie Coin was so unhappy with the state of her tennis game that she considered hanging up her rackets at the end of the year.
It’s safe to say those thoughts have been removed from her mind.
In one of the biggest upsets in tennis history, the No. 188 ranked Coin shocked top seeded Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the second round of the US Open. Prior to this week, the 25 year old Frenchwoman had never won a main draw match at the WTA Tour level and had yet to defeat a player ranked in the top 100.
“I haven’t realized that I’ve beaten the number one player in the world,” said Coin. “I’m just really enjoying this moment now. I don’t know how I’m going to sleep tonight.”
Regularly hitting first serves at 110 MPH, Coin appeared unfazed by the large crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium. On her fourth break point opportunity at 3-3 in the first set, she hit a forehand that forced an error from Ivanovic. Two games later, a backhand error from Ivanovic gave Coin the first set.
Both players held their serves until 4-3 in the second set, when Coin began to get tentative on her groundstokes and allowed Ivanovic back into the match. The 20 year old Serbian won the last three games off the match without the loss of a set.
At 2-2 in the final set, a forehand passing shot by Coin gave her the only break of the set. A double fault by Coin and forehand winner by Ivanovic erased Coin’s first two match points, but a forehand that landed long on the third match point moved Coin into a third round match up with No. 32 seed Amelie Mauresmo on Saturday.
“I’ve seen Amelie play before because she’s from my region,” said Coin. “She’s kind of an idol in France. Everybody loves her. She’s the one whose footsteps we want follow in a little bit.”
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Having turned pro in 2005 after an oustanding NCAA career at Clemson University, where she was a three time All-American ranked as high as No.2 in the country, Coin said she found it difficult to transfer her college success into solid professional results and struggled with life on tour.
Having won the majority of her matches in college, Coin found herself on the Challenger circuit, the equivalent of Triple A in baseball, regularly losing to unknown players in unglamorous locations.
“It’s really hard to compete at this (the challenger) level,” said Coin. “You have to do everything yourself and sometimes you compete in places which aren’t very nice. The level is tough too because everyone has to go through these tournaments before going on the WTA tour.”
Although she won four singles titles on the challenger circuit, Coin never managed to qualify for the main draw of a WTA event. The week before the US Open qualifying began, Coin lost in the first round of qualifying at a $50,000 challenger to Kelly Liggan, an Irish player ranked No. 423 in the world.
Despondent over her career, Coin said that results like these made her consider retiring from tennis and putting her mathematical sciences degree from Clemson to use.
“I was thinking, ‘Am I really made to play tennis?'” said Coin. “Am I going to be able to get into the top 100 one day? Because it’s not worth it unless you’re able to do that. I was thinking about maybe stopping at the end of this year.”
Through working with her mental coach at home, Coin was able to relieve herself of the doubts in her game. Regardless of what happens the rest of this tournament, Coin said she is satisfied with her performance at the US Open.
“Everybody was telling me to enjoy the moment,” said Coin. “It’s great when you win a point and everyone is getting all excited, after the match point everyone is screaming. I really don’t know how I did it. Today was just perfect.”