Hey, She’s Already a Big Name : Tennis: Madagascar’s Dally Randriantefy, 17, advances to third-round Australian Open matchup against Pierce.

The future of tennis is not out there smacking a two-handed backhand in a country club. The future of tennis is skipping down a dusty road kicking rocks. The future of tennis is not freckle-faced.

The people who run tennis know this and are even now scouring the developing world for the raw material that will become this sport’s next wave. The fruits of that search are here at the Australian Open.

Meet Dally Randriantefy of Madagascar. The 17-year-old is causing a sensation, having climbed through qualifying into the women’s main draw and, to the shock of many, has easily beaten her first two opponents.

Victories over Florencia Labat and Patricia Tarabini have landed Randriantefy (Rand-ree-AN-teffy) a meeting in the third round on Friday against fourth-seeded Mary Pierce.

“I’ve won five matches and now I’m going to play the No. 5 in the world, that’s exciting,” she said, sitting at a table in the player’s cafeteria. Randriantefy, whose first languages are French and Malagasy, speaks English in a lilting singsong, careening up at the end of each sentence, like a question?

Where she came from and how she got here is the story of how tennis, the International Tennis Federation in particular, is reaching out to bring all of the world into the game.

Randriantefy was discovered at age 12, when Swiss hotelier Nick Possa saw her playing at a club in Antananarivo, the Madagascan capital. Possa abandoned his own game that day to watch Randriantefy.

“I stopped playing,” he said. “I saw this concentration, the fighting spirit. I was not a tennis expert, but I saw something. She inspired me. I had a little chat with her, then I spoke with her father. We had straight away a good feeling. We said, let’s go ahead together.”

Possa organized a group of friends to help sponsor Randriantefy and her younger sister. Randriantefy twice won the African Junior Championship and in 1992 she became part of the ITF’s junior development program. The program is funded by $2 million a year, money generated by the the much-criticized Grand Slam Cup, the world’s most lucrative tennis tournament.

Regardless of its source, the money is building tennis courts in Zimbabwe and is subsidizing player development in Vanuatu and the Cook Islands. If tennis is to grow, and its officials agree it must, the seeds must be planted across the globe.

Even with the extensive scouting network, Randriantefy’s emergence from Madagascar is unlikely. Madagascar is an island the size of Texas in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of Africa. Before Randriantefy’s ascension, the country’s most famous athlete was Jean-Louis Ravelomanatsoa, who made the final in the 100 meters at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968.

Randriantefy grew up in Antananarivo. She begged to play tennis at age 8 after watching her college professor father coaching other children.

It was at the same time that Randriantefy gained the most striking aspect of her features. Randriantefy was self-conscious about a scar that remained after she was struck by a rock on the bridge of her nose. On her own, she decided to have a small gold star pierced over the spot.

The jewelry may have foreshadowed her tennis future. She was one of the youngest athletes at the 1992 Olympics, where she was eliminated in the first round. But her tenacity became apparent. Craig O’Shannessy, an Australian coach who has been working with Randriantefy here, said the teen-ager is the toughest competitor he has ever seen.

“She’s nails, she’s ultra-competitive and will never, ever give up on any point,” he said.

To Randriantefy, it’s only natural to play hard.

“Yes, fighting after all the balls, you must fight,” she said. “Because I want to win, of course. I don’t like losing. I want to be first.”

Randriantefy is not likely to beat Pierce, but with her showing so far she has been able to appease her sponsors, who had threatened to cut her off if she didn’t begin making her own money. Randriantefy came into the tournament ranked No. 243, and even if she loses she’ll move up to No. 150.

All of which delights the ever-smiling Randriantefy.

“It’s different now,” she said. “People are looking after me more and kind. Nicer. The other players don’t know me yet. I don’t have good contact with them.

“But I am not nervous. Before the matches, I am just thinking, ‘I am the challenger, they have more pressure than me.’ It is very nice.”