O’Brien Can’t Hide His Desire in Upset

He says that he never even wanted to be a professional tennis player, but Alex O’Brien wore his desire on his sleeve Thursday when he upset third-seeded Thomas Enqvist, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, in the second round of the Infiniti Open at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

O’Brien is best-remembered for his performance for Stanford at the 1992 NCAA men’s tennis tournament, in which he became the first man to win the team, singles and doubles championships the same year.

O’Brien has struggled last year on the tour in singles, however, falling to No. 262 in the rankings. Enqvist is ranked No. 11.

“I finally believed in myself, I think that was the difference,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien’s confidence showed in his serve--he had 17 aces against Enqvist, never double-faulted and made 64% of his first serves.

He also showed little fear in the face of the hard-serving Swede, frustrating Enqvist by returning his normally over-powering serve.

Enqvist appeared to crumble in the third set when he sent an easy backhand into the net to put O’Brien up two breaks, 4-0. But Enqvist fought back in the next game, enticing O’Brien into a slugfest from the baseline before winning it to break back, 4-1.

“It surprised me that all of a sudden, bam, I was up 4-0 and I got a little tight and he got loose. That’s what happens in tennis,” O’Brien said.

Enqvist came back to tie it, 4-4. But later, serving at 6-5 with the game score tied, 15-15, Enqvist missed three easy backhands--including one on match point.

“You can’t do that in this kind of a game. You’re going to lose it,” Enqvist said.

Enqvist won five titles in six tournament finals last year--the only one he lost was at Los Angeles to Michael Stich. Enqvist also officially joined the elite group of Swedes, Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg, when he finished the year as the top-ranked player from his country.

But Enqvist has struggled recently--failing to advance to the quarterfinals in his last seven tournaments. At the Olympics, Saturday, he lost in the third round.

“I wouldn’t call it a crisis. You need to win matches like these kinds of matches, the close ones,” Enqvist said.

Notably, the last time O’Brien advanced to the quarterfinals in a tournament, in Cincinnati in 1994, he also defeated Enqvist to get there.

At that tournament at Cincinnati, he was the qualifier’s lucky loser, meaning he was the highest-ranked player who didn’t qualify for the main draw. He only advanced to the main draw because someone withdrew.

O’Brien took a similarly hard-paved route to the main draw at the Infiniti Open. O’Brien advanced to the quarterfinals of a challenger tournament at Aptos on Friday, then he woke up at 4:30 a.m. to catch a flight to Los Angeles, Saturday, for the first two rounds of the Infiniti Open qualifying tournament. O’Brien defeated Steven Downs, 6-0, 6-2, Sunday to advance to the main draw.

Struggling through qualifying tournaments is hardly where anyone thought O’Brien would be after his career at Stanford.

After graduating from Stanford in 1992, O’Brien enjoyed success on the tour in 1994, when he reached his first tournament semifinals at Memphis and ended the year ranked No. 90. He struggled last year, however, falling outside of the top 200.

“I’ve been in quite a slump for a year and a half. I feel like the talent is there, but I have struggled, mentally,” he said.

Although he was struggling in singles, O’Brien and partner Sandon Stolle fared well in doubles, advancing to the U.S. Open doubles final last year.

Ironically, O’Brien will play Stolle in the quarterfinals today at noon. Stolle, ranked No. 71, upset fifth-seeded Jan Siemerink, 6-3, 6-7 (1-7), 6-2, in the second round.

Infiniti Open Notes

Stich, who lost to Scott Draper in the first round on Tuesday, withdrew from the ATP Championship at Cincinnati next week because of an injured shoulder. . . . In other matches, sixth-seeded Stefan Edberg defeated Jonathan Stark, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4). Four seeded players remain for today’s quarterfinals. Following the Stolle-O’Brien match, top-seeded Michael Chang will play Stefano Pescosolido of Italy. Scott Draper of Australia will play Edberg about 4 p.m. and eighth-seeded Jonas Bjorkman will play second-seeded Richard Krajicek at 7:30 p.m.