Hol Bounces Back From Surgery With Good Showings

Joost Hol thought he had planned the perfect summer vacation after his first year at Northwestern. Go back to his father’s homeland in Holland, visit some relatives, play his first professional tennis tournament on clay and test his skills against the Europeans.

But as Hol, a former star at Foothill High, says, “random things happen.”

How random?

Try an emergency appendectomy at midnight days after his arrival in Amsterdam.

“It was sheer pain,” Hol said.

Five days later, Hol was out of the hospital. A week after that, he was finally back on his feet.

“That was so random,” Hol said. “At least I know that’ll never come back. You only have appendicitis once. I left that in Holland.”

Apparently, he didn’t leave his tennis game overseas. In Hol’s summer debut last week in San Diego, he reached the finals of the Balboa Open as an unseeded player.

He upset third-seeded Ryan Redondo, a highly regarded junior from Vista, in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 6-3, and he took out second-seeded Derek Miller, a sophomore at Purdue, in the semifinals, 6-3, 6-1. In the finals, Hol was beaten by the top-seeded Jun Hernandez, a former San Diego State player who plays the satellite circuit, 6-1, 6-4.

Tuesday, Hol opened play in the Pro Satellite Wild Card tournament at the Claremont Club with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Adam Artunian, formerly of Woodbridge High and now a sophomore at Santa Clara.

Hol is happy to be playing well. But he’s happier to be healthy. His freshman season at Northwestern was interrupted by a severe ankle sprain that sidelined him for six weeks. He still managed to help lead the injury-riddled Wildcats to the NCAA playoffs by pulling out three match-deciding victories.

“I’ve gained a lot of experience,” said Hol, who played No. 4 singles. “Everybody is damn good. You learn to compete a little more. Losing the first set is no big deal anymore.”

Hol is also learning that academics and tennis don’t mix as well as they did in high school. An economics major, Hol struggled to a 3.0 grade-point average. But there were some sacrifices.

“The days were pretty tough during the [spring] season,” he said. “There wasn’t much time for sleep. Five, six hours were about all I got some nights.”

Another major adjustment Hol had to make was taking his game indoors.

“There were some weird backdrops,” he said. “It was hard to pick up the ball. I think I’d rather deal with the sun and the wind.”

But Hol has vowed to deal with the weird backdrops and the long days for three more years.

“My goal right now is to graduate,” he said. “The pro tour is not gone, but it’s not as high as it was. It all depends on how I do the next three years.”

LIN MAKES SPLASH

Anaheim’s Tracy Lin had the best showing of any local junior player in the recently completed USTA national tournaments. Lin lost in the girls’ 12 finals of USTA Hardcourts to Alexandra Mueller of Arrington, Pa., 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.

In the girls’ 14 division, Lindsey Nelson of Orange teamed with Judith DeVera of Carson to take the doubles title, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, over Teresa Logan and Kristie Miller. Coincidentally, Nelson defeated Lin in the girls’ 14 finals at Ojai.

HARDCOURT PLAY OPENS

The USTA national hardcourts begin Sunday at various sites around the country. The only Southern California site is San Diego’s Barnes Tennis Center, where the girls’ 16s will be played. No local players are seeded.

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