NEW CITY, NY, 2006 — All
tennis fans know Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, and are getting
to know Yonkers native James Blake after his electrifying
run in last year's U.S. Open.
But the next level of American
men could walk down Main Street with a nametag, and still
not get recognized. In fact, two of them may be doing so
right now.
Paul Goldstein and Kevin Kim — among the top 100 players
in the world, and two of the top seven Americans in the most
recent ATP rankings — are both still alive at the Kennedy
Funding Invitational at Dellwood Country Club in New City.
Goldstein,
the top seed, defeated Zach Fleishman 6-3, 6-4, and Kim,
the No. 2 seed, knocked off defending champion Brian Vahaly
6-1, 6-2 in yesterday's quarterfinals.
"There's certainly a bit of a void outside the top
10 or 20 guys in terms of marketing for tennis in the United
States," Goldstein said. "Every little bit helps,
and there's a community right now getting to know some of
these guys that they might not have known before."
Area
tennis fans get their next chance to meet them today. Goldstein,
a Washington, D.C., native, will face Brazilian Ricardo Mello.
Kim, who is from Torrence, Calif., will play Ivo Heuberger
of Switzerland in the semifinals, which are scheduled to
begin at 1 p.m. at Dellwood.
Admission is free, though donations
will be accepted. All proceeds from the tournament, which
has already raised more than $300,000, will benefit the Breast
Care Center at Englewood Hospital.
Goldstein, who will turn
30 next month, is the highest-ranked college graduate on
the tour. The Stanford alum turned pro in 1998 but is just
now playing his best tennis, breaking the top 60 this year
and making the semifinals of two ATP tour events; he had
made just two semifinals in his career before this season.
Kim,
27, won a career-best 19 ATP tour matches in 2005, including
an appearance in the third round of the Australian Open,
and earned a career-high $290,525. Still, he's not upset
about the lack of recognition.
"Agassi's won Grand Slams, and he's won them multiple
times, so it's a very big gap in credentials," Kim said. "I'm
not surprised there's not a lot of press, but I think it
will come fairly soon."
In the other quarterfinals yesterday,
Heuberger defeated Paul Capdeville of Chile 6-3, 6-2 while
Mello beat Israeli Noam Okun 6-2, 6-4. |
