Tennis: A coming out party for Dent

Richard Dunn

Being in the right place at the right time, I was fortunate to

catch Taylor Dent’s Wimbledon-record 144 mph serve on TNT last week.

While watching the end of the fourth set on the newsroom television as

Dent played fifth-seeded Lleyton Hewitt in the second round at Wimbledon,

there was a definite star in the making in the 20-year-old from Newport

Beach.

Dent, who played one season at Corona del Mar High five years ago,

displayed such animation and energy that he fired up the capacity crowd

on Center Court at the All England Club.

Dent was the unseeded American who entered Wimbledon ranked 142nd on

the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour, while the heavily favored

Hewitt, also 20 but more experienced on the ATP Tour, is from Australia.

Americans and Australians in the audience, battling to see who could

cheer loudest, were so boisterous that Dent said they gave him chills.

In that unforgettable fourth set, Dent rallied to break Hewitt, saving

two match points after falling behind, 40-15, and forcing a tie-breaker.

Dent’s comeback seemed to shake Hewitt, who double-faulted twice to lose

the game.

With Dent pumped up in the tie-breaker, which he won, 7-2, he had

serves recorded at 142 and 144 mph, the latter the fastest ever at

Wimbledon.

For the young Dent, coming into his own on the ATP Tour, it was also

the second-fastest serve recorded anywhere in the 10 years since such

things have been chronicled. Greg Rusedski of Great Britain once had a

serve timed at 149.

“(Dent) reminds me of Mark Philippoussis,” a colleague and tennis fan

said, as Dent powered his way to a fifth set with the fifth seed in the

world’s biggest tennis tournament on grass.

But it wasn’t just Dent and his powerful serving and ground strokes

that got everyone’s attention. His lofty ambition and well-poised

temperament in the match against the high-profile Hewitt showed the

tennis world that the 1996 CIF Southern Section singles champion is ready

for a breakthrough season.

Last year, at times, Dent uncorked signs of potential greatness, but

inconsistency would haunt him. So Dent decided to work harder to reach

his goal of cracking the top 10.

“Both (Dent and 18-year-old American Andy Roddick) have a great chance

of being in the top 10 and winning Grand Slam titles, but the reality is

that neither one has done that at this point,” said Eliot Teltscher, who

left his position as a national coach for the United States Tennis

Association to coach Dent exclusively.

“We get excited very quickly when anybody does almost anything.

There’s almost a desperation. If we had 10 guys like Roddick and Taylor,

then we wouldn’t be making that big a deal about any of them.”

Dent, easygoing, hard-working and good-looking, has great tennis

genes. Both his father, Phil Dent, and mother, Betty Ann Grout, were

professional players. Furthermore, Dent is hungry like a lion.

“I’m not No. 1, so I’m not happy ...,” Dent said after last season.

“But I made a lot of progress and I’m excited for (2001). I’m improving

every year I go out, but I wish I could leapfrog like Lleyton Hewitt (No.

4 on the ATP Tour after playing juniors only a few years ago).

“But I’ll take 30 Grand Slams if it means being patient. I’ll take the

slow route if that’s what it takes to get there. I’ll bust my butt to get

there and stay there.”

Dent, who turned pro in 1998 when his former CdM High classmates were

juniors, earlier this season pushed No. 2 Andre Agassi at the Ericsson

Open in Miami and No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten at the Tennis Masters Series in

Indian Wells before losing.

In the first game of his match against Agassi, Dent hit a 142-mph

serve, the fastest of the year on the ATP Tour -- and lost the point.

Before facing Kuerten at Indian Wells, Dent defeated Wayne Ferreira of

South Africa, 6-3, 6-0, in the first round.

In January, Dent upset top-seeded Magnus Norman at the Gold Flake Open

in Madras, India, giving the Swedish star a wake-up call.

Part of Dent’s success this year, he said, has come from a coaching

change. Dent had trained with his father, a 1974 Australian Open

finalist, for several years. But Taylor approached Teltscher looking for

a change. Teltscher agreed to a two-year contract with him and left the

USTA.

“(The decision) was hard,” Dent said. “The father-son relationship is

a good thing. We had a great relationship, but for me to get to the next

level I just needed to mature.”

U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe has also considered Dent for

the team this year.

“I’m encouraged by Taylor Dent having some good wins and playing a

good, competitive match with Agassi down in Miami,” said McEnroe, who

added he’s committed to younger players for the Davis Cup.

Prior to Wimbledon, Dent won on the international challenger circuit,

capturing a $50,000 grass-court event at Surbiton, Great Britain.

“The line is so fine (between the world’s top-10 players and those in

the top 200), it’s undefinable,” Dent said. “The difference for Hewitt

(and his quick rise to the top) was fitness. For me, it’s (going to be)

consistency.”