New York, United States, 30 August 2024 | Matt Trollope

With a bit of distance between his second-round US Open loss and his subsequent media appearance, Tristan Schoolkate spoke with remarkable clarity about his journey in New York.

The 23-year-old from Western Australia had never competed in the main draw of a Grand Slam until this week, nor even contested Slam qualifying outside of Australia.

The last time he visited Flushing Meadows was for the junior tournament, five years ago.

But in the first two five-set matches of his career, he stunned the experienced Taro Daniel after trailing two-sets-to-love in round one, and came within a point of the third round before Jakub Mensik proved too tough.

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Having recovered, stretched and showered, Schoolkate discussed what had unfolded on Court 12 against Mensik, a rapidly improving Czech teenager.

Schoolkate won the first two sets, led 3-1 in the fourth – a set during which he earned two match points – and was also up an early break in the fifth, before going down 6-7(4) 2-6 6-2 7-6(5) 7-6[10-3].

He admitted Thursday night’s loss stung, but he could see the bigger picture.

“Fantastic. It’s a great first experience I think for me,” replied Schoolkate, when asked to summarise his first Grand Slam main-draw campaign.

“I wanted to compete my hardest, try my best and leave it all out there on the court, whatever round that the tournament finished, whether it was the first round or the final.

“I enjoyed my time on the court. I spent a fair bit of time on court in two matches, and physically I feel good right now.

“It obviously sucks to go down today, but I’m very happy with my efforts and proud of how far I came, and how hard I tried.”

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He harboured few regrets about the missed match points, which were on Mensik’s serve and which the Czech saved with composed, purposeful play.

On paper, Schoolkate – currently ranked 193rd – was never favoured against a player who in 2024 has soared more than 100 places to peak at world No.64.

“Credit to him; he’s obviously a good tennis player and he played those points very well and has a pretty good head on his shoulders for his age,” said Schoolkate of Mensik, who reached the ATP Doha final in February.

“It’s good to know that not only I can match these players with their tennis level, but physically I’m very proud of where I’m at. (At) 23 I feel like I’m in pretty good shape; I’ve played for nearly four hours in the first round and over four hours in the second round, and yeah, if I had to play again in two days, I’m sure I could go four hours or more again.

“So I think that’s a big positive, it gives me confidence. It’s just a matter of backing it up week in, week out, and getting some wins on the Challenger Tour and trying to get onto the ATP Tour and consistently play these guys. Because it’s a lot of fun to play against these guys, it’s great to test yourself.

“My ranking is a little bit off the mark for these tournaments, but I look forward to getting the opportunity to play these guys hopefully in the future, and yeah, it’s exciting.”

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Schoolkate has risen to 164th in the ATP live rankings, another step towards making more of these opportunities possible.
As for what comes next, Schoolkate revealed it felt a little like a whirlwind.

“Obviously it’s a pretty crazy sport, tennis. Like, a couple of hours ago I had a match point and now I’ve come off the court a loser,” he said.

“So I’ve got to then look at flights back to Australia. I’ve got to then figure out my next 24 hours. A lot of people don’t see that stuff.

“It’s nice, I’ve got obviously plenty of messages of support and commiserations from home, but plenty of hate messages too, and people telling me how bad I am and I should quit and all these things.

“So it’s just a bit of a busy time to figure out my plans, but I’ll head back to Australia pretty soon and reflect on the past week, the past few matches that I’ve had.

“And yeah, look forward to getting back on the practice court and keep working to do better.”