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| 02 Sep 2002 | |
| Reid ready to rain supreme in New York |
By Eleanor Preston
As the rain lashed down at Flushing Meadows, washing out another day of junior tennis at the final Grand Slam of the year, players were again confined to the locker room and the players’ lounge.
At one stage the rain was falling at an inch an hour and three of New York’s five boroughs were on flood alert. It was hardly the start that Wimbledon champion Todd Reid was looking for. Reid, seeded three, was scheduled to take on Marcel Zimmerman in his first round match, but instead spent much of the day chatting to fellow players like Tommy Haas, who like Reid has spent much of his life under the tutelage of tennis coach Nick Bollettieri.
"We just hang out, have a laugh," says Reid. "That’s one good thing about playing the junior Grand Slams you get to mix in with the professionals and see how hard they work and what it’s about. If you make it you get the chance to see what’s coming at you."
All that was coming at Reid on Monday was even more rain but having won Wimbledon, and waited out plenty of rain-filled hours there, he has learned to be patient when it comes to inclement weather. "At Wimbledon I played my first round on Monday and my second round on Thursday so it doesn’t really worry me," he says. "I kind of look back to that. "You’ve got to hang around and see what happens. It’s very tough and you get used to it in the end. You don’t know what’s going to happen, when to eat, whether they are going to change around your matches or not, but after you’ve done it a few times you get used to it."
Having reached the Australian Open final and won Wimbledon, Reid has an enviable record in Grand Slams this year, and has a current World Junior Ranking of 5 to prove it. "It’s incredible to win a junior Grand Slam and, especially after losing the Australian Open final, and winning junior Wimbledon was just huge for me personally," he says. "I can look back and say I did it. Now I’m at the US Open and I want to win here so I can hopefully try and get the junior No.1 ranking. You never know what’s going to happen but there’s a lot to play for," admits Reid. "This is probably going to dictate the No.1 at the end of the year so it’s a very important tournament."
The 18-year-old hails from Sydney and divides his time between the Australian Institute of Sport in Coogee, New South Wales and Bollettieri’s Academy in Sarasota, Florida. The arrangement means Reid gets plenty of help and support from Tennis Australia and allows him to spend time with Australian greats like World men’s No.1 Lleyton Hewitt and doubles legend Todd Woodbridge but Reid is quick to give Bollettieri his share of the credit for his development. "Nick Bollettieri has always been my coach since I was 13 and he’s been sort of a father figure to me," he says. "He’s always looked after me so I still go back there every now and then."
Photographs by Susan Mullane
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