It took living in four countries, playing four tournaments, two rain-delay stoppages and an opponent throwing up on court during his match at the US Open Junior Championships on Monday. But Connor Van Schalkwyk finally, finally got his long-dreamed of first Grand Slam singles win.

When it was over and he had vanquished American Leanid Boika, 6-4 6-4 on Court No. 4 at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Van Schalkwyk dropped his racket, turned to his brother and coach and smiled, putting his hands on his long blonde locks in a mixture of disbelief, relief and joy.

“I am just so happy to get a win, finally!” he said with a smile a few minutes after the match. “From the first time I saw a Grand Slam on TV, I wanted to one day get here and win. I don’t know if I really believed it would happen.”

Van Schalkwyk, an aggressive player who loves to volley, lost in the first round at each of 2022’s previous Junior Grand Slams. But considering his journey before this year, waiting nine months for a Grand Slam match-win was a piece of cake.

The 17-year-old was born in England, but moved with his parents and his three-year older brother, Codie, to Namibia when just a baby. They started playing tennis when Connor was 6, and it was love at first overhead.

“From the moment we stepped on the court, it was clear Connor was serious about tennis,” Codie said. “The competitiveness of it was very different than team sports. He loved it.”

As the boys quickly became good at tennis, they outgrew the competition in Namibia, a small nation in Southern Africa that borders Zambia, Angola, Botswana and South Africa.

When Connor was 10, he and Codie were invited by the ITF to train at the African High-Performance Tennis Center in Casablanca, Morocco. Their father, Johan, was able to land a job there with his company, Scania, enabling the boys to make the move.

For four years the Van Schalkwyk boys trained with excellent coaches and better competition, before moving to Sweden in late 2020 to train with coaches there.

“It’s very exciting for our family; nice to see the hard work and sacrifices we’ve made are paying off,” added Codie, who is a sophomore at Old Dominion University in Virginia.

In Australia in January, Van Schalkwyk became the first Namibian junior to compete at a Junior Grand Slam since Suzelle Davin at the Junior Championships, Wimbledon in 2006, and the first male from his country to play at a Junior Grand Slam since Jurgens Strydom at Wimbledon in 2005.

Winning on Monday was not easy; Boika became sick to his stomach down 2-4 in the first set, and vomited next to the court. After a 20-minute delay and some medical attention for the American, Van Schalkwyk finished off the set.

Then at 5-2 in the second, the rain came and delayed the match further. Boika won the next two games before Van Schalkwyk finished proceedings.

He mentioned several times how proud he was to be blazing new ground for Namibia.“I’m so proud to represent my country, and I feel so much support from them all the time,” said Van Schalkwyk, who has travelled to the US Open as part of the Grand Slam Player Development Programme/ITF Touring Team.

Elsewhere, in first and second-round girls play, top-seeded Sofia Costoulas of Belgium had a battle with 15-year-old American Valerie Glozman, but Costoulas pulled out a 3-6 6-2 6-2 win. Glozman, from outside Seattle, has played few ITF events but has a beguiling style, hitting with two hands off sides.

Costoulas said she’s happy to be healthy again after a calf injury.

“I was injured before Wimbledon, and it took a month and a half to heal,” she explained. “It was an annoying injury, not super painful, but when I tried to play full strength the pain would come back. So I’m really happy it’s not bothering me anymore.”

Switzerland’s No. 4 seed, Celine Naef, dropped only one game in her second-round match, while the USA’s Liv Hovde, the reigning Wimbledon girls' champion, opened her bid to win two straight Junior Grand Slams with a smooth 6-1 6-3 triumph.

The wildest singles match of the day on the girls' side was the final one to finish, and it involved No. 5 seed Solana Sierra of Argentina, who looked to be cruising to a three-set win, up 5-0 and 15-40 in the final set against American wild card Iva Jovic.

But Jovic roared back to win the next five games, and in the tiebreak Jovic saved another match point before prevailing, 11-9.

A few minutes after the match when she sat down for an interview, Jovic said she could still not believe what had just happened.

“Craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It doesn’t feel real,” Jovic said. “I just couldn’t win a game in the third set. All the games were close but I couldn’t win one. Once I got one, I was just like ‘OK whatever, I’m not getting bageled.’ Then I won another game, and then it was 5-3, and I was like ‘if you can break her here, you might have a shot.’”

On the boys’ side, No. 9 seed Coleman Wong of Hong Kong, who won the doubles title here last year, battled against American Aidan Kim in three tight sets before prevailing 6-3 3-6 7-5.

“I just changed a little bit and tried to make him play a little more,” said Wong, who filmed a behind-the-scenes video for itftennis.com earlier this year. “I wanted to find the best option and best chance to go for the winner, and wait until I had that.”

In other boys' action, No. 7 seed Gonzalo Bueno of Peru had the most dramatic victory; he was down 5-2 in the third set to New Zealand’s Jack Loutit, but rallied for a 6-3 3-6 7-5 win.

No. 2 seed Gilles Arnaud Bailly of Belgium won in three sets, while No. 4 seed, American Nishesh Basavareddy, enjoyed a straight sets win. Peter Nad of Slovakia scored the biggest boys' upset of the day, beating Argentina's Lautaro Midon, seeded sixth, 7-5 7-6.