Very few tennis players talented enough to compete at championship levels of the United States Tennis Association play anything but tennis.
Jackson Davis of Little Rock is an exception. He has spent the bulk of the year playing baseball, his first sporting love, as a freshman pitcher for Little Rock Catholic's junior varsity.
But that didn't stop him from advancing through the first round of the USTA Southern Closed Boys and Girls 16's Championship with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Philip Priest of Lexington, Ky., at Rebsamen Tennis Center in Little Rock on Saturday.
The eight-day tournament is scheduled to continue today at Rebsamen and Burns Park Tennis Center in North Little Rock. Boys and girls doubles finals are scheduled for Friday and singles finals for Saturday at Rebsamen.
Wesley Bennett of Little Rock is the boys No. 1 seed, and Margaret Polk of Birmingham, Ala., is the girls top seed. This is the fourth consecutive year that Rebsamen has hosted the event, but it is the first with a boys or girls top seed from Arkansas.
"Wes has been playing really well," tournament director Chip Stearns said.
Davis, a 5-11, 165 left-hander, struggled early and was down to Priest 3-1 in the first set after play began at 8:34 a.m. with a light breeze and 68 degrees.
Pleasant weather aside, Davis was steamed.
"Why are you so tight?" he said, clearly frustrated.
Davis, 15, spoke after the match in the Rebsamen pro shop.
"I hadn't been playing a lot of actual matches recently," he said. "When I do that, sometimes when I get to the matches, instead of playing to win, I just play not to lose. I think I started to find it once the match started progressing. I started feeling more confident in my shots."
Priest said his opponent's talent became evident as Davis won five consecutive games to win the first set.
"I had some opportunities, but he really picked it up," Priest said. "He started playing really well."
"Once I got it to 3-3, I knew I was going to be able to win that set," Davis said. "I won those two games, and I felt more confident in myself. I felt like he got on the ropes a little bit, so I started to feel better a little bit."
Priest had trouble with Davis' forehand and play at the net.
"Don't let him come to the net, and don't let him go down the line on his forehand," Priest said of a scouting report on Davis. "His forehand down the line is really good, and he gets in a really good groove with it. He walks right into it."
Davis' baseball season for Catholic ended in mid-May, but he plans to pitch through the summer for a 17-and-under team based in Little Rock. He held his junior varsity opponents without an earned run in 13 innings pitched for Catholic.
He said he eventually will have to choose one sport over the other, but he is unsure when that time will come.
"I'm starting to realize now that I'm in 16's that I really need to start working on tennis more to win more matches," Davis said. "But it's the same with baseball now that I'm in high school. I need to start practicing it more to get better. I feel that decision may come soon, but I still enjoy playing both. I really don't know what I'm going to choose, honestly."
Sports on 06/11/2017