Go, Sco

First round, US Open 2004. Andy Roddick steps up to serve the first game. Across the net, a gangly 18-year-old wildcard prepared to receive the cannonball.

That was the first time I ever saw Scoville Jenkins play. Poor kid; he was demolished by Roddick in three sets, the first set a bagel. But he shook off the defeat and went on to play in the juniors event at the US Open, reaching the quarterfinals.

These days, he's turned fully professional and is playing Challengers events, building up enough points to be able to play in the main tour. You know a player hasn't really made a dent when not even their birthday shows up on their ATP player profile page.

Apparently, though, some people think he can make a breakthrough. Scoville-Jenkins.com, formerly known as Go Sco, is the first fan website about Jenkins. Its webmaster compiled information from the ITF database and articles written about Scoville to make a more comprehensive player profile and actively collects articles and photos of the young player. It's from that site that I learned what Sco's been up to lately.

Hopefully, if his game's good enough, more people will be able to see him play on the ATP tour. I really do get a bit sad when young players fizzle out.

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 5:23 PM