Courtney Dolehide, Alina Jidkova Highlight Women's US Open National Playoff Field

After Blake Strode claimed the wild card in the men's competition in Atlanta last week, the women are in Stanford this week to determine their winner in the first U.S. Open National Playoffs.

33-year old Alina Jidkova, a once-prominent player early in the Russian wave who beat Serena Williams in 2004, is the #1 seed in the 16-player draw in Stanford. I talked to Jidkova briefly at the pre-US Open challenger in the Bronx last summer, and she generally seemed to be pretty down about her game.

For a player of Jidkova's age and pedigree to commit to this long, arduous process to get another shot at just the qualifying draw of a grand slam speaks volumes about her determination.

The other name I was most excited to see among the sixteen was that of Courtney Dolehide, who is the #4 seed.

Dolehide turned 18 in March, and will be playing at UCLA in the fall. I watched Dolehide at the $100,000+H challenger at the Bronx last August, and came away extremely impressed with her composure and raw talent.

Playing in her first $100k tournament in a draw that was filled almost entirely by players inside the top 100, Dolehide made a name for herself by winning two matches to reach the quarterfinals.

After a gritty three set win over Lena Litvak in the first round, Courtney scored the first top 100 win of her career in the second round, pulling off a 6-4, 6-2 upset over the always-volatile Patricia Mayr.

Though she lost in the next round to Julia Goerges, the run did wonders for Dolehide's ranking (boosting it 300 spots from #798 to #498), which has allowed her to enter many events since that she wouldn't have otherwise been able to. 

Unfortunately, Dolehide suffered an injury in the qualifying of her next challenger event in Albuquerque that September, an injury that kept her out for over three months.  And she has struggled in 2010, going only 3-13 at challenger events this year.

I had the chance to talk to Courtney between her two wins in The Bronx (while she was watching the Mayr-de los Rios match I wrote about here), and she made some comments that almost eerily foreshadow the very situation she finds herself in now, just three wins away from a spot in US Open qualifying.

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TDF: What are your main goals?

Courtney Dolehide: My main goal is just to play in a grand slam, so I'm just trying to get as many ranking points as I can so that becomes possible.

TDF: Into the main draw, or would qualifying be enough?

Courtney Dolehide: I just want a chance to get into qualies, and then I can try to qualify from there. I'm not exactly sure what the ranking cut-off is, but I'm like 790 right now. 

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And though her current ranking (#550) ranking remains well short of the cut-off for direct entry into qualifying, Courtney now has her chance thanks to this USTA initiative.  A native of the Chicago suburbs, Dolehide won the Northern Sectionals, making her one of the sixteen players in the Stanford showdown.  She has already won her first match, a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over New England sectional champion Rachel Kahan. 

Three more wins, and she'll be playing singles at the US Open only a year after high school.  For those of you who aren't sure, that's incredibly impressive.

She's certainly my pick to make it to New York, and I can safely say that all of us here at The Daily Forehand are wishing her all the best luck along the way and in the future.