THE DREAM is over for now.
At least the world now knows the name Darian King.
Barbados’ king of swing didn’t add another magical chapter to that fairy tale run, but he did put the tennis world on notice after holding two set points in a hard-fought loss to fourth seed Alexander Zverev at the US Open’s first round.
Playing to the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the 25-year-old King impressed McEnroe brothers John and Patrick in his very first ESPN televised broadcast before ultimately falling 7-6(9), 7-5, 6-4 in two hours and 50 minutes – one of the longest opening night matches on Arthur Ashe.
It brought an end to a truly historic ride that saw the unfancied world no.168 become the first player to represent Barbados at a Grand Slam by qualifying for the main draw.
He didn’t bow out with a whimper though, having made Zverev sweat under the bright lights of primetime in a tight 81-minute long first set that King had no right losing.
With most of the dwindling Arthur Ashe crowd rallying behind him, King jumped out to a 5-3 lead in the first set tiebreak before staving off two set points at 5-6 and 6-7 on Zverev’s unforced errors.
He then had the set wrapped up for sure while getting a short ball to his forehand with the towering six-foot-six German sprawled out of position.
But King caught the top of the tape with a certain passing shot down the line, and then double-faulted at 9-8 to let his opponent off the hook again.
And Zverev immediately made him pay, whipping a backhand past him before serving out the set when King dumped a forehand in the net.
It looked certain to be another of those major let-downs by the gifted 20-year-old, who has flattered to deceive at Grand Slams by failing to get out of the fourth round.
King appeared to be buoyed by that unflattering record too, breaking the error-prone world no.6 early on before holding two more break point at 15-40 for what seemed a certain 4-1 cushion.
However, Zverev saved both with telling serves and then broke King twice in succession to go up 5-3.
Zverev didn’t appear to have a game plan though, and was clearly flustered when the man ranked 162 places below him came up with an answer for each of his booming groundstrokes.
Flashing some of the best defensive tennis of his career, King ultimately broke back and then forced a tiebreak after the hard-hitting youngster continued to go long on his backhand.
He went toe to toe with Zverev in the second set too while pulling the trigger on a number of forehand and backhand winners down the line.
At one point Zverev found it near impossible to get past King’s impregnable defence, even with the biggest of forehands from the baseline.
But King eventually blinked first, missing two easy forehands long of the mark while going wide on a drop shot to give Zverev the break at 6-5.
The fourth seed then duly closed out the set with a thunderous first serve and two more unforced errors from King.
Zverev eventually sealed the deal by producing a deft half volley and another forehand winner to break the visibly tired King for 2-1.
Yet the handful of Barbadians in the crowd didn’t let him wilt away, having willed their Bajan ace to a strong third-set showing with chants of “Darian, Darian”. (JM)
