Tennis courts may come in straight lines but success on them surely doesn’t. You’d hardly have to tell that to a man with the nickname “The King of Swing”.
Darian King truly established himself as the greatest Bajan tennis player of all time this year, but not without challenges, having endured one of his ever worst stretches during a somewhat up and down 2017.
Yet it still couldn’t overshadow a stellar season that saw the Bajan ace set one first after another in a year highlighted by his biggest accomplishment to date.
Biggest achievement
I don’t think we have to go any further than the Big Apple.
Yeah, that historic appearance in the US Open main draw wasn’t just the best of his 2017, but his career, considering that no other player representing Barbados has ever made such a major breakthrough.
And King wasn’t just satisfied being there either, having held two set points and an early break on Alexander Zverev while pushing the tournament’s fourth seed in three gruelling sets in an ESPN-televised match on none other than Arthur Ashe Stadium.
It really was a performance deserving of the bright lights of prime-time TV on tennis’ biggest stage.
But it isn’t just the match – it was how he booked it too, as King faced certain defeat while trailing 3-6, 3-4 before pulling off a comeback of the ages in his final round of qualifying against former world No.44 Lukas Lacko.
Biggest disappointment
How fitting is it that Darian’s highest heights would come in the very year he suffered his lowest of lows. (JM)