Many of us have been following the success of the young American tennis players at this year’s US Open, but one Bates tennis alum has been on the front row for most of it. Sam Duvall, a 2005 graduate, is the agent for John Isner and Melanie Oudin who both made the third round of the US Open. The New York Times featured a story about both players as well as Sam in the Sept. 6th issue.
For Isner and Oudin, Nothing Sells Like Wins
by Karen Crouse
The day after his United States Open upset of Andy Roddick, John Isner spent a couple of hours drafting players for his N.F.L. fantasy football team. He was looking for sleeper picks poised for success; in other words, the football version of himself.
Though not a rookie, Isner, 24, is in some ways like Giants receiver Hakeem Nicks, a highly regarded player who on Saturday saw a veteran player, David Tyree, removed from his path to fame and fortune in New York.
Isner pushed Roddick, the 2003 champion and the longtime American torch bearer, out of his way Saturday in a fifth-set tie breaker. He sealed his upset a few hours after 17-year-old Melanie Oudin outlasted Maria Sharapova, the 2006 women’s champion, in three sets.
Isner and Oudin, who will play fourth-round matches Monday, have the same agent, Sam Duvall. He joked that he had told Oudin, who will meet 13th-seeded Nadia Petrova, in the second match of the day at Arthur Ashe Stadium, that it is critical that she avoid a second consecutive three-hour match because Isner’s match against Fernando Verdasco on Louis Armstrong Stadium could begin as early as 3 p.m.
A former player at N.C.A.A. Division III Bates College, Duvall has a tennis stable has become the stuff of fantasy players’ dreams overnight.
His cellphone started vibrating as Oudin sat in her changeover chair, sobbing into her towel after coming from behind to beat Sharapova, and it has not stopped.
“I’ve been getting calls, yes,” Duvall said Sunday as he stood in the players’ lounge with his phone in his palm. “All the apparel manufacturers and racket manufacturers want the next best American.”
Isner and Oudin have different stories, but the same gee-whiz demeanor in front of the camera. Their guilelessness is a significant selling point in an age when so many people seem to be angling to be stars.
“They’re very real to people,” Duvall said. “That’s kind of the attraction.”
When Oudin speaks, she uses words like cool and awesome. She described the match against Sharapova as “a blast.” As she scanned Arthur Ashe Stadium after her victory, Oudin had the wide-eyed look of someone straight off the bus, beholding the Manhattan skyline.
Isner, raised in North Carolina and educated at Georgia, is so polite, Duvall said, he will apologize if he has to phone him on a Sunday, the day reserved by many in the South for faith and family and rehashing the previous day’s college football game.
The most animated Isner got in his postmatch news conference was when he described watching the first half of Georgia’s game at Oklahoma State while waiting for his match against Roddick to start. “I get really emotionally involved,” he said. “My coach had to sit me down and tell me to take it easy. I use up a lot of energy watching football.”
After he upset Roddick, Isner was met by an ATP official, and he asked the official who won the Georgia football game. To his dismay, the Bulldogs lost.
Isner, who led Georgia to the 2007 N.C.A.A. tennis championship, turned professional that year and advanced to the third round of the Open before losing to the eventual champion, Roger Federer.
He was a hot marketing commodity then, but fell off the radar with a so-so sophomore season on the tour.
“He came out really hot, and we capitalized right away,” Duvall said. “Then he had his struggles, and now he’s back.”
Isner is a curiosity because of his height. He is a shade over 6 feet 9 inches.
Oudin, one of the shorter players on the women’s tour at 5-6, draws attention because of her fight.
“She a little bulldog,” Isner said admiringly. “She’s feisty. That’s why she’s doing so well.”
She’s America’s newest sweetheart. On Sunday morning, Duvall accompanied Oudin to the MSNBC studios for an interview. The exposure she is receiving could not come at a better time; her contracts with Adidas and Wilson are expiring soon.
“My job is to capitalize on the opportunities that present themselves,” Duvall said, but with a discriminating eye.
“We aren’t thinking this is a fluke, so we’re in no rush to sign deals,” he said.
On cue, his phone started vibrating — a reminder, as if he needed it, that his clients are sleepers no more.
Bates College Tennis 