NEW YORK—“That light is really scary,” Alison Riske says as she sits down in the main interview room inside Arthur Ashe Stadium. The 23-year-old Pittsburgh native, who rolled over No. 7 seed Petra Kvitova today in stunningly easy fashion, is making her debut in a place typically reserved for the Rafas and Serenas of the world. Despite her fear of the big light shining in her eyes, though, Riske doesn’t seem intimidated. Unlike most of the players who trudge in and out of this room all day, she appears to be enjoying herself. She seems, in fact, to be in her brassy element.
Asked who the best player in the history of her hometown is, she says, “I’d like to think I’m up there.”
Asked if she still plays tennis with her siblings (Riske has an older sister and younger brother), she says, “I like to take my sister out there just so I can beat her up a little bit.” She pauses a beat and smiles: “Just kidding.”
Asked how it feels to be in the big interview room, she says, “Oh, it’s really cool, it’s really neat. It’s nice that there are more than two people here.”
Based on those answers, it probably won’t surprise you that, whatever her skills are as a player, Riske is an exemplary tweeter. Here’s what she wrote on Twitter today after she beat Kvitova, a former Wimbledon champion, to reach the fourth round at the U.S. Open: “This sweet 16 may be even better than my sweet 16 pool party.”
So how good is Riske when she goes off line and on court? Kvitova was suffering with a fever today—that’s the sixth time in the last two years that Petra has been hit by an illness—so Riske’s 6-3, 6-0 win should be taken with a couple grains of salt. But she has been improving all season, since hooking back up with a former coach of hers, Yves Boulais, and beginning to train at a USTA center in College Park, Md., six months ago. Riske's ranking has gone from No. 179 at the start of the year to a career-high No. 81, a number that’s sure to go higher when the Open is over.
“There were definitely times of doubt,” Riske said today. “It’s really tough out here [on tour]. Every week isn’t like this. My team was so supportive and pushed me through. I’m definitely in a better place."
Riske’s breakthrough came in June, on grass in Birmingham, where she reached the final. She had also done well at the same tournament in the past; if her run at the Open proves anything, it's that she's at least not just a Birmingham specialist.
Tennis runs in the Riske family. Her father, a retired former member of the secret service and FBI investigator—he obviously has the perfect last name for his jobs—taught all of his kids to play. “Once I came along,” Alison joked today, “I didn’t have a choice. He kind of forced it upon me. But I grew to love it.” Riske’s signature shot is a long two-handed backhand—when she finishes it, her grunt sometimes sounds like she’s asking, “Whyyyyy?”
Right now, Riske knows the answer. She’s in the final 16 of the U.S. Open, and with Daniela Hantuchova up next, she might be going farther.