Sandgren talks tour grind as ATP gets its restart

At No. 55 in the world, Tennys Sandgren seems settled into life at the top echelons of the game as he heads into the New York swing. Like many, he'll be trying to regain the momentum that he had before the tour shut down in March.

"I had four or five months after Australia where I had no points to defend," he said on the TENNIS.com Podcast, having reached the quarterfinals in Melbourne in January. "But at No. 55, I felt pretty good about making another push. Didn't get the opportunity, but..."

He'll get opportunities first as a wild card into the loaded Western & Southern Open field and then at the US Open, starting on Aug. 31. On Sunday, he moved into the second round with a 6-3, 7-6 (6) win over Lorenzo Sonego.

Subscribe: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tennis-com-podcast/id339875623 | https://open.spotify.com/show/2ihq5SJ8N72EsloO9XunbW

Even with nine years of tour experience, Sandgren and the majority of ATP players are never fully "settled" in, especially during this hectic year. The American turned pro in 2011 after three semesters at the University of Tennessee when he was ready to embrace the grind.

"It was as terrible as I thought it would be," the 29-year-old said. "I had no illusions of what life would be like as a professional tennis player, especially in the minor leagues. It's on the miserable side of things. You make no money, you travel and play in small towns in front of nobody, and you're grinding."

Though the no fans part is now part of the new normal, many think of big names like Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic and imagine pro tennis as a life of luxury. It's nothing like that for the vast majority of the pros.

"You have to get better, you have to practice and train," Sandgren said of his start. "You don't have a coach, you don't have a trainer, you don't have a physio. It's hard, it's hard. But I knew that going into it, so I wasn't surprised."

Sandgren would lose to Marin Cilic at the 2017 US Open after earning his first direct entry. (Getty)

After turning pro in 2011, Sandgren would reach No. 100 in June of 2017, just ahead of his first direct entry into the US Open. That Grand Slam marked the moment he felt he'd "made it".

"I think was when I was like, "OK, I think if I can keep playing well and stay healthy, I can stay here,'" he said. "I think I can get into these majors and some tour events, main draws and qualities of the larger Masters events, and things like that, that's a lot better than where I'd been. So I thought if I can sustain that, that would be great."

The milestone meant a lot after over two decades dedicated to the sport, but also raised bigger questions.

"It was interesting trying to think about what to do after I got inside of [the Top 100]," he said. "That was always my goal was to get inside of 100. It took six years to do that, and it was like, 'What do I do now? What do I do? Do I just moved the marker to 50? Can I do that? Am I good enough?' You just don't know."

He was good enough. In April of 2018, he'd crack the Top 50 just a few months after reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open for the first time. Now a little over two years and a few injury setbacks later, he reached the quarterfinals in Melbourne again to put himself back in a similar position at No. 55. Though there was an unexpected hiatus in his progress this season, there's now a stretch of tournaments ahead of him.

At the first one, the Western & Southern Open, Sandgren will next take the court against Felix Auger-Aliassime on Monday.