“He kicked my ass”: Daniel Elahi Galan adds to Sandgren's major pain

Tennis’ binary nature is at once cruel and delightful. For all the inspirational wisdom about such factors as fitness and focus, patience and process, there also come those outcome-fueled moments of pure and raw anguish.

American Tennys Sandgren has now endured a pair of such moments at the majors this year—but two about as far apart as you can imagine. In January, in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, Sandgren held seven match points against Roger Federer before losing the match, 6-3, 2-6, 2-6, 7-6 (8), 6-3. Played inside a packed Rod Laver Arena, Sandgren’s enthralling effort captivated millions, an unfortunate but edifying experience.

Those lessons likely proved valuable Monday in the first round of Roland Garros, when the 29-year-old played 29th-seeded Hubert Hurkacz. On this occasion, Sandgren raced through a fourth-set tiebreaker, 7-1, and then toughed it out the tiebreaker-less fifth set, 11-9. He saved two match points himself. From Melbourne to Roland Garros, those are the building blocks a player hopes to keep laying down.

WATCH—Sandgren saves two match points:

Brick turned to dust in today’s second-round match. On Court 11 at Roland Garros, in front of no more than 20 people, Sandgren was beaten 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 by 153rd-ranked Daniel Elahi Galan. Over the course of one hour and 48 minutes, Sandgren committed 52 unforced errors (to just 22 for Galan) and won only 30 percent of the points on his second serve, compared to his opponent's sparkling 79 percent. Thus came the cruel, zero-sum dimension of competition, absent any of the cocooning qualities that accompany losses to such greats as Federer.

Just ask Sandgren, who best summed up what happened in four words: “He kicked my ass.”

Galan entered the realm of delight: “I’m really, really happy,” he said.

Prior to this year’s Roland Garros, the 24-year-old Colombian had only once played in the main draw of a major, losing this year in the first round of the Australian Open to world No. 207, Alejandra Tabilo. Eight times, Galan lost in the qualifying—including this year in Paris, where he was beaten by 135th-ranked Henri Laaksonen on the same court where he took on Sandgren. But the withdrawal of several players from the main draw opened the path for Galan as a lucky loser.

He’s managed it well. In the first round, one red-clay rectangle over on Court 10, Galan won a five-setter versus 72nd-ranked Cameron Norrie, handily taking last two sets, 6-1, 6-1.

A lucky loser in just his second major main draw, Galan rallied to win his first-round match in five, and followed it up with a dominant performance. (Getty Images)

Watching Galan dispatch the 47th-ranked Sandgren today, you’d think their rankings were reversed. Then again, in a year when all tennis players have hardly competed, how much does a ranking truly mean?

Certainly, it carried little today for Sandgren, as he struggled to find his form right from the start. In the opening game of the match, serving at 30-all, Sandgren poked a high backhand volley long and netted a makeable forehand volley.

“I feel he was really uncomfortable,” said Galan. “He was trying, but he couldn’t find his rhythm.”

The opposite held true for Galan. This was largely a clay-court match from another era. Over the last 20 years, we have witnessed Roland Garros evolve into a venue of contemporary offense, of soaring topspin and bold drives sizzling through the court on warm spring Paris days. Little of that was present on this 60-degree Thursday. Welcome to the autumn edition of Roland Garros.

As was often the case in the prime years of Bjorn Borg, Galan hunkered down and applied this basic tennis principle: the net is lower in the middle. Repeated crosscourt drives went reasonably deep, at times seemingly sinking into the clay and therefore giving Sandgren little chance to take charge.  When the opening presented itself, Galan penetrated forcefully with several inside-out forehands.

Most of all, Galan played consistently enough to give his opponent repeated chances to miss. After Sandgren dropped his serve at 2-5 to drop the 30-minute opening set, he tossed a ball up in the air the way a juggler would: whatever. If he was trying to write off that set and reset, the joke was on him, in the form of Galan dispensing one drive after another.

“Can’t time the ball at all,” yelled Sandgren early in the second set. “If I swing, I miss.”

Sandgren's first loss at a Slam in 2020 came against Roger Federer, in front of a packed crowd. His last came against the world No. 153, in front of about 20 people. (Getty Images)

Serving again at 2-5, Sandgren netted a forehand and double-faulted. Down 0-1, a shanked forehand and a double-fault handed Galan a 2-0 third set lead. Toto, we’re not in Melbourne.

As so often happens at all levels of tennis, only as the end neared did Galan’s nerves surface. Serving at 3-1, 30-love, Sandgren played two of his best points of the match—a rocket-like backhand down-the-line winner, followed by a hearty inside-out forehand—and was soon back on serve. But at 2-3, Sandgren resumed his sloppy play, including yet another shanked wide forehand and a trio of netted groundstrokes, including one on break point.

And though Galan once again faced a break point when serving at 4-2, he fought it off successfully. Two games later, at 5-3, 40-15, the Colombian carved a serve wide for an ace. It was called wide, but upon close inspection by the chair umpire, was called in. Little is more frustrating in tennis than to be at the receiving end of an overruled call on a big point, much less a match point. But at this stage, enervated by everything from an airtight opponent to his own poor play and, possibly, the lack of a crowd to stir things up, Sandgren simply accepted his fate.

In reaching the third round, Galan has now earned nearly $150,000, a good deal more than his 2020 earnings to date: $93,823. Saturday, far, far from Court 11, he will take on Novak Djokovic.

“I will try my best and just give it my all,” said Galan.

Having never been ranked higher than 140, Galan is largely unknown to the tennis world. Asked what he’d like the world to know now that he’s one of only 32 men's players remaining in Roland Garros, Galan kindly said, “I don’t know, I’m sorry.”

Two days from now, we will surely learn even more about this year’s Cinderella.