ATP Tour

How one moment led to Ethan Quinn's explosion

One moment can change everything.

That was the case for Ethan Quinn last January at the ATP Challenger event in Cleveland. Despite starting the year by making a final as a qualifier in Canberra, the American failed to qualify for the Australian Open and then lost in the first round in Cleveland.

“I lost in Cleveland and I wasn't even in Dallas yet. So I could have definitely checked out a little bit. I could have been like, ‘Oh, woe is me’,” Quinn told ATPTour.com. “I could have been sticking around there in Cleveland and not doing the right things. And then I would have gotten to Dallas maybe and not been prepared to play Dallas and then lost.”

To the American, that would have been two weeks wasted. But instead he reflected on his loss and realised he had played “a pretty good match” and simply was not the better player on the day against Colton Smith.

“Then I had people around me the next day. I was on top of it with my gym workouts, I was on court for a few hours that day with Brian, working on the things that maybe I could have improved on,” Quinn said. “I was able to make the most of it by getting into Dallas qualies and then qualifying in and winning my first-round match and from there, just kind of exploding.”

Entering last year’s ATP 500 event in Dallas, Quinn was the No. 199 player in the PIF ATP Rankings. By June he was in the Top 100 for the first time.

It was not that he had hit rock bottom or anything of the sort. Quinn simply had two roads to go down in Cleveland and chose the path of discipline and hard work, which led to a breakthrough.

“It was just, after a loss like that, being able to find a way to still make sure I got better that week and then get to the next week improved,” Quinn said. “Rather than losing and then finding an excuse or a reason to be complacent. I think having that trust in my team and them holding me accountable to continue to get better, that was the difference from that moment on for the rest of the year.”

Quinn’s coach, Brian Garber, used the loss as an opportunity. The former college tennis star at the University of Georgia was then able to qualify in Dallas and win a round in the main draw.

“I think managing success is harder than managing failure. He had an awesome start in Canberra, but after that Cleveland loss, I told him we weren’t going to change a single thing we were doing,” Garber said. “We changed our mentality to get away from [focusing on the] results. Our goal I text him every night before matches is, ‘Become closer to the version of EQ you want to be tomorrow’.

“That’s not a results-based goal. And we hammered that down so much last year and it started there.”

While Quinn rose quickly, that did not mean he was always ecstatic about his results. Starting at Mallorca in June, he lost in the second round of five consecutive tournaments.

“I was really frustrated that I continued to lose, qualifying to an event and winning the first round and losing in the second round or losing to the same players multiple times throughout the year,” Quinn said. “I really had I'm not going to say a meltdown, but I was really frustrated that I felt like I was very stuck in the same spot, that I was continuing to lose in the same place.”

“He was getting mental about not getting past second rounds and one of the reasons was part of his growth,” Garber said. “At the summer Masters he was winning really good matches first round and playing really good players next. I told him his next progression was being more clinical in early rounds, not giving away sets and wearing himself down. [It was about] competing truly point to point, so that when he got to the second round he had energy.

“I also reminded him his path through Challengers and Futures was the same. It started with winning a round or two, falling. Next step he started winning those or finals. Nothing is changing now, it’s just happening at a higher level.”

That showed itself in the first round of the Australian Open against 23rd seed Tallon Griekspoor. The Dutchman won their first two Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings last year, but Quinn returned the favour with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 triumph in Melbourne to earn a second-round showdown with Hubert Hurkacz.

“To now be in this situation today, where it's against a tough player, against a player that's kind of had my number in the past,” Quinn said. “To be able to get through that match is really refreshing.”