What makes Wendy Lyons a special tennis player?
Is it her unbeaten record in singles competition this year?
Is it her three state championships and two National Junior Indoor titles?
Is it her junior defeat of Jennifer Capriati?
Or could it be the sign at the limits of her hometown that says, "Welcome to Westerville-Home of Wendy Lyons"?
Impressed? Well, Lyons is indeed something special. A sophomore from Ohio, she has compiled quite an impressive list of credentials in her 12-year playing career. And to say that she is a valuable asset to the Duke team as it challenges for a national title is an understatement.
But being on a star-studded Duke squad that boasts four All-Americans has forced Lyons to bide her time. She currently plays either in the fifth or sixth singles slot for the Blue Devils. However, head coach Geoff Macdonald is more than confident that she could be a leading player for the Blue Devils in the future.
"I believe that Wendy has a lot of room to grow as a Duke player, she has had a great junior career and could have an even greater college career," Macdonald said. "She has learned a lot of things at Duke, and is good enough to step up to a higher spot in the lineup. She has always had a good approach to the present situation, whatever you tell her to do [like play a lower slot], she does it because her ego's not on the line."
If there is a match on the line however, one can safely count on Lyons to dig deep into her reserves and find a way to win. Her resilience in third sets is well known and is something to which Macdonald testifies willingly.
"She is one of the more mentally tough competitors around, and often when down a set in a bad situation, she's able to pull it out...she has a big heart," Macdonald said.
Lyons wields her racket with a double-handed backhand, something she describes as her best shot. "I like to work the ball the ball around to set up my backhand, that's where I'm pretty confident," Lyons said. "Usually when I go for a shot it's off of that side."
And what about beating that certain other player who also possesses a ferocious double-fisted backhand?
"Actually when I played her [Capriati] it wasn't a big deal, that match doesn't really stand out for me, I don't really remember that much about it," Lyons said.
No big deal? Don't let that fool you, folks. Although Capriati was then only an 11-year-old, the teen phenom was just about one year away from being named Young Player of the Year by World Tennis magazine.
Despite what Lyons thinks of that match, the entire tournament was definitely significant. "I had a lot of upsets in the tournament and it gave me confidence because then I knew that I could beat the players above me," Lyons said.
Lyons started intense competition at age 10, just two years after she took up the sport quite accidentally, according to her father.
"Wendy had just finished with gymnastics and my wife and I wanted her to do something different," Orville Lyons said. "When she was nine, the pros told us that she the potential to become a very good player. But we didn't realize that until she started to get national rankings."
Nevertheless, while there are parents who would have acted on those revelations and tried to chart a professional career for their daughter then, the Lyons family refrained from doing so. And despite the huge travelling demands that constant competition placed on Lyons, her parents were still determined to maintain a normal teenage life for her. They had little difficulty achieving this, because Lyons was equally adamant about which direction her life was going to take.
"[Tennis] wasn't the only thing in my life, academics were always stressed before tennis in my family," Wendy said. "If my grades weren't up then it was `no tennis'. If I wanted to take some time off, I would."
When Lyons leaves the tennis courts, she prefers to leave the sport completely. This was among her reasons for picking Duke.
"My [player] friends who went to other schools only hang out with other athletes," Lyons said. "Here, you have time to have a life outside of athletics, and that was what I liked about Duke. I like to be away from tennis when I'm not playing...I don't [even] like to watch tennis [on TV], I think its boring."
Surprisingly, Lyons claims that there has never been a role model whom she tries to emulate. Although she doubts that her future embodies a long playing career, she would, however, like to test the waters of the professional tour after graduation, but only because she has been immersed in the sport for so long.
At the moment, Lyons is only looking to the present and her team's assault on the national championship. The NCAA tournament concludes only after the spring semester does. So should the Blue Devils return to the final four, Lyons and her teammates will still be hard at work on the courts, long after most students' summers would have begun. Thus, any of the tennis team's achievements run a risk of sliding into obscurity.
"I like it better that it lasts after school," Lyons said. "Then we can center all our attention on the tournament because there is no pressure from academics.
"Winning is such a great personal achievement, recognition is just an added bonus. People who are close to us care and I think that's what matters to most of us."
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