Qualies stories:Travaglia and Polansky

ROEHAMPTON – If there’s anything Canadian Peter Polansky knows, it’s cruel disappointment in Grand Slam qualifying.

It has happened to him so many times, you’d almost have to say he’s jinxed.

But his final-round loss to the Italian Stefano Travaglia was an especially tough one.

Polansky was up love-40 on Travaglia’s serve at 5-5 in the fifth set.

Three break-point opportunities slipped away.

The next thing you know, the two were entangled in an endless tug of war at 5-6, with Polansky hanging on by the finest of margins on his own serve.

He couldn’t afford a single mistake. And for a long time, he didn’t make one.

Polansky saved nine match points in a game that lasted 30 points. And when he couldn’t save a 10th, Travaglia fell to the ground in relief and maybe disbelief, head in his hands.

A long journey to the AELTC

Travaglia hasn’t played at the ATP/Slam level since 2014 in Rome. In fact, that was the only time in his career he has ever played at this level.

It was the first time the Italian has played a best-of-five set match in his career. It was the first week he had ever played on grass in his pro career.

As well, it was the first time in four attempts that Travaglia had managed to pass the first round of qualifying in any Grand Slam.

Here are the scores in those first three attempts:

6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 against Peter Gojowczyk at the 2017 French Open
6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-3 against Adrian Menendez-Maceiras at the 2015 Australian Open
7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6) against Michal Przysiezny at the 2014 US Open.

This one was headed in that same heartbreaking direction. But somehow, Travaglia got out of it. Maybe it was just his time.

His comeback story began in 2011, when he slipped and fell down a flight of stairs. According to a story on the ATP Tour site, he reached out with his right arm to try to stop the fall – but crashed through a pane of glass.

The glass sliced his right forearm; he suffered nerve and tendon damage and lost feeling in three fingers.

For nine months, he rehabbed.

In May of this year, he finally won his first Challenger event and moved into the top 200 for the first time.

Last week, he reached a career-high No. 155 in the ATP Tour rankings.

If it weren’t for bad luck …

For Polansky, it was another hard-luck story.

The 29-year-old, at No 127 going into the qualifying, was very close to his best-ever ranking. His ceiling, some might say, given how long he’s been out there trying to get into the top 100.

But with a few breaks along the way, his story – which isn’t over by any means – might have been quite different so far.

Here are some of Polansky’s heartbreaks in Grand Slam qualifying.

Third-set tiebreak to Alexander Bublik at the 2017 French Open
15-13 in the third set to American Denis Kudla at the 2013 French Open
9-7 in the third set to Ramon Delgado of Paraguay at the 2009 French Open.

When he has made it (Polansky has been in six Grand Slam main draws, two each at the other three majors), the luck hasn’t been much better.

Five-set loss to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez at the 2009 US Open
A five-set loss to Philipp Petzschner at the 2009 French Open
Another five-set loss to Igor Andreev at the 2009 Oz Open (he led two sets to none)

In Australia this year – a stroke of luck. After losing 6-4 in the third set to young Andrey Rublev in the final round of qualifying, he made it as a lucky loser.

So close in Oz

Polansky was hitting the ball as hard as he has in his career Down Under this season. In his first-round match against No. 30 seed Pablo Carreño-Busta of Spain, after losing the first set 6-0, he went up two sets to one.