Vahaly Majors in Upsets Now

Brian Vahaly overcame his college education to upset the third-ranked player in the world, Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, in the second round of the Pacific Life Open on Wednesday at Indian Wells.

The pro tour is full of stories of looking adversity in the eye and winning out. Terrible knee injuries. Broken bones. Dysfunctional families. But nothing ever quite this bad.

Vahaly actually has a college degree, graduating with a 3.5 grade-point average in the double major of finance and business management.

Even worse, the degree is from the University of Virginia, not exactly the Fresno State of the East.

Moreso, he took the Scholastic Assessment Test as a high school junior and got a 1,250, so he didn’t even take the test again. He reads books, doesn’t just toss the front page of the newspaper away on his way to the sports section and sometimes uses words with as many as four syllables.

A sympathetic press corps showed understanding of his incredible plight in his news conference afterward.

Asked Jerry Magee of the San Diego Union-Tribune: “Do you have trouble on the tennis tour finding somebody to have a stimulating conversation with?”

Vahaly smiled broadly and refused to comment.

Vahaly is the only tour player in the top 100 with a college degree, and in the world of professional tennis, using the years from age 18 to 22 going to school is akin to professional suicide.

“A guy who goes to college signs away his career,” Vahaly said, citing the common perception.

Seeded men’s players Lleyton Hewitt (1), Carlos Moya (5), Andy Roddick (6), Sebastien Grosjean (11) and Rainer Schuettler (15) advanced through the second round Wednesday. But six other seeded men lost, including Roger Federer (4), Albert Costa (8),Tim Henman (13), Sjeng Schalken (14) and, Alex Corretja (16).

The sixth was Vahaly over Ferrero, a stunner for several reasons.

Vahaly, listed at 6 feet in the ATP media guide -- which appears to be an exaggeration of only four or five inches -- is ranked No. 82 and was No. 400 as recently as 2001.

His total career money coming into this event was $195,000, chump change for a lot of the tour. He got into the qualifying tournament for this event in the eleventh hour, when four other players dropped out and the ATP tour found him in Los Angeles, visiting his girlfriend and planning to come to the desert to watch the tournament and train with some of the other players.

“It was my week off,” he said. “When they called, they said I was the worst guy in qualifying.”

He got the phone call last Thursday night and had to be in Indian Wells for sign-in by Friday.

Then he won two matches to get into the main draw, won his first-round match Monday and not only got to play Ferrero, but was pushed out to the main stadium court, and the ESPN match, when Amelie Mauresmo defaulted with a throat infection, canceling her quarterfinal match with Lindsay Davenport.

“Thirty minutes before the match, I called 25 of my closest friends and told them to turn on the television,” he said. “If I lose, turn it off.... Probably not the best way to get ready for a match.”

It was surprising enough that Vahaly even got Ferrero into a third set, but when he went up a service break in the third, it was downright shocking. And then, to lose that break and not crumple but merely turn around and break the Spaniard’s serve again was just unthinkable.

For Vahaly, all the expected nerves were there.

“I was so excited this was actually happening,” he said. “I wasn’t prepared for it. And the nerves crept in. I had a tough time breathing.”

Serving for the match at 5-3, he double-faulted to 15-all, but got to match point at 40-30, losing that when he went for the deep cross-court corner and hit a forehand long. But he continued to attack, rather than tighten up, and Ferrero gave him two hard chances to miss, both volleyed back nicely by Vahaly, the second getting him to match point No. 2.

This time, Ferrero hit a forehand long and Vahaly dropped his racket in disbelief. His hands went to his cap, which he crumpled in his hands and held onto, staring into the distance in disbelief before going to the net to shake hands. Then he stood over his chair on the sidelines for about 30 seconds, bent over, hands on knees. Eventually, a ball girl brought him his racket.

And so it came to pass, the underdog, self-proclaimed “short, old college player with a big head” had done it. Add some brain to the tour’s brawn.

But don’t think Vahaly won’t pay the price for all this in the locker room, where close friends such as Roddick will really test his brain, as well as his sense of humor.

Roddick, following Vahaly to the press room, was told there had just been a college honor student in before him.

“Did he use lots of big words?” Roddick asked.