By: Ben Raby
Forgive Clervie Ngounoue if it felt like her entire tennis odyssey flashed before her Saturday. On the same grounds where she was introduced to the game as a toddler, Ngounoue, now 17, introduced herself to the Mubadala Citi Open.
The DC native looked at home on Stadium Court beating World No.37 Anna Blinkova 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of qualifying with more than a dozen friends and family in her player box.
“It’s such a blessing to be here,” said Ngounoue, who received a wild card for the qualifying draw and is now a win away from reaching her first Tour-level main field.
Ngounoue will next face Polish World No.79 Magdalena Frech in the first scheduled match on Stadium Court Sunday (10 a.m.).
“It’s such a huge opportunity,” she said. “Playing in this tournament that I grew up running around the grounds and asking for people’s autographs, it’s surreal.”
Ngounoue is now based in Florida, and though she has also trained extensively at the Mouratoglou Academy in France, she remains appreciative of her tennis roots in DC and those who fostered her interest in the sport.
“So many of the faces I saw today,” she said, “are the same ones I used to come to this tournament with. We’d try to get tickets and stay at the stadium late at night. So, it was just so special to see many of those faces again, but in a different circumstance where I was on court.”
Ngounoue is also back home for the first time since the biggest triumph of her career. Earlier this month, she captured the Wimbledon girls’ singles title without dropping a set, joining Robin Montgomery (US Open, 2021) as DC natives to recently win a Junior Grand Slam.
“It builds a lot more confidence in myself,” said Ngounoue, who is now ranked No.2 in the world among juniors. “I just love to compete. God is going to take me where I need to go, so I’m just really enjoying the moment right now.”
Ngounoue grew up just minutes from Rock Creek Park and treated the tennis courts like a personal playground with older sister Malkia and younger brother Carel. The siblings shagged balls and used some of their first rackets on these courts, before eventually moving into more serious training.
“We didn’t even know it had a formal name,” Ngounoue said of the Rock Creek Tennis Center. “We just called it 16 th street. We used to say “We’re going to train on 16 th street!”
Back in those familiar surroundings on Saturday, Ngounoue hardly looked overwhelmed by the stage. Combining powerful groundstrokes and a series of deft dropshots, Ngounoue needed just 62 minutes to earn the straight-sets win. Along the way, she won 89% of her first-service points and was never broken.
“We all have mental bucket lists,” she said, “but [winning here] definitely feels like one of things I’ve checked off.”
Soon after her first win at this level, Ngounoue was met with another first- a formal post-match on-court interview. On a day where seemingly everything had gone so smoothly for the teenager, she finally cracked.
Asked by emcee Andrew Krasny about the support in her box- all the friends and family she had shared so many memories with previously on these grounds - Ngounoue became emotional.
“I didn’t expect the tears to start flowing,” she conceded hours later. “That was unexpected. It was all going well and then all of a sudden when he reminded me that they were there, I was like ‘I didn’t even realize there were that many people.’ It means so much to me.”
