Duval’s Goes From Tough Times To US Open Sensation

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 29th August 2013

Duval’s Goes From Tough Times To US Open Sensation

epa03839735 Victoria Duval of the US hits a return to Samantha Stosur of Australia during their match on the second day of the 2013 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 27 August 2013. The US Open runs through Monday 09 September, a 15-day schedule for the first time. EPA/JASON SZENES |

Victoria Duval has not had an easy life. When she was seven, she was held hostage at gunpoint, along with her two cousins, by intruders at her aunt’s house the Haitian capital, of Port-Au-Prince, when she was just seven.

“We were held hostage. It’s not a good memory, so I try to forget as much as I could about it,” the now 17-year old said after her stunning upset of Samantha Stosur at the US Open. “I don’t remember too much of it anymore, which is great.”

The 2012 USTA Girls 18 Nationals champion was forced to qualify for the 2013 US Open, as she lost in the quarterfinals of the 18s National earlier this month. She appears to be a very happy person, constantly smiling and laughing.

She has learned to look at the bright side of life even though her family went through even more trying times. While she, her mother and two brothers were living in Florida so she could pursue her tennis dreams, her father, Jean-Maurice, stayed in Haiti to run his medical practice and was there in 2010 when a huge earthquake struck, leaving him trapped under his home.

He managed to make a phone call to his wife and told his wife to say goodbye to the kids. But she told him to hang in there and that he would make it.

A real estate developer named Harry Kitchen, who was family friend from Atlanta, paid to charter a private plane to fly to Haiti and bring back Jean-Maurice.

“We’re forever grateful to them,” Duval said. “If it weren’t for them, my dad definitely wouldn’t be here today. Not everyone just pays $30,000 to fly a helicopter to save someone.”

Jean-Maurice survived 11 hours before they finally found him, but he broken his left arm, had a fractured vertebrae, five broken ribs and a punctured lung.

He is still unable to work, and may never be able to again, but watching his daughter step up the tennis ladder pleases him.

“But he’s improving so much,” Victoria Duval said. “Emotionally it was hard at first. But he’s as happy as he’s ever been. He had a couple surgeries that helped take the pain away. We’re just so happy that he’s in a good state of mind right now. He’s just here with us. So it’s incredible.”

Duval has trained at the Nick Bollettieri Academy, also has a private coach in Todd Morelle and still worked with USTA Player Development.

“I’ve been pretty much just practicing with my brothers. I was at the USTA for a year, and I was staying in the dorms,” she said. “I’m back home right now. But I still have a great relationship with the USTA. They help me with everything I do. I guess I’m still part of the USTA, but I’m just home with my family right now.”

Topics: 10sballs, Nick Bollettieri, Samantha Stosur, Tennis, US Open, Usta, Victoria Duval, Wta