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Los Angeles, CA – At its finest, tennis resembles ballet performed in rubber-soled shoes with logos. Each player on the professional circuit brings his or her own unique choreography to the courts. During the week of July 21, Melinda Czink of Hungary showcased her marvelously athletic tennis choreography at the East West Bank Classic, which was played at The Home Depot Center in Carson, California.
A major US Open Series event on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, the East West Bank Classic is where Melinda Czink clearly cemented her spot as Hungary’s No. 2 player, right behind Ágnes Szavay, and a player on the upswing to be reckoned with as she heads toward the 2008 US Open on the hard courts across North America. The US Open is scheduled to start on August 25.
Czink was born on October 22, 1982, on the Buda side of Budapest. She first picked up a racquet at age 10 and was coached by her father István and fed the very best Hungarian food imaginable, as she put it, by her mother Ágnes. Her parents still run their own business in Budapest. By age 13, Melinda showed enough promise on a tennis court to be taken on by professional coach Péter Kisantal. Her continuing success led to her turning professional in 2000 after holding onto the No. 2 spot in Hungary in Juniors from 1998-2000.
Winner of 17 singles titles and 8 doubles titles on the ITF Women’s Circuit, Melinda Czink hopes to make a more serious splash on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour this year and for years to come. To date, she has won 2 doubles titles on the WTA Tour. At this year’s East West Bank Classic, Czink used her powerful lefty strokes to drive to the third round and face Jelena Jankovic, who is on the precipice of becoming the No. 1 player in the world. Czink fell to Jankovic 6-3 6-2 in a Stadium Court battle not reflected by the actual set scores.
On her way to the third round, Melinda Czink first deftly put away 13th seed Virginie Razzano from France 6-3 6-3, and then fought a genuinely exhilarating second-round match, defeating Ukrainian Olga Savchuk 6-4 2-6 6-4. It was in this second-round match that Czink’s tennis turned into on-court ballet. Her jackrabbit feet floated above the surface, helping to power her two-handed backhand deep and cross court relentlessly and to propel her to net quickly whenever necessary, where her doubles experience gave her a substantive edge in the volley department. She wore down her opponent, Savchuk, with a classically beautiful hard-court style of play.
Having just recently moved to Los Angeles after living for a few years in New York and in Florida, Melinda still considers Budapest to be home, and she stays with her parents whenever she returns. Mom’s cooking is simply that good! She also has a brother, Peter, who is attending Manhattan College on an athletic scholarship.
Although inspired during her youngest tennis days by legends Steffi Graf and Boris Becker, Melinda Czink’s most significant role model is former Hungarian Fed Cup Captain Andrea Temesvári, for whom Czink played for two years, representing Hungary proudly in Fed Cup competition. Temesvári, who reached a career-high No. 7 ranking in the world in 1984, currently runs a tennis academy for children in Budapest. Czink remains very disappointed that Temesvári was replaced recently as Hungary’s Fed Cup Captain.
Melinda Czink had the first of her three top-100 season finishes on the WTA Tour in 2003, the same year in which she defeated American (and highly seeded) Lisa Raymond in the second round of the US Open, a match that Melinda considers one of her most memorable. Czink lost in the next round to formidable slugger Lindsay Davenport, a former US Open champion. With top-100 finishes in 2005 and 2006, Czink hit a career-high as World’s No. 64 – a position she expects to improve upon in the very near future.
According to Melinda, the pressures of playing individual singles tournaments are very different than Fed Cup, in which you represent your country, as she also did for Hungary at the 2004 Olympics.
Although she lives mostly in the US now and enjoys playing on the hard courts here, Melinda really loves to play tennis in Australia, where she adores the sports-frenzied people, their honesty, and their friendly hospitality. It’s also very likely that she has a soft spot in her heart for Australia because she is engaged to her coach, Ian Barstow, who hails from Cairns in The Land Down Under. No wedding date has yet been set.
When not practicing, working out, or playing tournaments, Melinda enjoys hanging out at the beach, going to movies, and reading mystery and crime novels. Her favorite Hungarian author is Mór Jókai, and her favorite movies include Gladiator and Gone With The Wind. It’s indeed likely we’ll be seeing a lot more of Melinda Czink’s successes on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour this year and next.
William T. Tomcsanyi recently retired as Director of Information Technologies from Torrance Memorial Medical Center, a major metropolitan hospital in the greater Los Angeles area.
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