With eyes on French, Bradenton’s Sekou Bangoura falls in first round at Sarasota Open

For only a moment, Sekou Bangoura seemed ready to rally. The Bradenton native stumbled to a lopsided first-set loss against James McGee in the first round of the Sarasota Open and after trading games to start the second set Bangoura was in trouble again.

Back-to-back points while trailing by two games opened the door for just a few minutes. “Let’s go!” he shouted to himself, then laced his next sentence with an expletive.

“Hey!” a spectator shouted back. “There are kids here!” Bangoura looked at the ground and shook his head as he returned to the baseline for another serve.

The game slipped away from there. Bangoura committed a couple errors. James McGee took advantage of the 25-year-old’s mistakes to stretch his lead and soon after finish off a 6-2, 6-1 win at United Tennis Academy.

“I had a rough day myself,” Bangoura said. “He played really smart. He got the job done, so credit to him. I had a rough day. I don’t really want to talk about it, but it happens. Tennis is a rough sport. Sometimes you’ve got to internalize things, sometimes you have to externalize things.”

Bangoura’s latest shot at the Sarasota Open ended after just one day. A few hours after falling to McGee in the singles tournament, the Out-of-Door Academy alumnus, paired with fellow American Mackenzie McDonald, lost 1-6, 6-2, 11-9 in the opening round of the doubles main draw to American Stefan Kozlov and Canadian Peter Polansky.

The losses are just one setback for Bangoura, though, in a year which is shaping up to potentially be the best of his career. After reaching the third round of qualifying at the 2016 U.S. Open, Bangoura competed in the qualifying draw of the Australian Open this year and has his sights set on make the qualifying draw at the French Open next month.

Bangoura, who received a wild card into the main draw at the Sarasota Open this year, entered the week ranked No. 260 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), leaving him a bit on the outside of the top-224 ranking necessary to automatically reach the qualifying draw in France.

“The hope for me is to get to the French Open. I’m looking forward to that,” Bangoura said. “We’ll see what happens.”

But Bangoura’s performance Monday was a reminder of why he still has work to do. His Irish opponent had a slight edge on him in the rankings and Bangoura was never able to string together a consistent run of play against the world’s No. 211 player. Since falling to Radek Stepanek in the first round of Australian Open qualifying in January, Bangoura has only managed three wins.

McGee’s edge in experience showed throughout the first-round match. A lighter ball than usual — the open is using balls more commonly used by the Women’s Tennis Association — kept rallies short and unforced errors plentiful. McGee didn’t try to do anything fancy, just force Bangoura into situations where he could make a mistake.

“I might have seemed in control,” the 29-year-old said. “I didn’t feel particularly in control.”

Bangoura will have a few more chances to bounce back and push his ranking back into range for reaching the French Open. He’s headed off to Tallahassee next for another Challenger Tour event and then Savannah, Ga., after that.

“The grind,” Bangoura said, “never stops.”

This story was originally published April 17, 2017 at 10:23 PM with the headline "With eyes on French, Bradenton’s Sekou Bangoura falls in first round at Sarasota Open."