Noah Rubin staying focused on promising tennis career

LAKEWOOD RANCH -- An iconic Beatles song filtered through the sound system at center court, and

Noah Rubin responded to the beat by playing some air drums and singing some lyrics.

Then later Rubin received some encouraging words late in his second-round match of the 2016 Joey Gratton Sarasota Open tennis tournament to dig in.

So Rubin turned his racquet upside down and performed a digging motion.

"It kind of relaxes me, while keeping focus," Rubin said. "It doesn't keep me tense. They play 'Sgt. Pepper's,' I mean I have to sing along to it."

On Wednesday, the American ranked No. 190 in the world moved into a quarterfinal berth after dusting off Chile's Gonzalo Lama, 6-0, 7-6 (7-4).

After a first-round upset of world No. 59, Denis Kudla, in a three-set thriller Monday night, Rubin displayed his quick reflexes, deft drop shots from the base line and powerful ground strokes on the center court stage again to the amazement of fans watching Wednesday's action.

"This guy ... he can move," echoed one fan from the stands.

Tournament director Tony Driscoll agreed.

"He's super fast," Driscoll said.

Rubin isn't new to the area, having played the prestigious Eddie Herr International tournament as a junior player at IMG Academy. He also played the Sarasota Open when it was contested on Longboat Key.

There wasn't much success there, but his fortunes have changed on the clay surface at the Lakewood Ranch Athletic and Tennis Center this week.

The Challenger Tour event is a tournament within a tournament, too, as the Lakewood Ranch stop is the first of three events that Americans are competing in to gain points for a potential French Open wild card.

The most points earned through this week, the tour's stop in Savannah, Ga., and in Tallahassee will earn

"That enters your head, obviously," Rubin said. "But I want to play like I did in the Australian ones. ... It's tough, because you have to root for Americans to lose and most of these guys, I'm pretty close with."

Rubin has already experienced the Grand Slam lifestyle, making waves in January when he upset

France's

Benoit Paire, who was ranked No. 18 in the world at the time, in the first round of the Australian Open.

Rubin also captured the boys singles title at Wimbledon, before playing college tennis for one year at Wake Forest.

And to say tennis is in the 20-year-old's blood is an understatement.

The Long Island, N.Y., native's father, Eric, is a tennis coach. His grandfather, Ed, saw the sport in a park once, so he read books about it and immersed himself in it. Even Noah's sister, Jessie, played the sport in college at Binghamton in New York.

And he's fast become a fan favorite in Lakewood Ranch after knocking off Kudla on Monday, and the way he excelled Wednesday without any disruptive outbursts when things weren't going his way.

"This is my profession and work my butt off for it each and every day," Rubin said. "But what do I play?

Forty weeks a year, I play tournaments or something like that. You can't take it too seriously. I mean, you're on the road and if you do take it seriously, which I see a lot of guys doing here, it becomes grueling and it becomes a real job. And I can't have that."

Meanwhile, it was a mixed bag of results for locals on the men's doubles side. Bradenton's Sekou Bangoura Jr., a former Out-of-Door Academy and University of Florida standout, teamed with Connor Smith to turn back Austria's Gerald Melzer and Great Britain's James Ward in three sets, 6-4, 0-6, 11-9.

Saint Stephen's senior Brian Berdusco, who isn't playing high school tennis this season, fell in his double match with partner Russell Benkaim to the team of Marcelo Arevalo and Sergio Galdos, 6-1 and 6-3.

Jason Dill, sports reporter, can be reached at 745-7017. Follow him on Twitter @Jason__Dill and like his Facebook page at Jason Dill Bradenton Herald.

This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Noah Rubin staying focused on promising tennis career."