O’Neal proving he belongs

INDIANAPOLIS - By the time he graduated from the University of Florida and graduated away from the pressure he had felt since he was a freshman, Justin O'Neal was done with tennis.

He would move to San Diego, obtain his master's degree in social work, spend his time surfing and trying to make better the lives of disadvantaged kids.

For the most part, the former Shawnee High School star had packed away his tennis equipment for good. However, he could not forget it completely. He tried, but the specter of his tennis career - the good and the bad - continued to follow him.

"In college, I was 19 or 20 years old, and I was probably at about that maturity level," O'Neal said this week from the ATP Tour's Indianapolis Tennis Championships. "It was more about going out and partying. Tennis was a second or third priority. When I stopped, it was basically because the pressure on me was pretty great. I needed to get away from it. I took five years off, and I never planned on playing again. But I found it hard to move on with my life. I didn't end it in the right way."

He'll end it the right way this time. At 30 years old - 11 years after his freshman year at Florida where he earned All-America honors and a top-20 national ranking - O'Neal is grinding away on the pro tennis courts.

Normally, he plays in Futures events - much of the time, he actually has to qualify to make the main draw of what's essentially the lowest of the tennis minor leagues - and tries to play in Challengers. But he's coming off a banner week, winning two matches in the qualifying event here and earning a berth into his first-ever ATP Tour main draw.

At the age of 30.

"It's a huge accomplishment for him," said Jon Glover, a former University of Florida teammate and O'Neal's coach. "You're looking at a guy who had five years off of competitive tennis. For a guy to go from not playing to the main draw of an ATP tournament, it's unheard of. It shows he can still play this game at a very high level."

O'Neal has quite a story to tell. Former tennis hotshots who win the state tournament three times in high school before quitting it all after college and then making a comeback usually do.

"I didn't give myself the best chance to succeed and be successful," said O'Neal, who was ousted in two tie-breaking sets by Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu in Monday's first round. "That's the reason I wanted to come back out there. It wasn't about rankings or making money or making these types of tournaments. It was about going out and doing the right things - preparing the right way, training the right way, practicing the right way. That was it."

So, O'Neal moved to Philadelphia in 2004 and began training with Glover. Six months later, he got sick. Real sick.

"I came down with this illness, and it was very scary," O'Neal said. "It got to the point where I couldn't get out of bed. I went to all these doctors, and no one knew what the problem was. I was getting worse and worse and worse. That really set me back. I had worked really hard for about six months getting back into shape, and all of a sudden, I was out six months where I couldn't pick up a racket or do anything. That messes with your mind. Maybe this isn't what was meant to be. For a while there, I didn't know if I was going to continue to get worse and die."

Eventually, doctors determined it was a yeast overgrowth in his stomach; he changed his diet, began training once again and commenced with the Futures events. Leading into this week's tournament, he had made a grand total of $7,391 during his career. He also receives help from his parents, Lima residents Georgia and Stanton O'Neal.

But with his first-round appearance, he made $4,760 - O'Neal said he was paid in cash as his eyes widened at the memory of all those bills landing in his hand.

Really, though, the money isn't even the point. He just wanted to see how he'd fare when he gave professional tennis his best shot.

"It's great to see somebody that realizes that you only have a 10-year window for something they love," American Bobby Reynolds said. "He's been grinding his way through the Futures, and everybody has to go through that route. It's a stepping stone, and it's great to see him out there and giving it his all."

Said Glover: "The whole point about him coming back was to prove to himself that he could compete at the highest level. Just prove to himself what his potential was. If he doesn't compete in another ATP tournament, at least he qualified this week. He proved that he belongs on the court with some of the best players in the world."