@TennisUitgever
It is said that it takes about two years of playing full-time on the professional tennis tour to become accustomed to the machinations of a career as a professional tennis player.
Ethan Quinn is right on schedule.
The 2023 NCAA singles champion from the University of Georgia broke into the Top 100 of the ATP Tour singles rankings during a 2025 season that marked exactly two years since he turned pro after a year of college tennis. Quinn’s 2025 season began with a ranking of No. 203 as he began his season playing in the qualifying rounds of the Canberra Challenger in Australia. At the end of the year, his year-end ranking stood at number 70 and saw him play in the main draw of three of the four major tournaments, culminating in a third round appearance at Roland Garros.
At the season-opening Challenger in Canberra, Quinn not only advanced through the qualifying rounds to the main draw, but also advanced all the way to the final, where he lost to Brazilian sensation Joao Fonseca. In his transition from Challenger level player to ATP Tour level player, the Fresno, California native achieved most of his match victories in the qualifying rounds. He nearly broke the ATP Tour record for most times advancing to the main draw of an ATP event via qualification when he turned the trick nine times during the 2025 season, one short of the ATP Tour single-season record. (He did, however, emerge one more time from qualifying as a lucky loser in Delray Beach, Florida.) Had Quinn won the final-round qualifiers at two of his final events of the year in Vienna and Stockholm, he would have set a new record and become an obscure part of ATP Tour history.
Speaking at the 2025 US Open after losing in the first round of singles but reaching the round of 16 in doubles, Quinn spoke of the change in mindset that many professionals must have when first adjusting to playing on the ATP Tour.
“A good week sometimes means winning just one game,” he said. “The level here is very, very good. It doesn’t matter if you’re 120 in the world or 60 in the world, the level is very high. It’s difficult to win matches. So it’s an attempt to turn your mind around and say, ‘Oh, winning a first round every week, that’s good.’ So now it’s kind of going through that and trying to put together two games in a row, maybe three games in a row.
Quinn finished the 2025 season with a 12–18 record for the season, but it also moved him up 133 spots on the ATP Tour rankings and earned him $899,486 in prize money.
“It’s just trying to find ways where you can play your best level of tennis in the first round, but keep playing that level because if you show up in the first round and you’re not at your best, you’re going to lose, and in the second round you’re going to play against an even better player than the first,” he said. “You’re playing against a guy who has been seeded and maybe had a bye. So it’s going to be very difficult and so you just try to put together as many games as possible.”
Quinn won his first main draw match of the year at ATP Tour level at the Dallas Open in February, beating Trevor Svajda in the first round after winning two matches in the qualifying rounds before losing to world No. 9 and training partner Tommy Paul. The following week, he entered the main draw of the Delray Beach Open via a “lucky loser” spot as an alternate after losing in the final round of the qualifying draw. It was in Delray Beach where Quinn said he began to focus on the ATP Tour versus playing in Challenger-level events.
“Now I’m moving on to the ATP Tour instead of the Challenger Tour,” he said after his first-round win in Delray Beach over compatriot Tristan Boyer, as you can read here https://worldtennismagazine.com/ethan-quinn-and-the-progression-of-a-pro-tennis-player-at-the-delray-beach-open/24533 “So I’m learning things and the ins and outs of the ATP Tour. I It feels like I almost haven’t mastered the Challenger level, but now I know how to get through it every week. You have these amenities that you wouldn’t really have at some Challenger tournaments, and that’s pretty incredible and you go, ‘Wow, this is way longer than the Challenger Tour.’ So I’m kind of learning how to deal with that and being kind of let down by the last few games, and then preparing yourself for the next game. You really have to see and feel the changes and that is only possible by playing more tournaments.”
Quinn said the highlight of his 2025 season was reaching the third round of Roland Garros after advancing to the main draw via qualification, the first time he played in a main draw of a Grand Slam tournament without the comfort of a wildcard into the main draw. After taking advantage of an injury to Grigor Dimitrov that allowed him to advance to the second round, Quinn won a five-set thriller – the first five-set match and win of his professional career – by beating Alexander Shevchenko 6-4, 4-6, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3), 7-5. He then played another five-set match in the next round, but fell to number 35 Tallon Greek Spoor 4-6, 6-1, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.
“The French Open is something I watch a lot,” Quinn said of his 2025 highlight at the 2025 US Open. “Being able to qualify by playing against three strong opponents, and then being able to play two consecutive five-set matches… that’s not easy to do. I’d never done it before and kind of went into a slam, or is that actually my first main draw since you USTA gave me a wild card a few years ago, that’s really scary. You get into the tournament and you’re like, “Oh, shoot, can I play five sets,” and then to do it two games in? It gave me a lot of confidence going into the rest of the season, where I know the training I’m doing is going to get me where I need to be.
The result in Paris moved Quinn into the top 100 for the first time. He won first-round main draw matches in five of his next six ATP events, including at Wimbledon, his first major tournament as a direct entry and not via a wildcard or via qualification. Quinn said winning so many first-round games (11 total over the course of the 2025 season) was also a highlight of his season.
“It’s not that easy to win the early rounds and to be able to do that just shows that I compete week in, week out and consistently put out a product that I’m really happy with,” he said. “It’s not easy to show every game and I feel like I’ve done that really well this season. I think as I move forward for this season and next season, I would really like to put out a better product for more games in a row. Being able to win the first rounds a little more handily. I’ve won a lot of seven, six games in the third this year, so I can win games a little easier, or easier in the first round and then try to extend my limits.” tournaments up to and including the second round.”
Before starting his freshman year at the University of Georgia, Quinn stated that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of fellow Southeastern Conference tennis player Ben Shelton from the University of Florida, as he stated at the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships $15,000 “Futures” level event in Vero Beach here: https://youtu.be/IvW3Fl1a4jg?si=XxoOeo1CcsvYjMQa And he did just that when he succeeded Shelton as NCAA singles champion in 2023, the year after Shelton won the title. In 2026, Quinn will undoubtedly aim to emulate Shelton’s success on the ATP Tour and will aim for deep runs at Grand Slam events and a Top 10 ranking.
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