Martin Damm’s difficult trip to the best tennis tour of his life in the US Open 2025 – World Tennis Magazine

By Randy Walker

@TenniisPublisher

One of the great things from the US Open is not only seeing the top players in the world to look for career, but those lower-ranked players whose career highlights can easily come with a first round victory.

Take the case of Martin Damm Jr. On day two of the 2025 US Open.

Damm, one of the promising young American players who have lately been littered with injuries, won his first career Grand Slam Singles match with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over another prominent young American player Darwin Blanch.

“It’s the best tennis moment of my life,” said Damm in a media gaggle in the Bud Collins Press Room at the US Open after the victory.

Damm, the son of Martin Damm Sr., a former top player from the Czech Republic who won the US Open Doubles title in 2006 with Leander Paes, was one of the best junior players in the world who started at the age of 15. At that age he won a double players in the history of the event in the history of the event in the history of the event in the history of the event in the history of the event in the history of the event in the history of the event in the history of the event to win a double players. He also has a 2-0 career record against Carlos Alcaraz, albeit at the Wimbledon Junior Championships on Grass and the ITF Junior event in Porto Allegre, Brazil on Clay. After his junior career, however, Damm’s launch in the pros was somewhat stuck, mainly due to injuries.

Damm tore two ligaments in his ankle just before Wimbledon in 2024, with his ranking in the top 200 at a career height of No. 175 and then came back early to the courts, which participated in the US Open -qualification rounds last year (lost in the first round) and then found that he had a stress fracture.

“Learned,” he said he was trying to come back too early from an injury. “I hurried it. I was still injured. I played three or four tournaments and I couldn’t walk.”

Damm was in a boot for 11 weeks from October to February and although he was about to go directly into Grand Slam tournaments, he now had to dive to play the lowest level $ 15,000 futures events to rebuild his ranking. Rank at no. 467, he was forced to play futures events in Sharm-el Sheikh, Egypt in February 2025.

“It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t easy,” he said about playing 15K Futures events. “There were many scoops. I thought I would never go to Egypt. Last year the first five months of the year were the best tennis of my life. I experienced many scoops and the next that you know, I can’t walk to the bathroom.”

During a two-week stint at the Sharm-el Sheikh Futures, played in a coastal resort, Damm won the first event and became second in the second. However, when his third round points from the Miami Open Masters 1000 event from 2024 fell, his ranking fell under no. 700. But Damm continued to exist and continued to play 15k, 25k and challenge level events in Portugal, Finland and in the Republic of Georgia and slowly started to build his ranking.

The US Tennis Association, which still has faith in him, gave him a wildcard at this year’s US Open Qualification Tournament with an ATP -Singles ranking ranking of No. 431, more than 200 ranking slots beyond the Cutoff to even get into the qualifying rounds. But Damm won three qualifying round competitions in Straight sets to get access to the main table of a Grand Slam in Singles for the first time. He was lucky when his name was randomly placed in the draw to play Blanch, who at the age of 17 -a main table wild card after winning the Usta Boys 18S title and only ranked no. 364, while he could have drawn no. 5 seed jack draper or no. With his victories so far in Flushing Meadows, the ranking of Damm will at least move the top 300 in the world.

“Of course this would not be possible if the Usta did not give me a wildcard, so I am super grateful,” said Damm. “It has been a great few days. I am very happy that I play well, but especially that I stay healthy.”