By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
“So you’re telling me there’s a chance” is the famous saying from the Jim Carrey character “Lloyd” in the movie “Dumb and Dumber” when presented with the fact from Mary, the woman he was ridiculously pursuing, that he had a one-in-a-million chance of being with her.
That’s a little bit of the way Liam Draxl and Jody Maginley may have felt when they learned they were the No. 7 team on the alternate list to get into the main draw doubles field at the ATP Tour’s Delray Beach Open. Their chances were not quite one-in-a-million but not that far off.
However, the idioms “Persistence pays off” and “Good things happen when you show up” came to fruition for the duo from Canada and Antigua.
Draxl, the Canadian Davis Cupper who has a residence in Delray Beach, and Maginley, the Davis Cupper from Antigua who resides in Pompano Beach, dutifully signed into the alternate sign-in list on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the hope that one of the 16 doubles teams in the event would pull out of the tournament and they could potentially still move into the draw as an alternate team. As the teams ranked higher than them on the alternate list disappeared to other parts of the globe to compete in other events, giving up on their chances to get into Delray Beach, Draxl and Maginley, with the benefit of residing locally, stayed. They signed into the alternate sign-in sheet before the 10:30 am daily deadline (30 minutes before the start of play) up until the last day when first round doubles matches were played on Wednesday for the chance that they could be eligible to potentially take the place of a withdrawing team.
Their hopes then became realized when Australian Rinky Hijikata, paired with partner Adam Walton, was forced to pull out of the last scheduled first-round doubles match at the event with an injury. With Draxl and Maginley now being the top-team that signed in on the Wednesday morning doubles alternate sign-in, they were then inserted into the draw to play the wild card team of Drew Hilderbrand and Mac Kiger in the first round later in the day.
To boot, Draxl and Maginley translated their luck into good play and good fortune as they defeated Hilderbrand and Kiger 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of an ATP Tour event. It was a hallmark moment for Maginley, who is ranked No. 195 in the world in doubles, as it was his first appearance – and match win – on the ATP Tour. It was also a hallmark for Draxl, ranked No. 309 in doubles and No. 149 in singles, who won only his second career ATP Tour level doubles match in his fifth appearance at this level, three of the previous showings coming via wild cards in his native Canadian Open.
Many tennis fans will remember that a similar circumstance happened at the Delray Beach Open in 2023 when a local part-time player named Matija Pecotic, with a ranking of No. 784, persisted in signing in as an alternate to the qualifying singles event and won two matches to get into the main draw, where he upset former top 10 player Jack Sock, as documented here: Tennis stunner: Jack Sock falls to part-time player in Delray Beach
As a lesson to all – in tennis and in life – as Draxl and Maginley again demonstrated, persistence pays off and good things happen when you show up. And…there’s always a chance, even if you are told those chances are one in a million. Jim Carrey’s character Lloyd, in the “Dumb and Dumber” movie, however, did not get the girl.
