Laying claim to No. 1
In a distant sort of way, Butler can lay claim to having the top tennis doubles player in the world.
Austin Krajicek, 33, who lives in Dallas, Texas, recently earned the No. 1 spot in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) doubles rankings in the world. Relatives on his mother’s side live in Butler.
“I still have some great aunts and cousins up there,” Krajicek said. “I used to get to Butler to visiit family almost every year. It’s been a few years now ... The pro tennis travel gets pretty crazy.”
Krajicek began playing tennis at age 5, growing up in Florida. His father played college basketball and was always athletic. He joined a golf club just outside of Tampa and Austin tagged along with him, where he first dabbled in tennis.
“I became pretty good at a young age and the country club pros took me on to help refine my skills,” Krajicek said. “Once they couldn’t do anything more for me, they passed me on to instructors at another level and it just went from there.”
Krajicek wound up joining the ATP’s Futures Tour and won some titles there. He went on to Texas A&M University and won the NCAA championship his senior year.
After a while, Krajicek realized his skills on the court were better suited toward playing doubles.
“I was a more effective player in doubles,” he said. “I played singles for about eight years before becoming primarily a doubles player in 2019. He and his current partner, Ivan Dodig, have been playing pro tournaments together for almost two years now.
Dodig is the No. 2 ranked doubles player in the world by ATP.
“That’s worked out pretty well,” Krajicek said. “We should be pretty good, right?”
They’ve been better than pretty good.
The pair have won five titles at or above the ATP 500 levels. They reached the U.S. Open semifinals this year.
They’ve won five tournaments this year overall, including the French Open doubles title at Roland Garros, one year after losing the championship match there.
“That was our first Grand Slam title and it meant a lot to us,” Krajicek said. “The Grand Slam we want to win now is the U.S. Open in New York. Winning a Grand Slam title so close to home would be awesome.”
With Krajicek living in Texas and Dodig in Croatia, the two don’t get together for practice very often. Then again, they don’t have to.
“We know each other so well,” Krajicek said. “We’ll get into the town where our next tournament is a few days early and get some practice time in then.
“We’re always communicating on the court during a match. The pace pf play is so quick, though, that you have to be able to anticipate your partner’s moves and how he may react to different shots.”
Krajicek is 47-19 in doubles on the pro tour this year. He was ranked No. 1 for 13 weeks, including the last ten in a row. A native of Tampa, he’s tallied 7,130 doubles points this season, 510 more than Dodig.
That point disparity is the highest between No. 1 and No. 2 in four years.
So how’s it feel being ranked No. 1 among thousands of tennis players throughout the world?
“It hasn’t really sunk in," Krajicek admitted. ”There hasn’t been any time to think about it, really. Being No. 1 is hard to put into words ... It’s a goal I've worked toward since I was a little kid.
“All of this will probably sink in later in my career.”
Krajicek plans to include Butler among his later travels.
“The family has spread out a little bit,” he said. “Some are in Central Pa. now, Ohio ... I’ll get back there at some point. It’s important to keep in touch with family.”
