Kielbowicz gets a taste of the dream at Flushing Meadows

At the end of 2013, Joel Kielbowicz was ranked No. 1,674 in singles in the Association of Tennis Professionals computer, and No. 1,544 in doubles.

He’s 31. He’s still out there, grinding away in the fringes and the margins and the pro tennis hinterlands.

On Friday, Kielbowicz and his mixed doubles partner Jacqueline Cako played at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.

During the U.S. Open.

On one of the raucous stadium courts.

Kielbowicz, who played at Green Valley High and UNLV, and his young partner lost 7-5, 6-3 to fellow Americans Taylor Townsend and Donald Young.

People milled about the 6,000-seat Grandstand Stadium as they always mill about, making it difficult for the mixed doubles players to concentrate. It was late afternoon, the sun was in the players’ eyes. Wind swirled. The match had been moved at short notice from Court 11, messing with the players’ mental routines.

This would never happen to Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal.

It happens a lot to the Joel Kielbowiczs of professional tennis.

When we spoke Saturday, it was well after midnight in New York. It had been a long day of sightseeing. Kielbowicz and Cako had ridden bicycles in Central Park, cruised to the Statue of Liberty, witnessed scenes from an Italian restaurant, per Billy Joel’s suggestion.

Joel Kielbowicz was still in a “New York State of Mind.”

He still was diggin’ that he and Cako had qualified for the main draw via wild card by winning a national playoff at Yale amid ivy-covered halls. Yeah, he and Cako lost Friday, but they had played at the Open. And this was Jacqueline’s pro debut. The former Arizona State ace is only 22.

They had played two doors down from cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium which seats 22,547, the largest tennis stadium in the world. They probably could cram a few more in there, though, were Jimmy Connors still playing.

So Friday had been a good day for Kielbowicz, and for Jacqueline Cako, too. A very good day. By late Saturday night, he could see that.

“It doesn’t sink in until a day like today,” Kielbowicz said. “You go from a lower level, and then you go to the highest level you can go in tennis, and skip everything in between.”

It would be sort of like playing Wiffle Ball in your backyard one day, and playing in Yankee Stadium the next. Without stopping in Class A, Double-A or Triple-A.

“You come down from that high, then you go back to the drawing board to see if you can do it again,” said Kielbowicz, who has won a fair share of prize money and silver cups banging the neon ball around on the satellite tours.

But the Open, well, that’s a little different.

“It was definitely one of the highlights of my career.”

So, as he mentioned, having experienced the Open, now he wants to experience it again. He’s 31, and sometimes it’s difficult to keep grinding away when you’re 31. He’s at an age where he might have to switch to doubles full-time.

Kielbowicz played singles and doubles at UNLV. His singles record was 52-39. That’s a decent record, but guys who go 52-39 in college usually have trouble attracting the big sponsors.

So they grind it out.

They give private lessons so they can make enough money to get to the next tournament in the pro tennis hinterlands. They choose the next stop carefully. They choose tournaments that offer a decent purse, and a decent chance at cashing a check.

If they don’t cash, they give more private lessons. When one gives too many private lessons, Joel Kielbowicz says one’s game dies.

Kielbowicz doesn’t have a sponsor, but he has a good friend and a de facto coach. Those are important, too. He and Adrin Himmelheber met in high school. They became friends; their friendship grew on the regional circuit. They became doubles partners.

Kielbowicz and Himmelheber. The statisticians didn’t much care for them.

Himmelheber, who once trained at the Nick Bollettieri Academy, is now club pro at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. He went to New York to watch his pal play at the holy grail. When tennis fans asked Kielbowicz to autograph oversized fuzzy tennis balls, Himmelheber took photos.

You can sign here, they say. No, not by Federer and Raffy. On the other side.

“Joel and I had a talk about two years ago to pursue a doubles career instead of singles,” Himmelheber said. “I always believed in him and knew he could play at that next level; he just needed a chance. There are many doubles specialists on tour in their 30s and early 40s, so he has a five- to 10-year window to make a good living.”

Kielbowicz would prefer it to be five years, because grinding it out on the fringes and the margins of the pro tennis hinterlands can take a lot out of a guy.

The mindset is different for stalwarts such as Federer and Raffy Nadal. Those guys are rock stars. They have entourages and nutritionists and private masseurs.

But on Friday, Joel Kielbowicz used the same locker room and facilities as those two and the other greats of the game. He got a complimentary massage, from the staff masseuse at the National Tennis Center. He said he enjoyed it a great deal.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.