Brian Baker won his first singles match in the U.S. Open Wednesday.
The Nashville native and former Belmont men’s tennis assistant coach defeated Jan Hajek Wednesday afternoon in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, and 6-2. The match took approximately two hours.
He won 24 out of 29 points at the net, and won his first match at the U.S. Open since 2005.
It was Baker’s first match at the U.S. Open since his recent resurgence in professional tennis.
“It means everything,” Baker told reporters at the tournament. “Everybody knows I’ve gone through a hard time. I was probably a little more nervous today than I’d like to have been. But seven years is a long time.”
In advancing to the second round he will take No. 8 seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, who came back from to sets down to move to the second round on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Baker and his American partner Rajeev Ram defeated Martin Emmrich of Germany and Igor Sisling of the Netherlands 6-2, 1-6, and 7-6 in their first round doubles match.
In the second round, they will face Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins of Great Britain.