EDITOR’S NOTE: Today marks both the start of the 128th U.S. Open and the birthday of Andy Roddick, the fifth-seeded player and the top-ranked American in this year’s men’s event. Roddick was born 27 years ago, with his birth occurring around the same time that the Joplin father/son doubles team of John and Brian Miller made their Open debut as finalists in the Equitable Tennis Challenge.

By Rich Brown

rbrown@joplinglobe.com

As a mere lad of 17 from the calm confines of Joplin, Brian Miller was not accustomed to the big-city trappings of New York.

And although he had become somewhat of a tennis prodigy back home among those who dared challenge him on the courts around Joplin, he found out like Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz” ... this was no Kansas.

He was about to step out onto the highest plateau of tennis as we know it in the United States.

The dog days of August were on their way out and the 1982 U.S. Open was on its way in, with a young Joplin High School native caught up in the midst of tennis greatness.

With the 2009 edition of this historical tournament getting under way today, Miller recently took time to reminisce and recall how he and his father, John, overcame many odds in reaching the doubles final of that U.S. Tennis Association sponsored event for families on the hallowed grounds of the 1982 U.S. Open.

Despite all the thrills of competition in getting to the championship match, Miller’s introduction to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., may be his most vivid.

“I remember the first time I walked into the locker room,” he said. “I opened the door, walked down the hallway and turned to the right. There was a table set up and a couple of guys were talking to each other. As I walked in, the guy sitting on the table turned and said ‘Hey, how’s it going.’ Then, I realized it was Jimmy Connors. I turned the corner and there stood Vijay Amritraj (highly ranked player from India).”

Connors, seeded second, would go on to defeat third-seeded Ivan Lendl in four sets for the men’s championship, after top-seeded John McEnroe succumbed to Lendl in the semifinals.

The event that brought the Millers to this point was a program put together by the USTA called the Equitable Tennis Challenge.

“It was a family set-up over the whole country,” Miller said. “They had father-son, mother-daughter, husband-wife and brother-sister. They had qualifying tournaments in about every city in the United States, even the smaller ones like Joplin. After qualifying locally, we then went to a district round and regional round, with the winners of that going on to New York.”

During a banquet on their first night in New York, Miller said they were told that they should be proud because they represented the finalists in a field of over 170,000 father-son entries alone.

He estimated that they played five U.S. Open rounds to reach the title match, which they lost.

“We made it to the championship match but what was wild is that we just wanted to go to the U.S. Open and we didn’t care if we got beat or not because we got to stay there the entire two weeks (all expenses paid),” he said. “So we were relaxed. We kind of hoped we would get beat so we could watch more tennis. That was our mentality. We were out there talking and joking around while everyone else was super serious. And they played tight and that is why they lost. Theoretically, we got second out of over 170,000 entries.”

Although the Joplin team obviously had talent to get to that point, Miller said there was another very important strategy that his father developed.

“My dad used to hit the ball harder than anyone and had the hardest forehand I had ever seen,” he said. “When we went out to warm up, the kids would always warm up against the other kids and dads against dads. My dad’s plan was to just go out there and kill the ball and hit it as hard as could right off the bat ... like 100 mile-an-hour forehands.

“Then, when we got through warming up, the other dad would walk over to his kid and say ‘Man, don’t hit nothin’ to his dad’ because I would just hit the ball easy during warm-ups. And that was our strategy. That is the way we always played and we always had really good success.”

The father-son Miller duo seemed a natural since both began playing at the same time when Brian was in the sixth grade.

“Neither one of us had ever hit up to that time,” Brian said. “So dad bought some rackets and balls and we just started going down to Ewert Park and playing all the time.”

Although Brian’s wife, Shawna, doesn’t play, the couple have three children who have exhibited court skills at an early age, picking the game up quickly, much like their father. The oldest, Ryan, is in his senior year at Webb City High School, where he played No. 1 last season and won his first district crown. His brother, Adam, is showing strong promise as a sophomore and also plays on the Cardinal tennis team. Not to be left out, Maranda, as an eighth grader, has already been playing four years and excelling quickly.