Unseeded American Alison Riske’s summer has been a story fit for Hollywood. Or Bollywood.
A first-ever Grand Slam quarterfinal in July, followed by last month’s marriage — complete with her Bollywood wedding dance that went viral. Now you can add Tuesday’s 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 U.S. Open first-round upset of 24th-ranked Garbine Maguruza, vaulting Riske to the highest ranking of her career.
“Yeah, I feel great. It was an awesome match. Really proud of the way I fought through the entire match, even though the first set didn’t go as planned,” the 29-year-old Riske said. “So I’m looking forward to the next match. Yeah, it’s been a good run, for sure.
“I’ve matured a lot over the last couple of years … I’ve just come to a point where I have a little bit of freedom. I feel really confident. I feel like I’m playing good tennis. I can compete with anyone. So there’s a sense of freedom that’s allowing me to just play my best tennis.”
After knocking off three seeded players — including No. 1 Ashleigh Barty — en route to the Wimbledon quarters, Riske came to Flushing ranked a career-high-tying 36th. Her rally to upend Maguruza will send her past that and into the second round versus Jelena Ostapenko.
“Yeah, just looking to play my game, keep it going,” Riske said. “Obviously we’re not trying to just stop here, and just winning one round at the U.S. Open wasn’t the intention. I’m looking forward to it, and I’m just really excited that I’ve given myself a chance to play another match.”
Riske has had plenty of reasons to be excited this summer. Clad in a purple dress and white visor, she served out the win with new husband Stephen Amritraj on hand. A former pro, Amritraj is now the chief tennis officer at Universal Tennis Rating. His dad, Anand, and uncle, Vijay, both had long tennis careers, and his cousin, Prakash, is a former pro.
The couple married last month in Pittsburgh.
“It was really special,” Riske said. “There were so many highlights. The Pittsburgh cookie table was definitely a hit, as well. I think my Bollywood dance went over well, as well.”
“Well” is an understatement. Riske dancing with her sister, Sarah, to Katrina Kaif’s “Nachde Ne Saare” quickly went viral on social media, was widely noted in Indian newspapers and even became a meme.
“Yeah, it was hilarious,” Riske said. “The amount of Indian magazines and Indian influence or pages that picked it up was really entertaining for me and my husband. We both really enjoyed that. Yeah, I can’t say I’ve ever had anything in my tennis career that got as many watches or likes.”
Riske, a blonde American from Pittsburgh, is now part of one of Indian tennis’ first families.
“India in general is unlike anywhere I’ve ever been in the entire world,” said Riske, adding “you experience it with every sense literally.”