Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part story about the life of professional tennis player Cecil Mamiit, the only athlete to compete at the USTA Challenger of Champaign-Urbana every year since the tournament’s inception a decade ago.

One – thump. Two – thump. Three – thump.

Cecil Mamiit bounces a tennis ball on the hard courts of the Atkins Tennis Center. With each heartbeat-steady, resounding bounce the thud of the ball hitting the ground softly echoes throughout the tennis center, making an empty, hollow sound. He pauses for a brief instant after he bounces the ball, holding it in his left hand. He inhales deeply and gently arches his back. He tosses the ball up with his left hand so it spins in front of his forehead, just above eye level. As he tosses the ball with one hand, he draws his other arm back with a large sweeping motion before striking the tennis ball with his racket.

The tennis racket and ball make contact with a loud “thwack” when Mamiit serves. As the ball sails over the net into the service box on the other side, Mamiit springs to life. He moves his feet quickly, running into position, anticipating where his opponent – 23-year-old Bobby Reynolds – will hit his groundstroke return shot. Mamiit and Reynolds exchange volleys as the points drag out.

When Mamiit returns Reynolds’ serve he stands on the balls of his toes, diagonally across the net from the server. He flips his racket in a complete circle to help himself settle in and focus on the next point. He wipes sweat from his face with a white Nike sweatband that covers the area just below his elbow.

Mamiit is playing his first singles match at the 2005 United States Tennis Association Challenger of Champaign-Urbana. At age 29, he is an elder compared to first-year professionals Scott Oudsema and Phillip Simmonds, both 19, who practice two courts over from him. Their actions are being carefully evaluated by their USTA High Performance coach, who is responsible for helping them reach their full potential as tennis players.

Another USTA High Performance coach scrutinizes Reynolds’ performance during the match. Reynolds and Mamiit have similar playing styles. Neither man has an extremely powerful serve. Instead they each move quickly, have a wide-ranging shot selection and anticipate their opponents’ strategies well. Reynolds won the singles title at the Music City Challenger in Nashville, Tenn., just days before his first-round singles match in Champaign.

But, despite their similar styles on the court, their lifestyles off the court are very different.

Reynolds, who turned pro after his junior year of college in 2003, is still a young professional on the rise. He spent his first years on the circuit traveling with several men who turned pro at the same time, including 20-year-old Brian Baker and former Illinois All-Americans 23-year-old Amer Delic and Rajeev Ram, 21. As young professionals, the men are almost always together – whether playing hearts between matches or fine tuning various tennis skills.

The USTA hopes that one of these men, Oudsema, Simmonds or teenager Alex Kuznetsov, who is also competing in the tournament, will see the same success as several other American men who bypassed college recently. Among the most notable American tennis players who have skipped college and had positive results are Mardy Fish, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist, and Andy Roddick, the highest-ranked American singles player in the world, who finished 2005 at No. 3.

Mamiit, however, travels and trains alone. The friends he has on the tour are more likely to live near him in Los Angeles and train with him during the short offseason than to be athletes his own age. With almost a decade of professional experience behind him, he is no longer the future of American tennis. His best days were over six years ago.

He reached the finals of the SAP Open in 1999, playing Andre Agassi, then the world’s No. 7 player, in the round of 16. Mamiit’s victory over Australian Mark Woodforde in the quarterfinals set him up for a semifinal showdown against his childhood hero Michael Chang.

Even now, Mamiit can clearly recall the night – Saturday, Feb. 14, 1999. At the time, Chang was the No. 26 player in the world and had been a professional for more than a decade. In 1988, Chang had been the ATP Newcomer of the Year. At 22, Mamiit was competing in his first televised semifinal as the world’s No.120 player. He was a virtual unknown, having earned his place in the main draw of the tournament by surviving through the qualifying rounds. Mamiit’s family had driven from Los Angeles to San Jose, Calif., for the match, and his friends flew in from as far away as Washington D.C.

By the end of the night, Mamiit had clawed his way back from an 0-5 deficit in the first set to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Mamiit was so excited after the victory that he high-fived the chair umpire. His streak would end there, though. He lost to Mark Philippoussis in the finals. It was the first and only time Mamiit has reached the championship of a major event.

“The fans had posters (supporting me) and everything – and that was awesome,” Mamiit said. “And then, to actually beat (Chang), that was tough. But to get through that match was awesome.”

Tennis fans first took note of Mamiit in 1996, when he became one of only three men to win the NCAA singles title as a freshman when he competed for USC. Since then, he has played a mix of challenger and ATP Tour events. Challengers are the tennis equivalent of AAA baseball – many athletes play challengers for only a few years before concentrating on the ATP Tour where they have the potential to make more money.

In the 10-year history of the USTA Challenger of Champaign-Urbana, Mamiit has not missed a year. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of 72 in 1999. At the end of 2005, he sat at the 211th spot.

“It’s not like I’m getting blown away. I had a little taste of success, being ranked inside the Top 100 and now, I want to do it again. And, hopefully, exceed past my limit.”

But even as he talks about his tennis future, he knows he is in the twilight of his career – many tennis players retire before they reach 35.

Chang, a winner of 34 major singles titles, retired in 2003 at the age of 31. Pete Sampras, who won 64 major singles titles in his career stopped playing after the 2002 U.S. Open. He was 31. Jim Courier, a 2005 inductee into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., retired at the age of 29. During his career he was the world’s best player for 58 weeks. Last year, at 35, Agassi became the oldest man since 1988 to finish inside the Top 10. He was the seventh-ranked singles player in the world.

But Mamiit seems hesitant to contemplate the end of his tennis career. When asked by reporters about when he might stop competing, he switches the subject, only circling back to the topic of retirement with a little pressure.

He says he will stop playing, “whenever I stop believing that I can (play). There is no clear sign that is telling me that I should quit. I’m having too much fun doing it.”

Many of the younger athletes enjoy watching Mamiit play and they learn from him, too. He shows a consistency they hope to have when they are full-time, traveling professionals.

Of all the lessons Mamiit passed on to the members of the Illinois men’s tennis team while he was in Champaign, senior Ryler DeHeart most clearly remembers what Mamiit said about how to deal with losses.

“Cecil said that you have to stay positive because eventually you’ll have the good week that you’re looking for. The guys who have the good weeks are the ones that don’t get discouraged.”

Mamiit also told DeHeart that the biggest challenge of competing on the professional tour is that it can be hard to take each tournament one match at a time, letting what happened in the past stay in the past and ignoring what could happen in the future. Mamiit told DeHeart to focus on the chances he is given and make the most of them. After the many years Mamiit has spent on the tour, he has made quite an impression on DeHeart.

“It has been really impressive that he has been out there that long. It is a testament of his character that he can keep playing week in and week out. It is really commendable to be that driven and determined.”

Mamiit’s career has been easier than some, though. Unlike some athletes, he has not sustained many injuries – at least not any requiring major surgery that could have kept him out of competition for a long time. His latest injury, a back injury he sustained in September from overuse, was minor at best.

If he does not sustain any injuries, he feels he can make a return to his career-high ranking and possibly surpass that mark. But to return to the top successfully, Mamiit will have to knock off tennis players who are beginning their ascents through the world rankings like Reynolds, Mamiit’s first-round opponent in Champaign.