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Movie examine & creating Instagram teaching movies part of Cassone’s Challenger rise
Kansas native gained his first Challenger title in Calgary
October 24, 2024
Victor Mulyk
Murphy Cassone is at a career-high No. 363 within the PIF ATP Rankings following his Calgary Challenger title.
By Grant Thompson
One of the crucial historic runs on the ATP Challenger Tour led Murphy Cassone to do an in-depth examine. Now, these numerous hours of watching movie are paying off.
Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor went on the longest match-win streak in Challenger historical past in 2021, when he claimed 25 consecutive victories and 5 titles from September by means of November. Griekspoor, now No. 35 within the PIF ATP Rankings, completed that season with eight Challenger trophies, marking one other report.
Cassone was then a freshman at Arizona State College and if he was not finding out for college, he was glued to Challenger TV.
“I feel I watched each match. I used to be like, ‘What is that this man doing otherwise that he’s in a position to simply blow by means of this stage?'” Cassone instructed ATPTour.com at this week’s Marketbeat Open, an ATP Challenger Tour occasion in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. “My recreation simply naturally shifted to how he performs slightly bit, simply from watching a lot of him. I feel that basically helped me lots. He’s the one man that I might say that I watched and spent numerous time .
“I might go to the courts at like 6:30 a.m., do faculty, activate his match and watch slightly little bit of it.”
Now it’s Cassone’s flip within the Challenger highlight. Final week, the 22-year-old gained his first trophy at that stage in Calgary, Canada. Throughout his title run, Cassone was additionally creating content material for his Instagram account, which he utilises as a platform to supply teaching movies.
Murphy Cassone is topped champion on the Calgary Challenger.” fashion=”width:100%;” src=”https://www.atptour.com/-/media/pictures/information/2024/10/23/21/04/cassone-calgarych-2024-trophy.jpg”>Murphy Cassone is topped champion on the Calgary Challenger. Credit score: Kyle Clapham
The three-time ITA All-American began the account in March and has already gained almost 11,000 followers. His purpose is 25,000 followers by the point he graduates faculty subsequent summer season.
“I similar to making an attempt to do one thing productive and one thing that may carry worth to me,” Cassone stated. “I might see numerous guys on Instagram who knew nothing about tennis, however they made actually good content material. Or they’d a very good tennis IQ, however made dangerous content material. So I used to be like, ‘If we are able to carry these two collectively, I feel it might do rather well’.”
Cassone’s newest movies embrace how, ‘The most effective gamers are one of the best movers’ and ‘Three secrets and techniques to unlock your serve’s full potential’. A local of Overland Park, Kansas, Cassone has already obtained constructive suggestions.
“It feels fairly cool when individuals attain out and say, ‘Hey, this actually helped me. Thanks for the recommendation.’ A man texted me the opposite day, ‘Your recommendation actually helped. A college despatched me a suggestion,’” Cassone stated. “That’s fairly cool. I believed it might be a great way to provide again and perhaps in the future if we get large enough, flip it right into a enterprise and transfer from that.”
From ages 10 to 16, Cassone cut up time between Kansas and Florida, receiving instruction from notable coaches comparable to Rick Macci and Dave Rineberg. Cassone’s begin in tennis got here even earlier than he can bear in mind.
“From what my dad has instructed me, they’d me in diapers on the court docket simply working round, swinging the racquet,” Cassone stated. “As an alternative of my dad leaving me at a daycare, he would take me and play tennis with me. Whereas his buddies performed tennis with one another, he was on the court docket with me. I feel [my parents] did a extremely good job of investing in me at an actual younger age.”
Cassone’s dad and mom, Ralph and Wendy, have lengthy had a constructive influence on Murphy and his 4 siblings. Cassone’s father owns an agriculture electronics firm, Sensor-1, which manufactures merchandise comparable to planter displays and sensors, GPS receivers for tractors, and extra parts.
“He began it in his storage in Kansas and he’s constructed a extremely good enterprise for himself,” Cassone stated. “He’s all the time up at 4 a.m., simply placing within the hours for us. He by no means buys something for himself, he simply desires to provide us what he by no means had as a child. It’s actually wonderful what he does for our household.”
Overland Park, Kansas might not be a hotbed {of professional} tennis gamers, however Cassone isn’t the primary to hail from the Kansas Metropolis suburb. Jack Sock, former World No. 8 within the PIF ATP Rankings, was born in Lincoln, Nebraska however moved to Overland Park as a baby.
Whereas Sock was on Tour, he would typically go to Overland Park to see household and would hit on the native tennis membership with junior gamers, comparable to Cassone.
“It will be him on one facet after which me and one other man on the opposite facet, two versus one. I bear in mind guys would all the time get kicked off the court docket with him since they had been lacking, however I simply tried to make each ball for him,” Cassone stated. “These had been some good reminiscences being round him in that environment. I used to be 12 to 14 [years old] I feel once I was with Jack… He’s type of like a legend there.”
When Cassone was within the US Open qualifying attract 2022, he rode the bus to the event web site alongside Sock, who that week performed his ultimate main event.
“I hadn’t seen him since I used to be like 14 and I didn’t suppose he would recognise me, however he did and we began speaking,” Cassone stated. “It was a reasonably cool second.”
Cassone’s exhausting work has been yielding outcomes, with no higher instance than final week in Calgary. He superior by means of qualifying en path to lifting his largest profession title. Alongside the way in which, Cassone fended off 5 match factors in his first-round match towards Ryan Seggerman, who struck 42 aces in that three-set battle. Cassone additionally overcame meals poisoning in the beginning of the week.
“The adversity and all these little battles I feel is what I’ll bear in mind,” stated Cassone, now at a career-high World No. 363 within the PIF ATP Rankings. “I simply saved enjoying, doing the fitting issues and making an attempt to make it work.”
Followers will solely start to see extra of Cassone on the Challenger circuit. Because of his collegiate success, Cassone has twice certified for the Subsequent Gen Accelerator Programme. He has three extra of his six Accelerator spots to achieve qualifying entry at choose Challenger tournaments till the tip of 2024. In 2023, Cassone used all six of his Accelerator spots to enter Challenger qualifying occasions.
“It makes scheduling lots simpler as a result of I’ve that backup simply in case my rating doesn’t get me in. It helps me plan out my schedule,” Cassone stated. “It’s an enormous assist for me.”
