Jack Kennedy first came to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in 2013 when he was 4 years old.
He watched Rafael Nadal practice on the old Louis Armstrong Stadium court, and was super-excited when Nadal gave the tyke one of his water bottles after practice.
“That thing sat in our refrigerator,” Bryan Kennedy, Jack’s Dad, recalled, “for a long, long time.”
The water bottle is long gone, and Jack Kennedy wields a full-size racket now.
And last Saturday, he accomplished the dream of every American tennis player: He won a U.S. Open trophy.
Partnering with longtime friend Keaton Hance in the boys doubles draw, Kennedy won five matches to claim the U.S. Open title.
The final match, played on Sept. 6, was a thriller. Kennedy and Hance battled fellow U.S. players Benjamin Willwerth and Noah Johnston into a third-set super tiebreak.
There, Kennedy and Hance, clad in matching Adidas shirts and white bandanas, fell behind 8-5 before roaring back to win the last five points and win 10-8.
“Watching this tournament and coming here since I was four or five years old, then being here and playing, and calling ourselves Grand Slam champions, is incredible,” Kennedy said after the match. “In my second home, my backyard, it’s really special.”
Kennedy, who is from Huntington, has trained at the Robbie Wagner Academy in Glen Cove for five years with coach Greg Lumpkin. A top international juniors star currently ranked No. 9, he competed in all four Grand Slam events this year in juniors, and for the second year in a row was in the U.S. Open men’s qualifying, where he lost in the first round.
The University of Virginia commitment (he’ll begin school there next fall) said he and Hance had been partners for three years, since first teaming up in a Team USA amateur competition.
“It was immediate, the chemistry we had on the court from the first time we played together,” Kennedy said. “Our games and our personalities just fit very, very well.”
Bryan Kennedy, who, along with wife Jeannie and Jack’s grandmas Ava Favara and Joan Pellegrino, sat with family and friends on Court 14 watching the final, said he was so glad the Kennedy and Hance families could share this moment together.
“All the highs and lows, the great moments and the heartbreak, we’ve shared it with them each step,” Bryan Kennedy said. “People see what the boys do on the court, but there’s so much behind the scenes that goes on, from the coaches to the USTA to everyone involved, and we’re so grateful for all the support.”
Jack Kennedy and Hance both lost in the singles tournament earlier than expected. Hance, who will attend the University of Texas next year, lost in the first round, while Kennedy lost in the third.
So both boys needed to recover from the disappointment quickly to keep advancing in doubles.
“We both felt like we wanted to go further in singles but we knew we still had a great shot (in doubles,)” Hance said. “Every match we played, we felt more confident.”
Kennedy, who got to play a few matches in singles on the new Armstrong Stadium, said he plans to play the Junior Grand Slam events in 2026 as well and come back to try to defend the boys’ doubles crown.
“The support and fans here were amazing, always feeling like we could come back and win with all the crowd supporting us,” said Kennedy, who will also play some pro events next year. “We had such an incredible time, definitely want to do it again.”
