John McEnroe and his younger brother Patrick McEnroe each came out of Douglaston, Queens, to star on the tennis pro circuit. Now there’s another youngster on the way up from the same neighborhood. His name is Douglas Mo, and earlier this month, he won six consecutive games to capture the middle school division of the Mayor’s Cup Tournament.
In addition to his 6-3, 6-2 win over Jonathan Selegean, Mo, 13, led his middle school to the event’s team championship the previous week.
In the individual tournament, he demonstrated a great deal of confidence throughout the match.
“In the first set I stood mentally tough,” he said. “In the second set, I was down 2-0 from the beginning as I started out really slow [because] I felt tight. Once I got to 2-all, I thought that I already got the match won because I felt so confident in winning the last two games.”
Winning the Mayor’s Cup was a thrill for Mo. In fact, he had withdrawn from a USTA sectional tournament in order to play.
“Even thought I’m a seventh grader, the Mayor’s Cup tournament meant a lot to me,” he said. “I really wanted to win this very prestigious Mayor’s Cup tournament even though it didn’t count for points in the USTA rankings.”
“I played really hard to win it. My name will always be in the books. Ten years from now people are still going to remember the 2009 Mayor’s Cup middle school tournament.”
Mo practices at Sportime of Bethpage and Sportime of Syosset, on Long Island. He describes one of his coaches, Michael Kossoff, as “my second father.” Kossoff, for his part, calls Mo “a hard worker, and we love having him as part of the program. Each day he’s getting bigger and stronger.”
Mo has all the strokes that a player needs to be successful, but to have a complete game, he still has to work on them.
“I prefer to use my forehand,” he said. “Then comes my serve and my backhand. I also like to play the net, and I have a one-hand backhand, which just came. No one taught it to me.”
He likes to play on all surfaces, including clay and grass.
“Grass suits my game, because I love the net,” said Mo, who just so happens to idolize grass-court specialist Roger Federer. “I love to play a fast-court game and to play on red clay. One day I want to play on center court at Wimbledon.”
Mo has been playing tennis for six or seven years, and he counts his mother Maria as his biggest inspiration.
“My mom actually started me in tennis,” he recalled. “She played ping-pong back in China.”
His older brother Hugh is on the tennis team at Cardozo High School, but Douglas’ ambitions stretch a little further.
“I want to attend a Division I college, be a very competitive college tennis player, and be a professional – meaning a doctor or lawyer – when I grow up,” he said.
