One of the beauties of tennis is that there is no clock.
A match takes as long as a match takes. Whether it’s two sets, three sets, or five sets, 45 minutes or 6.5 hours, it’s over when one player has won enough games and sets to be declared the victor.
A typical match in junior tournaments goes around two hours, maybe three if there are long points and injury timeouts and lots of deuce games.
What 16-year-old Paige Wygodzki experienced in December was far, far beyond that.
In a 16 and under tournament in Bradenton, Wygodzki played a five-hour match. Five hours and six minutes, to be exact.
And she won, which is what Wygodzki, a Huntington native, has been doing a lot lately.
How did she survive a match that was the equivalent of watching the new “Wicked” movie, twice?
“That was probably my favorite match I’ve ever played,” Wygodzki said.
She was serious.
“I enjoyed every single minute of it. It felt like a 2.5-, or three-hour match, and it gave me so much confidence that I had the physicality to last that long.”
Wygodzki’s secret to keep her energy up? She eats half of a date during changeovers, drinks energy gels, and swallows salt sticks. And, of course, lots and lots of water.
“It actually felt like it flew by,” laughed Adrian Chirici, who has been Wygodzki’s main coach at Robbie Wagner Tennis in Glen Cove for the past few months. “I looked at my watch when it was over and I felt like it had only been around three hours.”
Wygodzki ended up losing the final the next day, but the confidence gained spurred her a few weeks later to her biggest triumph yet. Having just turned 16 in November, the 5-foot-5 powerful lefthander won the USTA Winter National 16s on January 3rd. Entering as the No.3 seed, Wygodzki didn’t need five hours this time in the semis or final, rolling to a 6-4, 6-3 win.
It’s the biggest title in the young career of Wygodzki, who spent a year at St. Anthony’s High School in 2023-24 before returning to virtual school this year.
“I completely convinced myself (before the final) that ‘Paige, this is just another match; don’t let it get to your head,’” Wygodzki said. “The nerves I expected weren’t there, and I was very happy about that.”
Wygodzki began playing tennis at around age 4, when parents Jack and Katya took her to Bethpage State Park to an open play.
“My parents have told me that since Day 1 I haven’t been happy in any other sport, but that on a tennis court I was always happy, every day,” Wygodzki said.
She began working with Steve Kaplan, owner and pro at Bethpage, from then on, and the two developed a very close relationship. Kaplan shaped his protégé’s game, both on the court and in her mental game.
“He has been so incredible for me for so long; I wouldn’t be anywhere without him,” Wygodzki said. “Before every match I still talk to him and he helps me a ton.”
In 2015, Wygodzki, then 6, got an incredible chance to play with Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka on Arthur Ashe Kids Day at the U.S. Open and was hooked on tennis forever.
In 2024, she came to Robbie Wagner for hitting sessions and found an immediate connection with Chirici, a veteran coach of elite-level junior players.
“She’s a big hitter but has learned to play great defensively, getting out of the corners and taking control of points,” Chirici said. “She’s got a little bit of that (Rafael) Nadal style in that she plays aggressively but digs in and can just outlast opponents in points.”
Wygodzki, who is in 10th grade academically, is attracting the attention of major college coaches with her recent results, but her focus in 2025 is on playing Junior ITF (International Tennis Federation) events, with the hopes of getting into Junior Grand Slam tournaments.
“I want to get a world (junior) ranking and see what happens from there,” the confident Wygodzki said. “Last year was like my buffer to decide if I wanted to really fully commit to tennis or academics. Right now ,I’m going to see how far I can go in tennis.”
And bring on six, even seven-hour matches: Wygodzki is ready for them.
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