The Second Game

Back in June, I ​introduced you to Ethan Quinn​, a young American tennis player Oath is backing at the start of his professional climb.

I owe you an update on Ethan. He climbed into the top fifty this year and earned his way to the US Open, and then a broken bone in his foot ended his season early. We are disappointed for him and wish him a full recovery, and at twenty-two, his work has simply moved to the recovery room while the goal stays exactly where it was.

But Oath did not sit the US Open out. We extended our support to several more players in the field, because if you are going to stand for the long game, there is no better place than the US Open.

I am proud to report that on Saturday, Christian Harrison became a US Open champion, winning the men’s doubles title without dropping a single set. He won the tournament wearing the Oath name on his sleeve.

Christian’s path to the top was far from a foregone conclusion. He spent his youth training for a singles career, and then his body took it away from him. He had eight surgeries across a decade, the kind of run that ends most careers.

So he built a second game. He moved to doubles, rebuilt everything around what his body could still give, and this year, at thirty-two, an age when most tennis careers are winding down, he became a Grand Slam champion twice over. His best seasons came after the loss, and maybe even because of it.

I could not help but feel like this story is reminiscent of one we hear from our clients nearly every week at Oath. The first game ends for all of us, whether it is the career that concludes, the body that renegotiates, or the role a family no longer needs the same way. The people I watch flourish in retirement are the ones who take honest stock of what remains and build something new around it.

Your second game will not look like your first. It might be better.

Our other sponsored players lived out the chapters in between. Francisco Comesaña lost a five-set heartbreaker that he led by two sets, Daniel Mérida beat Andrey Rublev at twenty-one to reach his first Grand Slam third round, and Tim Pütz, Nathaniel Lammons, and Jackson Withrow carried Oath’s name deep into the draw.

One tournament held a season-ending injury and a championship at once, and everything in between. Not one of those players got to choose which story was theirs, but each of them chose how to play it to define their legacy.

That is the invitation I will leave you with this week. Whatever chapter this year finds you in, it is still yours to play.