Ava Wallace The Washington Post

The bleachers had been full for hours and nine cameramen lined the baseline by the time the main event began on a recent rainy Tuesday evening at a basketball gym in southwestern Virginia. Then, finally, the starting point guard for the Gate City Blue Devils throttled his 6-foot-2 frame up the court.

In the maze of hallways underneath Arthur Ashe Stadium, there is a path that winds around drab rooms reserved for news conferences, skirts the peaceful lawn known as the players' garden, shoots up two flights of stairs and ends at a place where players of all ranking and level of celebrity get treated like Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Maria Sha...

The field of newbies, who compete on Sunday for the first four spots in the US Open quarterfinals, is as eclectic as they come.

The bleachers had been full for hours and nine cameramen lined the baseline by the time the main event began on a recent rainy Tuesday evening at a basketball gym in southwestern Virginia. Then, finally, the starting point guard for the Gate City Blue Devils throttled his 6-foot-2 frame up the court.

In the maze of hallways underneath Arthur Ashe Stadium, there is a path that winds around drab rooms reserved for news conferences, skirts the peaceful lawn known as the players' garden, shoots up two flights of stairs and ends at a place where players of all ranking and level of celebrity get treated like Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Maria Sha...

The field of newbies, who compete on Sunday for the first four spots in the US Open quarterfinals, is as eclectic as they come.