When he was 11 years old, Marcel Latak was lazy.
Really, really lazy. Almost sloth-like.
This is not a characterization from someone else; this is straight from the source.
“I was just one of the laziest kids out there,” he said with a grin Thursday afternoon. “Like, I wouldn’t do anything during tennis lessons. I hated doing fitness; I hated doing drills. I only wanted to play points, sets, games. Until I was 12, I was not interested in any of that.”
But then Latak saw the success his older sister, Thea, was having. Thea Latak is two years older and was ranked as the No. 1 player in the U.S. in her age group, in the 12s and 14s.
And Marcel also had a talk with his parents, Klaudia and Rafal, around that time.
They told him: Look, if you want this, if you really want to be a top tennis player, you’ve got to show us you want it. You’ve got to try hard in every drill, in every practice, everything.”
Safe to say, Latak listened. The 17-year-old Chicago native went from being the laziest to a kid his coach calls “maybe the player with the biggest heart, who’d run through a wall 10 times if you asked him.”
And now that hard work is showing incredible results here at Flushing Meadows, New York, for the U.S. Open.
Ranked No. 41 in the World Tennis junior rankings coming into the tournament, Latak has won five matches and advanced to the Saturday boys singles final here at Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, knocking four Top 10 seeds.
Friday’s triumph in the semis was Latak’s most impressive win yet; taking on No. 2-seeded German Jamie Mackenzie, Latak grabbed a break of serve midway through the first set, then recovered from a 1-3 deficit in the second set to stun the 18-year-old, 6-3, 7-6 (2).
“I mean, I can’t even believe this,” Latak said, literally shaking his head in wonderment five minutes after his latest win. “If someone said to me a few weeks ago, ‘Hey man, you’re going to be in a Grand Slam final soon, I’d be like, ’ You’re not right in the head.’”
Originally from the Illinois suburbs, he has trained in San Diego for the past 18 months, with renowned coach Christian Groh, who previously worked with Taylor Fritz, Brandon Nakashima and many others.
“I mean, it’s surreal. I don’t even have the words to describe all this,” Latak said giddily after his quarterfinals upset of No. 4 seed Keaton Hance. “It’s hard to say anything. I never ever thought I’d be on Louis Armstrong Stadium this week, people cheering for me, in the semifinals. This is crazy!”
It’s been a whirlwind year for the 5-foot-11 blonde Latak. Working with Groh mostly at a private court in Rancho Santa Fe but occasionally at San Dieguito Tennis Club in Encinitas, Latak won the J300 Tournament in San Diego in March, beating highly-ranked American Andy Johnson in the final, and right before the U.S. Open he roared through the draw at a J300 in Canada, winning six matches en route to the championship.
“He’s got extreme grit, which is rare in a player his age today,” Groh said in a phone interview. “He’s a really good ball-striker, really good serve, beautiful backhand. But it’s his heart and his grit that really makes him stand out.”
Latak said it was his success in the Canadian tournament, also on hard courts, that made him start to believe he could do well here at the Open.
“I was playing well, and I was really feeling the ball and had a really nice bunch of matches in Canada,” Latak said. “Like, there was a match there in the second round where I was serving for the match and got broken, and then it happened again. So when it happened here (against Hance in the quarterfinals), I was more prepared to handle it.”
Latak, who’s been coming to San Diego since early 2025, said Groh has been “an unbelievable coach” and that the constant work with him made playing juniors easier.
“When I play with Christian he makes me feel like a 5-year-old; he beats me so bad,” Latak said, laughing. “So when I play juniors, it’s like, ‘OK, they’re not as good as him, I have a chance.”
Klaudia Latak said Friday that the trips to San Diego “have not been easy,” and that she and Marcel often stay in AirBnB’s or hotels.
“I’m a little bit shocked and really, really happy,” Klaudia said moments after the match. “It’s expensive for sure, going to San Diego, but Christian has been great and this week has been a dream.”
With Klaudia in the stands cheering him on, Latak has enjoyed “probably the best week of my life.”
Latak is bound for Stanford next August to join the powerhouse squad there, but first he’s got another year of Grand Slams ahead of him, as well as a possible doubles final to go along with singles on Saturday.
