NEW YORK -- A year at college has done wonders for Annie Miller's peace of mind, if not her tennis.
Although Miller came out on the losing side of a three-set Great Lakes Special against Amy Frazier Tuesday night at the U.S. Open, she no longer felt compelled to berate herself mentally afterward.
"I was pleasantly surprised it went three sets," she said. "After a year of not playing so much, I wasn't match-tough, but it went better than expected."
Miller, from Midland, lost to Frazier of Rochester Hills, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, in their first-round meeting.
"We were both struggling a little bit," said Frazier, 2-0 against Miller in tournament play. "When she started hitting those backhand winners, I definitely thought I was in trouble."
After falling behind, 1-0, Miller gunned her way through the second set, converting four break points to tie the match. But the momentum petered out in the third as she started almost giving points away, mishitting several easy shots.
The reason Miller, 22, wasn't match-tough dates back to last year's U.S. Open, when she decided to take a year off to begin freshman classes at Michigan. Miller hasn't played a tournament this year, and she prepared for the Open by hitting balls with Dan Goldberg, the assistant tennis coach at U-M.
Despite the long time off, Miller was able to enter the Open ranked 43rd. Due to what she said was an "internal medicine" injury, the WTA granted Miller a protected ranking, which remains in place for seven more tournaments.
Since pulling back from the pro life, Miller discovered she missed tennis, and she is considering making a partial return. She is enrolled for the fall term, but she might return to the tour in January.
"I liked school, but it was a big change for me," Miller said. "I was 21 when I made the decision, and I think I owe it to myself to give it another try."
Although she enjoyed attending lectures and immersing herself in studying, Miller learned even bigger lessons outside class.
"Psychologically, the year off helped me grow up a lot," she said. "It put things in perspective. The way I dealt with myself before was very negative; I was very hard on myself. Today, I wasn't where I want to be, but I still had fun."