US Open Series thus far
We are in the midst of the second US Open Series tournament for the Men, and first for the Women. Last week in Los Angeles, at the Countrywide Classic, James Blake was upset in the finals in 3 sets by Radek Stepanek. Most people wrote it off as another disappointing result for Blake, as they saw Stepanek was ranked 108th heading into the event. However, the common fan also probably doesn’t know that Stepanek was ranked 8th just a year ago before getting injured. Not that I’m blaming the common fan, Stepanek is probably the most unknown player ever to enter the top 10 – probably because he is one of the more boring and unlikable players around. He didn’t help the latter cause by taking a dubious injury timeout in the middle of the 3rd set. But I digress. Blake getting to the finals of anything after his pretty horrific first half of 2007 has to help his confidence. He is playing fellow American Sam Querrey in the quarters at Indy tonight, and will look to march on to the finals, which he won last year defeating Roddick in one of 2006’s more entertaining matches.
Real quick tangent about young American male tennis players. A couple of good weeks in a row for Sam Querrey and Donald Young. Last week, Donald Youn won a challenger event in California and raised his ranking to #221 (this just two weeks after taking the Wimbledon Junior title). For comparisons sake, in late July 2004, there was a 19 year-old (about a year older than Young is today) from Cyprus ranked #230. Today Marcos Baghdatis is a top 20 player who is a consistent threat at the majors. So for those of you who wrote off Donald Young already, you might want to rethink that sentiment. At Indianopolis, Young received a wild card and competed well, but lost in straight sets to 6th seeded Hyung Taik Lee. Sam Querrey has had a good run so far, and as mentioned above has a tough challenge tonight against Blake, but his confidence must be returning after a rough start to the summer as he took down Benneteau and Karlovic in the first two rounds.
Over on the Women’s side, Anna Chakvetadze looks like the player to beat at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, CA. After seeing her play live during the Fed Cup, I am a big believer in the way she plays. She is this generation’s Martina Hingis. She does not pound the ball relentlessly the way most of the top Women do now-a-days, but instead relies more on placement and control. She rolled through the draw last week in Cincinatti, but may face a bit tougher competition in the later stages of California as she will most likely have to beat the likes of Patty Schnyder of Daniela Hantuchova if she wants to win back to back titles.
Will be back on Monday (I promise!) with recaps from the weekend and a preview of next week’s US Open Series events.
Some links for your enjoyment over the weekend:
Stephen Tignor’s take on the fall of Nalbandian.
Good article on the relationship between Murray and Gilbert.
Monte Carlo and the ATP have made up.