Delray Day One – aka Aussie Wildcard Playoff Redux

The day dawns warmly and beautifully at the ATP 250 Delray Beach for the first day of qualifying action. It’s so toasty, in fact, that this February day in South Florida offers a reasonable facsimile of what I’d imagine Australia was like around, say, the Tennis Australia Wildcard playoffs. Not content to merely imagine, I proceed to track down every Aussie on the grounds throughout the day, it seems.

I arrive early and scavenge the practice courts. First and best stop of interest is out on Court 6, where none other than International Tennis Hall of Famer Mark Woodforde is out with new charges Marinko Matosevic and Matt Ebden, helping them with their serves (note: they’re all Australian). “Use the same setup when you go down the ‘T’,” he advises Matosevic. “Gotta get that disguise.” Matosevic scolds himself for each little technical transgression but is very supportive of Ebden.

In the first match of the day, I see Ebden put that serve to good use, as he faces 2010 Easter Bowl champ, 17-year-old Bjorn Fratangelo, who received a wildcard into qualifying. Ebden serves five aces and just one double fault, connecting successfully on seventy percent of his first deliveries, and winning 79% of those.

Ebden serves vs. Fratangelo

Fratangelo is overmatched, sure, but it’s among the more impressive less-than-an-hour defeats I’ve seen in a while. If that sounds like I’m damning with faint praise, I don’t mean to be. He hits some terrific-looking backhands, displaying excellent footwork, balance and technique, outright catching the man from Perth flat-footed on a few. Good movement and the occasional ripping forehand, too (although he seems a bit more inconsistent off that wing).

Ultimately, though, the Western Australian is just that much stronger and steadier, on serve and otherwise. He advances 6-2 6-3 to the next round, where he’ll face second seed Igor Kunitsyn, a 7-5 4-6 6-2 winner over Tim Smyczek.

I watch a bit of Smyczek, who looks good in the set I see him play (I’ll let you guess which one that was), then move to catch top-seeded Blaz Kavcic against the popular Ecuadoran, the 28-year-old Giovanni Lapentti. From Smyczek to Kavcic – seems poetic enough to me. Oh, wait. Back up a bit. While watching Smyczek, I’m treated to the unintentional hilarity of well-meaning fans accosting poor Woodforde while he watches yet another Aussie, Mr. Samuel Groth, fire some first balls.

One gent tells Woody that he got his autograph at Disneyworld in 1999. Another quizzes him about long ago matches vs. the Bryan Bros. “Do you remember that match?” the beset upon coach is asked. “Yeah, we played them a few times,” Woodforde answers patiently, while trying to do his job. Good man.

OK. Kavcic. Lapentti. What can I say? Blaz blazed through the tired-looking younger Lapentti bro, taking some time to gripe along the way, as per. The 23-year-old Slovenian is one of those players whose venting just amuses me (though not in a Joe Pesci way). With others’ negativity, there’s a real sense of menace. With Blaz, it’s just what he does. The Courier-esque baseliner, currently on a career high of #83 in the rankings, displays his usual tenacity and scrambling – with bits of skill and volleying thrown in for good measure. The net result is all kinds of not bad – he advances 6-2 6-2 and will play Rajeev Ram in QR2, who won 7-5 6-2 over local fave and wildcard winner Eric Hechtman.

As today is turning into an Ozsome theme day, I check in on how Matosevic is faring against 28-year-old South African Raven Klaasen.

That’s So Raven

Under a watchful Wood(e)y(e), he’s playing haphazardly, as has been the case for 2011. At 3-all in the third set, he looks up at the chair umpire. “Score?” he inquires. Then he ma-tosses in three consecutive service winners from 15-0 and flashes a cheeky, little-boy smile to his coach, like, “Look what I just did!” He reels off the next eight points to win the match 7-6(1) 3-6 6-3. Amazing how he can just seem to click his game “on” sometimes and thereafter look unbeatable. He’s similar to Alex Bogdanovic, in that respect. When it’s all going right, you think, “How is this guy not Top 50? Top 25?” It seems so effortless. Sadly for them (and possibly for us as well), it hardly ever all goes right.

The WATCH List – Special VD Edition! Who’s Achieved Their Career High This Week?

No, you goons – this is not a special edition for those who’ve contracted certain romance-related diseases. Rather, it’s a special Valentines Day edition of my weekly list detailing Who’s Achieved Their Career Highs (although some would call Valentines Day itself a romance-related disease. I abstain from comment on the grounds that it might incriminate me).

So what makes this Valentines Day edition so special? Nothing really. Only that’s it’s made with love and dedicated to you, dear reader. *gags on sappy sentiment* Also, I’ve added an “age” column. You’re welcome. You know the rules by now, right? Only those ranked #80-350 make my list, unless I’m feeling particularly in an inclusive mood (who knows? On Valentines Day, you may get lucky). For those Titans of the Top 80, you must confer with our friends over at Shank Tennis.

All right! Enough of this tomfoolery. Let’s get to this week’s WATCH List!

Player	Age	NATION	New High	Prev High	Why?
Grigor Dimitrov	19.75	BULGARIA	84	85	Q’ed, R1 R’dam
Benoit Paire	21.75	FRANCE	120	136	Q’ed, R2 R’dam
Alexander Kudryavtsev	25.25	RUSSIA	141	147	SF Bergamo
Tim Smyczek	23.10	USA	158	168	QF San Jose
Matthias Bachinger	23.90	GERMANY	161	163	R2 Bergamo
Robert Farah	23.25	COLOMBIA	183	184	Q’ed, R1 San Jose
Jurgen Zopp	22.90	ESTONIA	198	211	SF Bergamo
Sebastian Rieschick	24.99	GERMANY	225	228	R2 Quimper
Facundo Bagnis	20.95	ARGENTINA	231	238	Q’ed, R1 Brazil
Andres Molteni	22.92	ARGENTINA	236	246	QF Colombia F2
Alexander Lobkov	20.33	RUSSIA	252	253	Others lost points
Fritz Wolmarans	24.93	S. AFRICA	254	255	Others lost points
Amir Weintraub	24.42	ISRAEL	255	259	R2 Quimper
Phillip Bester	22.35	CANADA	260	268	R2 Caloundra
Clement Reix	27.35	FRANCE	265	270	R2 Quimper
Karan Rastogi	24.35	INDIA	284	328	W Cambodia F2
Javier Marti	19.10	SPAIN	295	308	R2 Spain F5
Kenny de Schepper	23.70	FRANCE	297	370	F Quimper
Ludovic Walter	28.10	FRANCE	304	315	R2 Quimper

Notable things to note:

The average age of this week’s WATCHers is 23 years old and 4 months. The youngest player achieving a career high today is Javier Marti at 19 and 1 month, while the oldest is former Duke University standout (two-time ITA All-American) Ludovic Walter at 28 and 1 month (warning: all age numbers are achieved by rounding off, for the most part, and are thus approximations).

Ludovic Walter quimping it up at the Quimper Challenger in France

Walter is an interesting case, having not even achieved a pro ranking until after his college days were over in 2006 at age 23. I suspect that, with college ball being an increasingly viable route for top talents and the age of the Top 100 skewing ever older, we’ll start to see many more players in the “Ludovic Walter” mold in the future.

Anyway, congrats to all who’ve achieved career highs this week. And to all the rest of you, I hope you achieve various highs of your own on this Valentines Day.

USTA AO Wildcard Playoffs Final Day Recap

Well it’s all over for us crazy tennis fans in 2010.  The Australian Open Wildcard play-offs have finally come to an end here in Atlanta and I must admit that I already miss my friends, the fans, and the players of this wonderful sport.

Personally, this was such an incredible event for me because I was able to meet so many new people who are actively involved in the tennis world in one form or another.  I got to know UVA Senior Michael Shabaz since I was the lucky one to pick him up from the airport, and what a terrific guy he is.  I found out so much about him (mainly because I can’t keep my big mouth shut and I like to ask a lot of questions).  This is what Italian people do by the way, they talk a lot. 

Anyway, Michael is a 23-year-old anthropology major and lives in Fairfax Virginia (a suburb of Washington DC).  As we conversed, and I subsequently bored him to tears, he proudly told me that his grandfather, who was a talented soccer player, went to high school with Andre Agassi ‘s dad in Iran (many decades ago).  As most of you know, Agassi’s father was an Olympic boxer. You can read more detail about that in Agassi’s autobiography “Open”, which I highly recommend by the way!  I learned to love Andre even more than I already did after I read his book, and of course his wife shares my name.  I just wish I could have a modicum of her tennis talents.  Dare to dream …

There is no better way to learn about tennis players then by spending time in the players lounge of any tournament, and the AO WC event was no exception.  I was able to talk to, and listen in on many conversations and it was truly so much fun for me as the huge tennis fan that I am.  I am a huge sports fan in general, but tennis is undoubtedly one of my faves.  In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I also play A LOT of tennis too. 

Anyway,  in the course of one day I met Ryan Harrison, Rhyne Williams, Jack Sock, Melanie Oudin, Coco Vandeweghe, Jamie Hampton, Denis Kudla, Jordan Cox and Tim Smyczek.  I learned so many neat things about these players.  For instance, did you know that Tim Smyczek  and John Isner are roommates?  They live in Tampa, Fla and train at Saddlebrook together.  And they also just played  in a charity event up at Marquette University in Milwaukee, where Tim is from. 

Coco has a mean game of table tennis, Melanie Oudin is such an absolute sweetheart, and Rhyne Williams is one BIG guy!  When he got up to play table tennis with Kudla, I was like, “Whooaa dude!”  He is very funny by the way.  Ryan Harrison on the other hand was a bit harder to get to know, which at first I took for pretention, but learned that this wasn’t the case at all.  He is a truly a very nice guy, just very serious about his profession I guess.  He was really cracking the jokes on the court and had me in stitches, really. 

So, I have to save one of new favorite players for last I guess and that couldn’t be anyone else but Jack Sock.  Not only is he one of the sweetest young men that you will ever meet, but his whole family and camp are this way.  His brother Eric, his aunts and uncles and his coach, Mike Wolf, were just so gracious and appreciative of everything you did for them. They all must have said “thank you” a thousand times and to be honest, I really didn’t think I did anything to help them, not enough anyway. 

Jack Sock serving one up at the Racquet Club of the South

I can’t wait to see all these young players go out and compete again in the near future.  The Australian Open cannot come soon enough for me, I can assure you, but we have Auckland (amongst others) to look forward to.  Smyczek, for one, will be going to Auckland by the way, and his “roomie” is the defending champion.  When I mentioned to Tim that several top 20 players are now competing in that tournament, he made it very clear that Isner was to have NO problem defending his title.  It was very, very cute.  I definitely backed off at that point and went and got myself a beer, to which Tim replied, “oh could you get me one as well?”  LOL!  To  which I replied, of course, “Regular or lite?”  No, I really didn’t say that; I just said that they all had to go out and play Team Tennis with Patrick McEnroe so it probably wasn’t a good idea. 

ATL AO WC Playoffs Quarterfinal Recap

What an amazing day of tennis at the Racquet Club of the South today!  I was not able to see the ladies play, but I was able to go around the club and see all four of the men’s matches. Rhyne Williams really brought his A game but to be honest I really wasn’t expecting anything less from him.  He is fresh off his win from the Intercollegiate Championships in N.Y. and honestly when I saw him in person, I was a little taken aback.  He’s very tall and very quick on his feet.  He is going places for sure and is someone to keep your eye on.  Williams beat the second seed Tim Smyczek 6-4, 6-0. Wow!

Williams with Coach Chris Woodruff after his win. (photo courtesy of Volstennis twitter)

The match that I saw the least of was Denis Kudla and Jordan Cox, but I sat and watched them play table tennis in the players lounge after their match.  Such unpretentious guys and very eager to answer any questions that I put to them.  Cox is now living in Florida at Bollettieri’s Academy and Kudla is training in Boca right now, but still calls his home Northern Virginia and loves it here.  Kudla will next play Jack Sock in the semifinals.

Speaking of Sock, Jack was on fire today.  He was up 4-0 in the first set and then hurt his hip somehow and I could tell it caused him some discomfort.  Young came back after that, and the match ended up going three sets.  Young lost the match with a double fault and then smashed his racquet into the ground not once, not twice, but three times to really make certain it was broken.  What was so inspiring to me during that match was Sock’s passion. The fist pumping, the C’mon’s!  I absolutely loved it and it was so much fun to watch.  What a cute, cute kid he is, and boy does he really have some talent.  America should be so proud to call him our own.

The final of the four matches was the Ryan Harrison and Michael Shabaz battle. Those two went head to head and Harrison had match point in the second set, but Shabaz refused to surrender and killed the ball to take it to a tiebreak. It was such a fun match to watch.  Harrison is as passionate as Sock but probably has a little more arrogance about him than Jack.  It was good though… all good.  Harrison is very sure of himself and that confidence is going to take him far, no doubt.

So, the semi’s start tomorrow at 1 p.m. EST on Sat.  I am so excited to see these matches so stay tuned for more fun and awesomeness to come!

The USTA Australian Open WC Playoff Quarterfinal Preview

Apologies, folks. I was expecting something from a contributor that fell through (disclaimer: not talking about Stephiesport here; it was a different contributor), so I can only give you a last-minute, rushed preview of what to expect from today’s USTA AO Playoff quarterfinal matchups, which are as follows:

[1] Donald Young vs. [8] Jack Sock: This is the first meeting between the two. It’s an interesting match between the highly touted 18 year-old Sock, who is the current #32 junior in the world rankings and won the US Open Jr. Boys title this past summer (defeating fellow WC participant Denis Kudla 3-6 6-2 6-2 in the final), and Young, the now 21 year-old former world #1 junior (in 2005). Young has long been seen as one who hasn’t yet maximized his promise or potential, reaching a career high of #73 in the ATP rankings two years ago and currently sitting at #127. Of course, it’s too early to tell what the professional future holds for Jack, as he just turned 18 a few months ago and has only made a few forays into the men’s tennis game. Right now he sits at #872 in the rankings, but hasn’t played enough matches to where his ranking is nearly commensurate with his talent. Of course, just the opposite could be and has been said about Young. Lots of pressure on the hometown ATL top seed today. I’m keen to see how he meets this playoff challenge.

[2] Tim Smyczek vs. [7] Rhyne Williams – Also the first meeting for the two. It could be argued that the 19 year-old Williams has the most name recognition to the casual fan coming into this matchup, though Smyczek is almost 600 spots higher in the rankings. The University of Tennessee sophomore comes into the tourney on a bit of a hot streak, having won the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship in Flushing, N.Y, while 22 year-old Smyczek kind of muddled through the end of his Challenger season, going 4-5 to end his season and 39/30 on the year. I’d expect that Smyczek’s experience will pull him through this one, but it might be close.

[3] Ryan Harrison vs. [6] Michael Shabaz – This is the glamour match. The 18 year-old #173-ranked Harrison, of course, is the most highly praised young gun in the American arsenal at the moment, having upset Ivan Ljubicic at the US Open and almost doing the same to Sergiy Stakhovsky. But UVA’s Shabaz won their only previous matchup 6-4 3-6 6-2 last month in the 2^nd Round of the Charlottesville Challenger, and the 23 year-old went on to win the tournament, beating Kei Nishikori, Chris Guccione, Giovanni Lapentti and Robert Kendrick along the way (though not in that order). Ryan will be itching for revenge, but will Shabaz be able to get the better of him for the second time in two months? Let’s watch and see.

[4] Jordan Cox vs. [5] Denis Kudla – Once again, a first meeting for both.  It’s actually quite shocking the two 18 year-olds haven’t met on any level while consistently being among the best young American talents.  Kudla is the current #1 U.S. Junior (#21 overall), despite losing that close USO final to Jack Sock.  Jordan Cox, meanwhile, reached a combined junior ranking high of #36 in July of 2009.  Both have had pretty decent years, making their first ventures into the pros: Kudla went 27/18 on the season and won the USA F26 Futures in October, while Cox went 29/25 and made the semis of USA F26 and the finals of USA F27.  Not much between these two, as the seedings indicate. Should be a close one.