The Tennis Thread 2014

[GirlySports]

Bah

[Senator Clay Davis]

Polansky upsets Janowicz, and he gets Federer tomorrow night.

[Mango]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Polansky upsets Janowicz, and he gets Federer tomorrow night.

Janowicz is no slouch. I've enjoyed following him on the tour the last year or so.

Good stuff for PP.

[GirlySports]

wow Janowicz has fallen. Ranked 52 and now loses to Polansky.

tv just said that Janowicz has lost in the first round 10 times this year.

[Resolute 14]

Janowicz was riding a fluke run to the semis at last year's Wimbledon. He has always been one of those mid-card players that guys like Polansky are capable of upsetting.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Janowicz was riding a fluke run to the semis at last year's Wimbledon. He has always been one of those mid-card players that guys like Polansky are capable of upsetting.

and the run to the Paris 1000 final in 2012 which put him on the map.

I remember when Janowicz made that Wimbledon semifinal and Canadians were in an uproar.. why isn't Milos like him!?

[dash_pinched]

Isner loses yesterday and doesn't make himself available to the media - Not only a bitch boy, but afraid to face the music as well.

[GirlySports]

Isner's irrelevant now. Sock is the new American hero.

[Resolute 14]

Well if that isn't a damning indictment on the state of US Tennis...

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Isner's irrelevant now. Sock is the new American hero.

Steve Johnson looked pretty good at the Citi Open. I didn't know he had that much pop on his serve.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Well if that isn't a damning indictment on the state of US Tennis...

Over the last few months I've been looking at why American players are so poor and I can't quite put a finger on it. Perhaps is priorities?

In 2011 Indian Wells Ryan Harrison beat Milos Raonic in the 3rd round in what deemed as the battle of the future. Raonic is now 6th in the world, Harrison can't even win challengers matches. He's currently ranked 164. What happened?

There are a few Americans in the bottom of the top 100 or in the 100s but they are now in their mid-20s. Guys like Smyczek, Johnson, Klahn etc... Those guys are basically Peter Polansky. Ryan Sweeting married Kaley Cuoco and well, that's the end of that career.

So what happened? One thing I found was that with many tournaments in the US there are too many wildcards. So American men don't earn their way into tournaments and don't learn how to win.

Can you believe that last night was Polansky's 50th match this season? and it's only August. In contrast Bradley Klahn ranked 116 has played only 28 matches and that included 2 challenger wins where he played 5 matches each.

Players who qualify for a challenger event get 3 or 5 points which can add up throughout the year. An American coming in cold get 0 points if they lose in the first round. The USTA wants to sell tickets to these challengers and low-level ATP events so they give out wildcards and the American players take the easy way out and not have to travel somewhere else and qualify. This also means they almost never play on clay unless they have to.

Last week Vancouver had a challenger event and there were no Canadians in the main draw. Two wildcards were given to Americans! All the Canadians were in Washington. Peliwo was given a WC into Washington (not sure why). Steven Diez tried to qualify for Washington and failed. He could have easily entered Vancouver and take it easy.

Canadians are playing everywhere to try and improve. Americans are staying home.

[dash_pinched]

Looks like Gasquet will get his revenge today, won the first set and up a break in set 2 over Vasek.

Edit: Donald Young has eliminated Frank Dancevic (Frank took the first set 7-5, but then dropped the next two 6-0 and 6-3)

[dash_pinched]

Maybe I spoke too soon, Vasek is now back on serve in set 2 (currently tied 4-4)

[dash_pinched]

Darn it, Gasquet wins the match 7-5 7-5. That's a tough one for Vasek in the rankings as he had some big points to defend from last year's tourney.

[Mango]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

Darn it, Gasquet wins the match 7-5 7-5. That's a tough one for Vasek in the rankings as he had some big points to defend from last year's tourney.

Rough draw too. I didn't have close look until now.

It's never a good day when white power wins. Ugh.

[GirlySports]

Jack Sock crushed Jurgen Melzer, that's a good win.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

Darn it, Gasquet wins the match 7-5 7-5. That's a tough one for Vasek in the rankings as he had some big points to defend from last year's tourney.

He balanced those off with last week though. The 300 he earned last week almost cancels the 350ish he lost this. Raonic is also playing with house money. He gained a lot in Washington (win vs. third round loss last year). Of course, it would be better if Milos can make another long run.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

He balanced those off with last week though. The 300 he earned last week almost cancels the 350ish he lost this. Raonic is also playing with house money. He gained a lot in Washington (win vs. third round loss last year). Of course, it would be better if Milos can make another long run.

That's what I was thinking as well, but TSN is saying Vasek will drop out of the top 40.

The loss drops Pospisil out of the top 40 of the ATP rankings. He had been 27th, just short of his career-best ranking of 25th.

http://www.tsn.ca/tennis/story/?id=458770

[Chump]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

That's what I was thinking as well, but TSN is saying Vasek will drop out of the top 40.

The loss drops Pospisil out of the top 40 of the ATP rankings. He had been 27th, just short of his career-best ranking of 25th.

http://www.tsn.ca/tennis/story/?id=458770

He was only ranked 36th before Washington though so it's not as big of a drop as it seems.

[Fire]

Hopefully Genie is over her nervousness.