Brian Baker has had an amazing come back to tennis. Baker had six years off with injury, but now he is back and better than ever.
A few weeks ago Baker won a challenger event which won him a wildcard into French Open 2012 main draw. This week he has qualified for the ATP Tour event in Nice and has also won the first round main draw match!
Baker reached the Boys’ Singles final at Roland Garros – losing to former top 10 player Stanislas Wawrinka. Thus, if he can stay fit, he is going to be a top 20 player at the very least! Look out for Brian Baker in the French Open next week!
Prince Sports Inc has filed for bankruptcy protection in the USA for around $100 million. This is a big hit for Prince and they blamed declining demand and increased competition over the past five years.
Prince, the exclusive licensee of the All England Club for Wimbledon-branded rackets, racket bags and accessories, was bought in 2007 by Providence, Rhode Island-based buyout fund Nautic Partners LLC.
Prince today said its subsidiaries outside the U.S., including those based in Europe, Taiwan and China, are not subject to the proceedings and “are expected to operate in ordinary course.”
It really amazes me how professional college sports has become in the USA. Here is a video that outlines the professionalism. This is a recap of the recent college match between Georgia Tennis and Vanderbilt.
Taylor Townsend is a fifteen year old American who is going to turn pro this year. Taylor is already ranked number 2 in the world for ITF Juniors and she is hoping to be able to make the step across to the senior ranks. Townsend will be playing all the junior Grand Slams and then will turn professional.
Townsend trains at USTA headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla., and has been working out near her home at the Racquet Club of the South in Norcross, Ga.
These days… im not really sure why players have to announce they are turning professional. It just means they will be playing senior tournaments for money, which Im sure she has already played senior tournaments.
p.s. she will need to focus on getting a lot fitter, because the WTA Tour is all year round with very tough long matches.
Additionally, Ashleigh Barty is probably the best junior in the world at the moment and she has already turned pro (at 15 years old).
Petra Kvitova told ESPN in an interview that the USA tour last year was the reason she was in a lull after winning Wimbledon.
“I don’t really like to play in America that part of the tour is not good for me because of my asthma and problems breathing with the humidity.” (paraphrased)
Possibly this is the reason why she has been performing poorly in the USA at the moment!
James Blake and Ryan Sweeting have been commenting about how it is unfair to compare USA players in the past with the current players. The media have been harsh towards the lack of results and compare them to Agassi, Sampras, Chang, Courier, etc.
“It could be a little bit unfair,” James Blake told the Memphis Daily News. “But it’s part of what you let yourself in for when you’re on the ATP tour. Guys like (Sam) Querrey and Donald Young are starting to deal with it, guys like Ryan Harrison and Jack Sock, will be dealing with it. I dealt with it, Andy [Roddick] dealt with it, and I know early on Andy got a little frustrated. But you know the questions are going to be part of any press conference. So you just give your stock answer and go on.”
Victoria Azarenka had time after winning the Australian Open 2012 to fly to the USA just so she could do the chat show tour. Here is Victoria on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Irina Falconi has reached the final of the Pan American Games and she is hoping to have a strong year in 2012. Falconi has had a strong year and is ranked 77 in the world and even has a win over Dominika Cibulkova to her name at the US Open.
“By this time next year, if I’m Top 40 in the world, Top 50 in the world, it means we defended all of our points that we got this year,” Falconi said. “It would be really impressive.”
Mardy Fish is still going strong towards the end of 2011. Mardy has defeated Bernard Tomic to make the semifinals of the Japan Open. Im really surprised how good Fish has been playing in the second half of 2011. Hopefully he can improve over the summer and be ready for even better results at the Australian Open.
Daniela Hantuchova is a woman with a lot of talents. Daniela made a guest appearance at the New Haven Open Vineyard Vines Fashion Show. Interest PR tactic!
It seems like the New Haven tournament tries to bring all different entertainment to the tennis tournament. Very unique, but to me it just seems a little too commercial.
If you were to ask the casual tennis fan to name as many American male tennis players off of the top of their head as possible, most would easily name Mardy Fish, Andy Roddick, and John Isner. After these three, a blank would be drawn. The lack of resurgence from American male players since the end of the Sampras-Agassi era has been disappointing in the eyes of many fans to say the least. The only two American players to have reached a Grand Slam semifinal since 2003 are Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick. In the defense of American players, the male game has become very top heavy in recent years with Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic becoming fixtures in the final four of majors.
The letdown of American male tennis players in the last 5-7 years is often viewed the wrong way. Many have been led to believe that there simply has been a lag in American talent. This statement is easily falsifiable. Currently, there are 10 Americans in the top 100 in the world. This is the most of any country apart from Spain, which has 13 men ranked in the top 100.
Now this begs question of has there actually been a letdown of talent or a failure of high expectations? I think undoubtedly the latter is the answer. Following the legacies of greats such as Agassi, Sampras, and Courier is no short task. It would be unreasonable to expect any group of any players from any country during any time period to achieve on the same level as these Americans did during the 80s’ and 90s.
If you go back in history, the only county since the beginning of the open era (1968) to achieve something comparable to what the Americans of the 1990′s achieved were Swedes in the 70s and 80s. Wilander, Borg, and Edberg combined for 24 grand slams over an 18 year period. The combination of Agassi, Sampras, Courier, collected 27 grandslams in 13 years.
A prime example of a player that has “failed” in the eyes of many Americans is Donald Young. When Donald Young was 15 people were sighting him as the next big star and a shoe in as a future number one based on his success at Junior National Championships in Kalamazoo which he was winning. Currently ranked 89th in the world, Young is 22 and already considered a bust. It is extremely premature to declare the career of a 22 year old a disappointment. Recently, many players have enjoyed their greatest successes near the end of their careers. Two examples of this are Mardy Fish, who has surged to a career high ranking of number 7 at age 29 and Jurgen Melzer, a journeymen Austrian who made his deepest career run in every single major coincidentally at the age of 29.
With players on the rise such as Mardy Fish, Ryan Harrison, Sam Querrey, Donald Young, John Isner, Alex Bogomolov Jr. , and Ryan Sweeting the future of American tennis appears to be very promising. And while this group of players will unlikely achieve the greatness of those in the 1990s, it would be wise to hold off on the bust word for a while.
Jack Sock has retained his USTA National Boys 18s Championship. Sock was the top seed and cruised to a win in the final 6-3 6-0 over Mitchell Frank.
Frank, who had beaten Sock at their last meeting back at the 2009 Orange Bowl was just unable to compete. Frank gave away a lot of free points and just couldnt handle Sock’s serve.
“Things obviously could have been a lot different if I had gotten broken there,” said Sock, who needed only an hour to retain his title and collect his 23rd gold ball. “I was fortunate to get out of that game.”
“I felt I was dictating a lot of points and I feel when I’m dictating a lot of points, hitting a lot of forehands in the middle of the court, I’m going to do pretty well,” said Sock, who ended the match with a 125 mph ace. “With serving well, and putting a lot of returns back in play, getting in points, I think I was able to force some errors, and the momentum just took it.”
Im not exactly Ryan Harrison’s biggest fan, but he was at the Cincinnati Red’s game yesterday to throw out the first pitch. He was very nervous and as you can see in the video he actually gets it right!
Harrison is currently ranked No. 78 this week on the ATP computer. He is the youngest American in the Top 100.
Last years US Open junior boys champion Jack Sock has decided to turn professional and not go to University. It must have been a very tough decision to not go to college and test it out on the pro tour. Especially considering Sock has an ITF ranking of only around 550 in the world!
“The past few weeks, I thought my game was to the point to where I thought I could go out and compete with the top players in the world,” the 18-year-old said. “I’m ready to make a full-time commitment to it.”
Sock is now going to be represented by CAA Sports and has Adidas as his new clothing sponsor.
He will attempt to defend his 18s Nationals title at Kalamazoo Aug. 5-14.
Melanie Oudin reached the quarterfinals of the US Open in 2009, but hasnt performed well since. Recently Melanie jumped into a conference call and stated she hadn’t had any luck lately.
“I’ve hadn’t luck on my side lately” (terrible English!). “I’ve tried to stay positive, keep working hard I have a lot to learn, and hopefully, I still have a long career ahead of me. My goals right now is just to start playing better again. Start to get some more matches under my belt.”
Melanie you need to just keep working and the wins will come. It has nothing at all to do with luck! Whoever works the hardest gets the victories eventually.
Robby Ginepri hasnt had the greatest year, but he is hoping the rest of the year will bring great results. Ginepri has been away from the tour since the end of last year when he fell off a mountain bike and broke his elbow.
“I feel stronger coming out of it, feel more mature. Hopefully, I can use it to my advantage. When you are out that long you always hope to get back to where you were. I think I’m on the right track.”
Starting in a few months time is the final Grand Slam of the year the US Open 2011. There have been two players dominating tennis in 2011 and that has been Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, but who is really going to do well at the US Open and take the title?
Novak Djokovic has only lost 1 match all year and that was at the 2011 French Open. I hate to say it, but I cant see Novak winning the US Open 2011 as the number 1 seed. I think there will be too much pressure for him to handle (although I think he will make the semifinals).
Rafael Nadal seems to always be in great form and Im sure at the US Open 2011 it will be no different. Rafa likes the high bouncing hard courts of the US and it fits his game very nicely. I can see Rafael making the final of yet another Grand Slam event this year.
However, my winner for the US Open 2011 has to be Roger Federer. I think after Wimbledon he is going to be very hungry and will put absolutely everything into getting this title. Roger’s game fits in perfectly with the courts and the surroundings in the US. He will also have a lot of support from his superstar American friends. Roger is my prediction to take the title.
Outsider of the tournament: My outsider is John Isner. The American is playing some great tennis at the moment and just won the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport with relative ease. Isner to make the Quarterfinals and knock out some top players!
Madison Keys is only 16, but she performed above her years to defeat Gail Brodsky in the USA Australian Open 2012 Wildcard Playoff final 6-3 6-4.
