The American Grand Slam event takes place from this Monday up until Sunday, September 9th. The hard, blue court makes for fast excellent Tennis and the fans are among the rabid in the world. The electrifying atmosphere that is the Open Championship is vastly underrated because the sport is far from mainstream. All the matches are played basically next to each other at the same time, making it a crazed heaven for Tennis junkies. Imagine the NCAA Tournament all played at one site. I went to first and second round matches last year, and became hooked. Woman's 11th seed Patty Schnyder, loves the atmosphere at Flushing Meadows.
"I think it's great. " Schnyder said. "There are so many fans from different countries come to support us. People travel from all over the world."
On the ladies side, the Swiss support Schnyder, and of course Roger Federer on the men's side. Spain, France, and Russia all have big time stars on their side traveling to the events and matches. Justin Henin is the top seed on the womens side, and all of Belgium greatly support their biggest Tennis star. Expect a quarterfinal matchup with either 8th seed Serena Williams, or French 10 seed Marion Bartoli. The Serbain women have really made named for themselves on tour, and 3rd seed Jelena Jankovic highlights the 2nd section. Her countrymate and 5th seed Ana Ivanovic is at the bottom of the bracket, and is a force to be reckoned with. She's 3-1 head to head with Jankovic. 14th seed Elena Dementieva and 12th seed Venus Williams would make for a great 3rd round match and would be potential spoilers for the Serbs. Russian 7th seed Nadia Petrova leads the 3rd section, and could face either 9th seed Slovokian Daniela Hantuchova, or 16 seed Martina Hingis, who has vast experience in New York. 4th seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova has an easy draw on the bottom of the bracket. Russian 6th seed Anna Chakvetadze is at the top of the bracket, but could run into trouble in the 3rd round with the 26th seed Sania Mirza. The Indian has made headlines worldwide for her nationality and stellar play. Schnyder and 13th seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova could also be threats in the round of 16. 2nd seed Maria Sharapova is on the bottom of the bracket along with 18th seeded Israeli Shahar Pe'er.
On the mens side, the big story is the emergence of another Serbian named Novack Djokovic. The 3rd seed is coming on really strong and is quickly rising to the levels of the top two in Federer and Rafael Nadal. Tennis Magazine Senior Editor Peter Bodo analyzes Djokovic's game, and points out that he's a big threat to the top two.
"Novak is a huge threat. The crazy thing is, neither I nor a number of people I know were surprised that Djokovic beat the top 3 players in the world in back-to-back matches in Montreal just three weeks ago. I think the biggest thing that Djokovic needs in order to beat Federer as well as Nadal is a slightly greater willingness to attack. On the other hand, he's been holding his own as a kind of all-court power-based liner just fine, and there's no doubt that his progression towards the top has been orderly as well as predictable. But yeah, I've been saying this kid is the real deal since before he was."
Federer is the top seed in the first section, and will have to likely play a tough wild card Rainer Schuettler in round two. 21st seeded Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero will likely be his first test, and 13th seed Richard Gasquet or 9 seed Tomas Berdych could be next. Young American Donald Young could foil the 13th seeded Frenchman. Ultimately though, 5th seed Andy Roddick is set to face Federer in the quarterfinal, which would be a finals worthy matchup because Roddick plays so well on hardcourt with his powerful serves.
4th seeded Nikolay Davydenko leads the 2nd section, and will likely face the tough German Nicolas Kiefer in the 2nd round. Rising Brit and 19 seed Andy Murray will be a threat to Davydenko, but experienced Swede Jonas Bjorkman will challange the powerful Murray. 10th seeded German Tommy Haas is also in the section, and could face tough Slovak Dominik Hrbaty early on. 18th seeded Marcos Baghdatis will also be a threat, but will likely take on Sebastian Grosjean in roun two. They will likely have to take on the man at the bottom of the bracket, 6th seeded American James Blake.
8th seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo leads section 3, and will run into a hot Mardy Fish in round two, who's having a great Pilot Pen tournament in Connecticut. Robredo will also be challanged by fellow countryman and 17 seed Carlos Moya. 11th seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny will also be a threat, and will have a great 3rd round match against 16th seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt, if Hewitt can get by American Amer Delic in round one. Djokovic headlines the bottom of the bracket as the 3rd seed, and could face a 2nd round test from Radek Stepanek, 23rd seed Juan Monaco, or 31st seed Jurgen Melzer.
Chilean 7th seed Fernando Gonzalez is at the top of section 4, but will be really challanged in round two against American Robby Ginepri. Gonzalez will also be challanged by 25th seed Marat Safin, who has a lot of major experience. Croatian 12th seed Ivan Ljubicic and 15th seed David Ferrer could also be opponents for Gonzalez in the round of 16. The bottom of the bracket belongs to 2nd seed Rafael Nadal, who has never won at the US Open. On his side is the tough 24th seeded David Nalbandian. The best match in the first round comes on this side, as 27th seeded Russian Dmitry Tursonov faces British hero Tim Henman.
Watch the ESPN family of networks and CBS for all the fantastic and exciting action at the Open. You won't want to miss it. Stay here at SprungOnSports for daily Open updates on sprungonsports.blogspot.com
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Showing posts with label Tennis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tennis. Show all posts
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Tennis Special Report
Is there fixing going on in the sport of Tennis?
Men's players have been the targets of anonymous requests to fix matches. That's what top doubles player Bob Bryan told the Los Angeles Times. This comes after what happened last week in a suspicious match involving top 20 singles player Nikolay Davydenko. A British betting company Betfair had to void all the bets (7 million dollars) in Davydenko's match against Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina. Most of the bets were for Arguello, and the wagers were placed after the first set, won by Davydenko. Arguello won the match when Davydenko retired with a foot injury.
"I don't know of any players that ever gambled on Tennis." Bryan said. "But there have been some anonymous calls to players' with some monetary offerings. I know that. And I know every player I've talked to has turned it down. "
Bryan said that these phone calls were isolated incidents. Betting on matches will get players sanctions as severe as a life ban. How bad of a problem can this potentially be? Tennis Magazine's senior editor Peter Bodo told SprungOnSports his opinion on the matter:
"Kudos to Bryan for going public with the sobering concession that players are approached to fix matches." Bodo said. "This is a potentially horrible problem for the ATP, mainly because Tennis like Boxing is an individual sport and is almost impossible to patrol effectively and preventively."
That makes this last week even harder to swallow for fans of the game. As the clay court season in Europe, and the hardcourt season in North America heats up in preperation for the U.S. Open later this month, a cloud of suspicion now hangs over the game in a way that has never before been seen in the sport. If anything fishy happens in any of the matches, it will immediately go under the public microscope as something that might have been fixed or gambled on. Bodo went on to talk about the "the integrity of the game" but said that this situation may not come down to that:
"When you come right down to it, this has nothing to do with the integrity of the game, it has to do with the integrity of the people, some of whom happen to play Tennis. "
To cast an even larger shadow of doubt on Tennis, Bodo said that these kind of things are hard to avoid:
"It is impossible to imagine that with the way the tour is set up, these kinds of low grade betting scams transpiring in small far away places, can be avoided or eliminated. The only thing the ATP can do is demonstrate to the public that it is making a full effort to control the gambling issue as best it can."
This is not the PR that Tennis wanted right before the main summer season, but the fans can comfort in the fact the ATP is taking measures to prevent these things from going on. These scams may be going on right now in small and far away places, but what will happen to the integrity of the sport when an incident occurs at an event like the Rogers Cup (going on this week and next) or even worse a major tournament. Then, Tennis would turn into a sport like Boxing that has no integrity and will quite possibly be ruined forever. Is the game on course for a downward spiral? It will if this betting scandal isn't stopped or control. A few months from now, we might just be saying another sport bites the dust.
Men's players have been the targets of anonymous requests to fix matches. That's what top doubles player Bob Bryan told the Los Angeles Times. This comes after what happened last week in a suspicious match involving top 20 singles player Nikolay Davydenko. A British betting company Betfair had to void all the bets (7 million dollars) in Davydenko's match against Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina. Most of the bets were for Arguello, and the wagers were placed after the first set, won by Davydenko. Arguello won the match when Davydenko retired with a foot injury.
"I don't know of any players that ever gambled on Tennis." Bryan said. "But there have been some anonymous calls to players' with some monetary offerings. I know that. And I know every player I've talked to has turned it down. "
Bryan said that these phone calls were isolated incidents. Betting on matches will get players sanctions as severe as a life ban. How bad of a problem can this potentially be? Tennis Magazine's senior editor Peter Bodo told SprungOnSports his opinion on the matter:
"Kudos to Bryan for going public with the sobering concession that players are approached to fix matches." Bodo said. "This is a potentially horrible problem for the ATP, mainly because Tennis like Boxing is an individual sport and is almost impossible to patrol effectively and preventively."
That makes this last week even harder to swallow for fans of the game. As the clay court season in Europe, and the hardcourt season in North America heats up in preperation for the U.S. Open later this month, a cloud of suspicion now hangs over the game in a way that has never before been seen in the sport. If anything fishy happens in any of the matches, it will immediately go under the public microscope as something that might have been fixed or gambled on. Bodo went on to talk about the "the integrity of the game" but said that this situation may not come down to that:
"When you come right down to it, this has nothing to do with the integrity of the game, it has to do with the integrity of the people, some of whom happen to play Tennis. "
To cast an even larger shadow of doubt on Tennis, Bodo said that these kind of things are hard to avoid:
"It is impossible to imagine that with the way the tour is set up, these kinds of low grade betting scams transpiring in small far away places, can be avoided or eliminated. The only thing the ATP can do is demonstrate to the public that it is making a full effort to control the gambling issue as best it can."
This is not the PR that Tennis wanted right before the main summer season, but the fans can comfort in the fact the ATP is taking measures to prevent these things from going on. These scams may be going on right now in small and far away places, but what will happen to the integrity of the sport when an incident occurs at an event like the Rogers Cup (going on this week and next) or even worse a major tournament. Then, Tennis would turn into a sport like Boxing that has no integrity and will quite possibly be ruined forever. Is the game on course for a downward spiral? It will if this betting scandal isn't stopped or control. A few months from now, we might just be saying another sport bites the dust.
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