Isner has Mono

shadows

shadows

Legend
http://www.tennisweek.com/news/fullstory.sps?inewsid=6632942

John Isner's French Open is over before it began.

Isner, won who a wild card into Roland Garros by capturing the USTA wild card tournament title at the Boca West Country Club last month, has been forced to pull out of the French Open due to a bout of mononucleosis.

U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe, the USTA's general manager of elite player development, confirmed Colette Lewis' report of Isner's withdrawal today. McEnroe said the USTA is currently deciding what player will fill Isner's wild card spot.

"Isner has mono and will not be playing. We're in the process of figuring out what we're going to do, but there is nothing to repot on our decision as of yet," McEnroe told the media in a conference call this afternoon.

The USTA and the French Tennis Federation have a reciprocal agreement in which wild card entries into the main draw at the 2009 French Open and 2009 US Open are exchanged.

Scoville Jenkins, 22, of Atlanta; Evan King, 17, of Chicago; Jesse Levine, 21 of Boca Raton, Fla.; Michael McClune, 19, of Irvine, Calif.; Nathan Pasha, 16, of Atlanta; Rhyne Williams, 18, of Knoxville, Tenn. and Donald Young, 19, of Atlanta all competed in the USTA's wild card tournament. It is probable one of those seven players could get Isner's wild card.

==

sucks for John, I hope it's not too serious and he's able to get back on track quickly
 
jelle v

jelle v

Hall of Fame
As a European guy, I would like Donald Young to get it.. Americans keep bringing up his name as the biggest talent around or something like that and I have never even seen the guy play. Maybe if he gets the wildcard, he will play a televised match.

To bad for isner though.. don't like his game too much, but mono is really bad and you wish that for no one.
 
shadows

shadows

Legend
jelle v said:
As a European guy, I would like Donald Young to get it.. Americans keep bringing up his name as the biggest talent around or something like that and I have never even seen the guy play. Maybe if he gets the wildcard, he will play a televised match.

To bad for isner though.. don't like his game too much, but mono is really bad and you wish that for no one.
Click to expand...

well Colette Lewis (zootennis) who broke the story via twitter said:

BREAKING NEWS--John Isner has mono and will not be using his French Open wild card. It looks like Donald Young may be taking his place.

so you may well get your wish
 
B

baseliner

Professional
Hope for a quick recovery for John. As for the wildcard, wasn't there a torunament played in Florida where Isner won? Wouldn't it be fair to award the wildcard to the losing finalist? Or would that be a bad thing since Donald Young wouldn't get yer (another) freebie entry into a top tier event?
 
jelle v

jelle v

Hall of Fame
tudwell said:
Federer withdrew from his Australian Open warm-up event last year. I guess that withdrawal is somehow less convincing than Isner's?
Click to expand...

Of course.. don't you know? That was a fake withdrawal, only meant to support his later statement of mononucleosis.
 
A

AprilFool

Guest
tudwell said:
Federer withdrew from his Australian Open warm-up event last year. I guess that withdrawal is somehow less convincing than Isner's?
Click to expand...
As well as all of the rapid weight loss during the same period.
 
nickynu

nickynu

Semi-Pro
Phew Isner was lucky to get this on the claycourt swing when he moves like bambi on Ice. Hopefully he will be good for the grass.
 
Jack the Hack

Jack the Hack

Hall of Fame
shadows said:
well Colette Lewis (zootennis) who broke the story via twitter said:

BREAKING NEWS--John Isner has mono and will not be using his French Open wild card. It looks like Donald Young may be taking his place.

so you may well get your wish
Click to expand...

I'm not sure where Colette got that bit about Young getting the replacement nod. In the FO wild card qualifying tournament that Isner won, Isner beat Jesse Levine in the final in straight sets. Levine had reached the final by hammering Young in the semifinals by a 6-1, 6-3 score. Therefore, it would seem like Levine would be the logical choice...

However, by the fact that they didn't announce a replacement right away (and with the FO starting in just 3 days), it makes you wonder if there was a scheduling conflict or other factor that their looking at.

Levine, Scoville Jenkins, Ryan Sweeting, Rajeev Ram, Amer Delic, and Michael Russell were all in the French Open qualifying draw. Levine lost 10-8 in the third set of the 1st round, and Russell lost badly (3-6, 0-6) in the 1st round. Jenkins and Sweeting lost in the 2nd round. Ram has his 2nd round match scheduled for later today (do they have lights?). And Delic plays a guy named Franco Ferreiro in the final round of qualifying tomorrow. I would think that one of these players will get the wild card, and it will probably be Delic or Ram if they don't win the qualifying spots outright. If they both get in the draw through qualifying, then I'd give the wild card to Levine or Jenkins, assuming they are still in Paris. I doubt that Young would even be in the picture since he's not even in France right now. (By the way, why isn't he over there trying to qualify like the rest of the young Americans?)
 
W

woodrow1029

Guest
Jack the Hack said:
I'm not sure where Colette got that bit about Young getting the replacement nod. In the FO wild card qualifying tournament that Isner won, Isner beat Jesse Levine in the final in straight sets. Levine had reached the final by hammering Young in the semifinals by a 6-1, 6-3 score. Therefore, it would seem like Levine would be the logical choice...

However, by the fact that they didn't announce a replacement right away (and with the FO starting in just 3 days), it makes you wonder if there was a scheduling conflict or other factor that their looking at.

Levine, Scoville Jenkins, Ryan Sweeting, Rajeev Ram, Amer Delic, and Michael Russell were all in the French Open qualifying draw. Levine lost 10-8 in the third set of the 1st round, and Russell lost badly (3-6, 0-6) in the 1st round. Jenkins and Sweeting lost in the 2nd round. Ram has his 2nd round match scheduled for later today (do they have lights?). And Delic plays a guy named Franco Ferreiro in the final round of qualifying tomorrow. I would think that one of these players will get the wild card, and it will probably be Delic or Ram if they don't win the qualifying spots outright. If they both get in the draw through qualifying, then I'd give the wild card to Levine or Jenkins, assuming they are still in Paris. I doubt that Young would even be in the picture since he's not even in France right now. (By the way, why isn't he over there trying to qualify like the rest of the young Americans?)
Click to expand...

Players that played in qualies are not eligible for a wildcard into main draw of the tournament. That leaves Jenkins, Sweeting, Ram, Russell, Delic, Levine out of the running.
 
Jack the Hack

Jack the Hack

Hall of Fame
woodrow1029 said:
Players that played in qualies are not eligible for a wildcard into main draw of the tournament. That leaves Jenkins, Sweeting, Ram, Russell, Delic, Levine out of the running.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... that didn't sound fair and I hadn't heard of that rule before, so I looked it up.

The French Open is an ITF event, and the ITF rules can be found here:

http://www.itftennis.com/shared/medialibrary/pdf/original/IO_38972_original.PDF

This is what it says about wild cards:

Wild Cards

Players included in the draw at the sole discretion of the Tournament
Committee or the Tournament Administrator. Wild Cards may be seeded.
Wild Cards must be named at the time the draw is made and Wild Cards who
withdraw or default may not be replaced with new Wild Cards after the draw
is made. Any such vacancy shall be filled by the next eligible player on the
acceptance list, or if the qualifying competition has commenced, it shall be
filled by the eligible Lucky Loser, drawn and placed at the same time as the
qualifiers. The Qualifying Competition commences when the first ball of the
first qualifying match is struck.

No player who has signed in for and been accepted into the qualifying of the
tournament may be named as a Wild Card after the Qualifying Competition
has commenced.

A tournament may not offer a Wild Card or accept the entry from any player
who has either accepted a Wild Card or been committed by an entry to
another tournament in the same week.


That means that Jenkins, Sweeting, Ram, Russell, Delic, and Levine are actually punished for trying to qualify, and that Young (who apparently wimped out of trying to qualify in Paris) might indeed get the nod. Of all the criticism that Young has gotten for getting wild cards he didn't "deserve", this one might be the most valid (if he gets it).
 
W

woodrow1029

Guest
^^^ Penalized for trying to qualify? By the way, it's the same rule at ATP and WTA events.
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
Chelsea_Kiwi said:
Mono really destroys your career. Look at Fed from 2008 to now and how far Ancic has fallen. :(
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Exactly! I don't know of any pro tennis players that have gotten back to 100% of their former selves after a bout of the dreaded mono. :(

Look at what even just chicken pox did to Juan Carlos Ferrero's career. :(
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
gj011 said:
No he is not making excuses. He actually withdrew from RG.
Click to expand...
But Isner is not the defending champion at RG, is he? Nor does he have any points or the #1 ranking to defend, does he? Unlike Federer at the '08 Aus Open. Not that Federer even knew the illness he had was mono, but he did withdraw out of the Kooyong exo before the AO.
 
Jack the Hack

Jack the Hack

Hall of Fame
woodrow1029 said:
^^^ Penalized for trying to qualify? By the way, it's the same rule at ATP and WTA events.
Click to expand...

If I were Levine, I would feel like I was penalized. With him being the wild card finalist, being ranked higher than Young, and beating Young head-to-head on clay, Levine deserves the wild card spot - especially ahead of Young. However, due to the fact that Levine got his butt over to Paris and played in the qualifying tournament, he's now ineligible for the wild card... and it might go to Young, who could have been sitting home eating Twinkies and Ho Hos for all we know. Also, Levine wins 2,080 Euros for losing in the first round of qualifying, while the wild card person gets at least 15,000 Euros to show up (1st round loss prize money).

By the way, I don't have any personal beef with Donald Young. I've watched him play in person several times, and have rooted for him. I think he gets a bad rap on here for being "over hyped", but the dude was the youngest male player ever to be ranked #1 in the world in the juniors, and he's only 19 now. Many question his work ethic and temperment and think he can't make it as a pro, but I'm hoping he pulls it all together and becomes a top 20 mainstay. I personally think he's probably got more talent than guys like Simon, Robredo, and Ferrer... but Young's got a long way to go in order match the level of work, mental toughness, and consistency that those guys have achieved. At this point, I just hate seeing anything handed to him when there are other players that have been working harder and deserve it more.
 
Blinkism

Blinkism

Legend
Wow, first Richy with his "I swear I thought it was baking powder" fiasco, then Old Man Nalbandian breaks a hip, then the Roadrunner Monfils pops a kneecap, and now the friendly green giant Isner catches the kissing disease?

The ATP is a mess! Thank goodness the WTA is so solid.
 
S

Serendipitous

Guest
Darn it!

I was really hoping he would do well this year.

Oh well, there's always next year. :(
 
S

slicekick95

Semi-Pro
USTA website says that the USTA has given the wildcard back to the French, and they will assign to another French player. WTF is the point of that?
 
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