2014 BB&T Atlanta Open - General Discussion Thread

Who will win the 2014 BB&T Atlanta Open title?


  • Total voters
    21
  • Poll closed .
Today's results - 1st round (July 23/14)

Yen-Hsun Lu[7] def. Alex Kuznetsov[LL] 6-4 6-4

2nd round

Vasek Pospisil[4] def. Illya Marchenko[Q] 7-5 6-3
Lukas Lacko def. Denis Istomin[6] 5-7 6-1 6-4
Dudi Sela def. Sam Querrey[9] 6-2 6-4
Jack Sock def. Michael Venus[Q] 6-4 6-2


Doubles results - 1st round

Santiago Gonzalez / Scott Lipsky[2] def.
Matthew Ebden / Yen-Hsun Lu W/O

Chris Guccione / John-Patrick Smith[3] def.
Jonathan Erlich / Rajeev Ram 3-6 6-3 10-6

Nicolas Barrientos / Victor Estrella Burgos def.
Sanchai Ratiwatana / Sonchat Ratiwatana 6-7(2) 6-3 10-8
 
really pathetic

most populated tennis city in the world
and you get serve bots for your final
hoping sock or posp can make a run

i'll be there rooting for ginepri tonight if the heat storms quit
 
I"m pretty sure Sam Querrey would play Line 5 on my A-8 ALTA team and probably lose most of his matches. Querrey was framing volley's, spraying inside-out forehands way long, and double faulting on key points. An overall listless performance against Sela last night.
 
I'm here right now...waiting out rain delay under the awning of an outdoor bar.

Got a guaranteed 3 setter with De Bakker and Anderson at least.
 
I saw Sela/Querrey last night. Sam served up to 138 and Sela barely broke 100mph with second serves in the low 80s.
 
KAndyman sent packing in straights. So much for my prediction.

De Bakker is so unpredictable...a great junior career and flashes of brilliance on the Tour. A Dutch Donald???
 
KAndyman sent packing in straights. So much for my prediction.

De Bakker is so unpredictable...a great junior career and flashes of brilliance on the Tour. A Dutch Donald???

So much for mine too. Isner is also down a break in the 1st against Ginepri. This is turning out to be a pretty weird tournament. Hopefully Pospisil climbs out of it all with the title!
 
I'm at the Smyczek-Matosevic match now. Smyczek is in absolute love(or lust) with his topspin forehand, and Marinko is creaming it.

Plus Marinko is controlling damned near every point, serve or receive.
 
Smyczek up a break in the second after losing the first.

Tim playing better, but Marinko is kind of serving up some balls on a silver platter, and Smyczek has missed a few too many. Plus his second serve is getting mauled.
 
I'm at the Smyczek-Matosevic match now. Smyczek is in absolute love(or lust) with his topspin forehand, and Marinko is creaming it.

Mayybe Timmy assumed that because he was able to dominate Harrison with his forehand that it would work against other players too? Huge logical disconnect there obviously.
 
shame Ginepri had to play John Isner, Robby's been playing better well vs The Stak.

If you don't have a good return you basically have to rely on Isner slipping on a banana to break him.
 
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Today's results - 2nd round (July 24/14)

John Isner[1] def. Robby Ginepri[WC] 4-6 7-6(5) 7-5
Thiemo de Bakker[LL] def. Kevin Anderson[2] 6-4 7-5
Benjamin Becker def. Yen-Hsun Lu[7] 6-4 6-3
Marinko Matosevic[8] def. Tim Smyczek 6-4 7-5

Quarterfinals are set:

John Isner[1]
vs.
Marinko Matosevic[8]

Jack Sock
vs.
Lukas Lacko

Dudi Sela
vs.
Vasek Pospisil[4]

Benjamin Becker
vs.
Thiemo de Bakker[LL]


Doubles results - Quarterfinals

Vasek Pospisil / Jack Sock[1] def.
Benjamin Becker / Frank Moser 6-4 6-1
 
Good to see Pospisil and Sock roll on in doubles. Still undefeated together! Cool that they're both still alive in singles too.

Sela will be a tough opponent for Pospisil. He's been playing solid lately. Meanwhile, Sock should meet Isner in the top semifinal.
 
A cool scenario would be a Sock vs Pospisil singles final and them teaming for the dubs title!

One can hope! Decent chance of it happening too. Isner struggled against Ginepri so it's reasonable to expect he could be vulnerable against a better player in Sock. On the other side of the draw, Pospisil getting to the final isn't agiven, but if he returns to form then yes, he's the favourite to come out of the bottom half.
 
shame Ginepri had to play John Isner, Robby's been playing better well vs The Stak.

If you don't have a good return you basically have to rely on Isner slipping on a banana to break him.

Robby had two match points on Isner's serve but John was able to serve his way out.

Some observstions from the match:

- Robby played a consistent, steady match and even served well. But he often hit rather tentative shots. He rarely went big on his ground strokes. When he did hit aggressively he often missed

- John's ground game was uneven as usual. And as usual his serve saved his bacon.

- Some TT members express nostalgia for the serve fests of the early 90s. I don't know why. Watching isner's final service game was boring. As one commentator put it, that sort of game takes the tennis out of tennis and reduces it to just one single stroke: the serve. Not even return of serve is a factor. Yawn...
 
Robby had two match points on Isner's serve but John was able to serve his way out.

Some observstions from the match:

- Robby played a consistent, steady match and even served well. But he often hit rather tentative shots. He rarely went big on his ground strokes. When he did hit aggressively he often missed

- John's ground game was uneven as usual. And as usual his serve saved his bacon.

- Some TT members express nostalgia for the serve fests of the early 90s. I don't know why. Watching isner's final service game was boring. As one commentator put it, that sort of game takes the tennis out of tennis and reduces it to just one single stroke: the serve. Not even return of serve is a factor. Yawn...

That is why I HATE watching Isner. He is ALL serve and little else. He saves his energy for his serve games and almost every set goes to a tiebreaker.
 
Robby had two match points on Isner's serve but John was able to serve his way out.

Some observstions from the match:

- Robby played a consistent, steady match and even served well. But he often hit rather tentative shots. He rarely went big on his ground strokes. When he did hit aggressively he often missed

- John's ground game was uneven as usual. And as usual his serve saved his bacon.

- Some TT members express nostalgia for the serve fests of the early 90s. I don't know why. Watching isner's final service game was boring. As one commentator put it, that sort of game takes the tennis out of tennis and reduces it to just one single stroke: the serve. Not even return of serve is a factor. Yawn...

I think more people want the return of S&V versus just the big serve.
 
Isner hitting all 4 corners of the service box for 4 straight aces to serve it out was pretty impressive though.
 
KAndyman sent packing in straights. So much for my prediction.

De Bakker is so unpredictable...a great junior career and flashes of brilliance on the Tour. A Dutch Donald???

A Dutch Donald is a pretty good comparison I think. We (I'm Dutch) currently have several players who are quite talented (Haase, De Bakker, Schoorel), but who seem to lack something. For De Bakker, it has a lot to do with his work ethic. It's getting better though so perhaps he can still become a steady top 30-50 player.
Haase has several issues. For one he is a hothead and still regularly has problems keeping his emotions in check, which negatively affect his play. He also can't handle criticism at all and comes across as a spoilt brat, even going as far as to boycott Dutch press because they are -in his eyes- overly critical of him (they are not, btw). Finally, he still doesn't pout enough effort into his conditioning (coaches/trainers/commentators have commented on this), although he thinks he works just as hard as the absolute top players. Shame though, 'cause Haase could be a steady top-30 player for sure.
Sijsling is the one who does seem to work as hard as necessary and has a good mentality in general, unfortunately for Dutch tennis, he is also the lesser talented of these three....

I don't know if it's a Dutch thing (maybe because we lack good structural support? Maybe too many good options for other careers? Maybe no good system in place to combine education with pro-sports?), but many current, talented players seem to lack the right mindset to reach the top. Haase/De Bakker on the men's side, Krajicek/Rus n the women's side. Bertens is a pleasant exception.
 
That is why I HATE watching Isner. He is ALL serve and little else. He saves his energy for his serve games and almost every set goes to a tiebreaker.

This...agree 100%. I could not possibly dislike his game more...it's sad really. There is a reason he plays more tie-breaks than anyone else on tour. Without that big serve, I don't think he would be inside the top 50.

Ginepri played well last night. It's unfortunate for him that Isner can serve his way out of trouble.
 
I have to be a fan of Isner, he grew up 30 mins from my house, but his game is like watching paint dry.
In person it's fun the first time, to watch a service like his, but after a while you're wishing for a rally...
 
I have to be a fan of Isner, he grew up 30 mins from my house, but his game is like watching paint dry.
In person it's fun the first time, to watch a service like his, but after a while you're wishing for a rally...

I watched Isner and Roddick in the finals 3 years ago. Talk about a match with no rallys. Was fun to watch the bombs, but after a while you prayed for a few balls to go back and forth over the net.
 
I saw Roddick play here in Winston that same year, say what you will about him, he was fun to watch.
The tournament in Winston was directly before he retired at the US Open.
I saw Blake in Winston the year after, and he retired the week after at the open as well.
Apparently, our tournament is so good it makes people retire.
 
Man, Pospisil, I support the guy, but he just finds new ways to lose every time. He played a horrendous first set against Sela which he lost 7-5 (Sela also played pretty bad, just an all around ugly match really) and then went on a tear to win the 2nd set 6-1. Then he went up an early break in set 3, only to suddenly disappear and now he's down 2-4, Sela serving. It's 40-0 now so he'll likely be down 2-5.

Unreal man.
 
Man, Pospisil, I support the guy, but he just finds new ways to lose every time. He played a horrendous first set against Sela which he lost 7-5 (Sela also played pretty bad, just an all around ugly match really) and then went on a tear to win the 2nd set 6-1. Then he went up an early break in set 3, only to suddenly disappear and now he's down 4-2, Sela serving. It's 40-0 now so he'll likely be down 2-5.

Unreal man.

That's so true! I'm sitting here at my computer chanting "Rogers, Rogers, Rogers", so he can remember how her felt last season. There is no reason why he can't win this...but it's such a mental melt down.

Only Dudi can help Vasek win at this point!
 
Pospisil gets broken again to lose the set and the match 5-7 6-1 2-6. After being down 0-2, Sela won 6 straight games in the 3rd to close out the match. Pospisil completely melted down. Pospisil also looked like he was suffering a bit from some sort of ailment but still, he looked just fine from the 2nd set until 2-0 in the 3rd.

Just an infuriating loss. If he bombs during this North American hard court swing, I'm going to start thinking that he should just stick to doubles.
 
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Guess it's not to be. I don't know why I hold these fairly tale hopes in my dreams, but I do. I so wanted Pospisil to win.

I am going to the Rogers Cup this year and it would be soooo exciting to see Vasek charge, but he is so hot and cold and cold that I suspect that is but a dream.

Congrats to Dudi. He had a melt down in the 2nd set, but shook it off and came back. I have to admit that it is great to see a shorter player succeed, even if my heart was with my countryman.
 
A Dutch Donald is a pretty good comparison I think. We (I'm Dutch) currently have several players who are quite talented (Haase, De Bakker, Schoorel), but who seem to lack something. For De Bakker, it has a lot to do with his work ethic. It's getting better though so perhaps he can still become a steady top 30-50 player.
Haase has several issues. For one he is a hothead and still regularly has problems keeping his emotions in check, which negatively affect his play. He also can't handle criticism at all and comes across as a spoilt brat, even going as far as to boycott Dutch press because they are -in his eyes- overly critical of him (they are not, btw). Finally, he still doesn't pout enough effort into his conditioning (coaches/trainers/commentators have commented on this), although he thinks he works just as hard as the absolute top players. Shame though, 'cause Haase could be a steady top-30 player for sure.
Sijsling is the one who does seem to work as hard as necessary and has a good mentality in general, unfortunately for Dutch tennis, he is also the lesser talented of these three....

I don't know if it's a Dutch thing (maybe because we lack good structural support? Maybe too many good options for other careers? Maybe no good system in place to combine education with pro-sports?), but many current, talented players seem to lack the right mindset to reach the top. Haase/De Bakker on the men's side, Krajicek/Rus n the women's side. Bertens is a pleasant exception.

Good insight. Thanks!
 
Pospisil gets broken again to lose the set and the match 5-7 6-1 2-6. After being down 0-2, Sela won 6 straight games in the 3rd to close out the match. Pospisil completely melted down. Pospisil also looked like he was suffering a bit from some sort of ailment but still, he looked just fine from the 2nd set until 2-0 in the 3rd.

Just an infuriating loss. If he bombs during this North American hard court swing, I'm going to start thinking that he should just stick to doubles.

:( Pospisil can be very frustrating to watch. He needs someone to help him with his mentality
 
Today's results - Quarterfinals (July 25/14)

John Isner[1] def. Marinko Matosevic[8] 7-6(8 ) 6-4
Dudi Sela def. Vasek Pospisil[4] 7-5 1-6 6-2
Jack Sock def. Lukas Lacko 7-6(6) 6-2
Benjamin Becker def. Thiemo de Bakker[LL] 6-4 6-2

Semifinals:

John Isner[1]
vs.
Jack Sock

Dudi Sela
vs.
Benjamin Becker


Doubles results - Quarterfinals

Steve Johnson / Sam Querrey def.
Santiago Gonzalez / Scott Lipsky[2] 7-6(2) 7-5

Nicolas Barrientos / Victor Estrella Burgos def.
Chris Guccione / John-Patrick Smith[3] 7-5 3-6 10-6
 
What did Pospisil do to his right leg? He took a medical time out in the middle of a game in set 2 then 3 more times out during the match. When he bent over and it was obvious something had happened after he had hit a shot all I could think was that it was his back again.

Then Sela took a couple of times out in the last set and seemed to be being treated in exactly the same way as Pospisial had been treated.

Strange goings on in that match. The upside is that it didn't seem to be Pospisil's back.
 
Why do they put Isner at 4pm and the other match tonite?
Why not both tonite starting a 7? Who wants to sit in 90 degree Arlanta heat at 4pm watching tennis?
 
Why do they put Isner at 4pm and the other match tonite?
Why not both tonite starting a 7? Who wants to sit in 90 degree Arlanta heat at 4pm watching tennis?

ESPN covers 3:00 PM, Tennis channel gets 7:00 PM. so they will need the better match. Already no one watches these matches.
 
Pretty quick handshake from Sock - no pats on the back like when they played in Newport 2 weeks ago. That match was ugly to watch on TV - I'm sure it was worse in person in the heat.
 
The crowd wasn't that bad compared to china. Isner couldn't hand pick a better final for him, either a midget or a guy he has one of his best records against.
 
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