Atlanta Tennis Championships thread.

bjk said:
Fish plays his first match on a Thurs evening? That's what's wrong with the ATP right there. The top seed plays his first match 4 days into a 7 day tournament, and now he's in the QFs. I can see giving bye's to Nadal and Federer at Indian Wells, where there are 7 rounds and the field is 96 or 108 or something. Not at a 32 player field where the top seed is Mardy Fish. What if Fish had lost? Very possible, it's not like he's dominating anyone. Then you get one match out of the headliner.
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I think it's odd, too, but...
This is not the ATP's thing to manage It's individual tournament directors.
Tourn Directors give byes to the top seeds, depending on the draw.
Sometimes, players request a later start, due to injury or illness.
Nobody gets two byes in a row.
Typically, the headliner is all over the local ads. Thu-Sat night sessions are where they want him.

Honestly, this is strange to play a second rd on a Thursday, but....giving the top seeds a bye is completely common practice. And since he was in the rd of 16, that's a maximum of a match a day for four straight days. Barring steady rains, of course.
 
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slice bh compliment said:
I think it's odd, too, but...
This is not the ATP's thing to manage It's individual tournament directors.
Tourn Directors give byes to the top seeds, depending on the draw.
Sometimes, players request a later start, due to injury or illness.
Nobody gets two byes in a row.
Typically, the headliner is all over the local ads. Thu-Sat night sessions are where they want him.

Honestly, this is strange to play a second rd on a Thursday, but....giving the top seeds a bye is completely common practice. And since he was in the rd of 16, that's a maximum of a match a day for four straight days. Barring steady rains, of course.
Click to expand...

The ATP could easily say "no byes in 32 player fields." It also means the field shrinks to 26 or whatever because nobody gets a shots at Fish (or the other top seeds) in the first round. If you leave it up to the tournament director, then of course there's going to be a bye. I get they want the stars on Thurs night, but is this a tournament or an exhibition? And who wants to see the equivalent of a first round match deep into a tournament on Thurs night?
 
bjk said:
Fish plays his first match on a Thurs evening? That's what's wrong with the ATP right there. The top seed plays his first match 4 days into a 7 day tournament, and now he's in the QFs. I can see giving bye's to Nadal and Federer at Indian Wells, where there are 7 rounds and the field is 96 or 108 or something. Not at a 32 player field where the top seed is Mardy Fish. What if Fish had lost? Very possible, it's not like he's dominating anyone. Then you get one match out of the headliner.
Click to expand...

The top 4 all get one Bye. So any of the top 4 would have to win 4 matches to win the tournament. Everyone else has to win 5.
 
What bothers me isn't so much the bye as the fact they're playing a second round match on Thurs. If I'm paying for Thurs tickets, I want to see a competitive match for a seat in the semis, not Fish's first match in the tournament.
 
Well, BJK, remember that they spent all of Sunday playing qualifiers, and all of Monday finishing them, then throwing DY to the wolves and bombing worse than Ishtar.

So you have Monday's Qualifiers, and partial first round Monday. Tuesday finishes all the first rounds. Isner plays the Second Round Wednesday, Fish Thursday.

I see your complaint, but think of this in business terms. Very few people are as big of fans of tennis as we are, and very few play and take it as seriously as we do. John Isner and Mardy Fish are the main event, so you don't put them on a weeknight that people have just gone back to work. You put them in the middle of the week when people are more likely to show up.

On Monday, you put the journeymen around, where family, friends, and tennis nuts can watch.

It's business.
 
It's good business to provide an inferior product from Sunday through Wednesday? Have Fish on Tuesday, Isner Wednesday, Fish and the QFs Thursday, more QF on Friday, etc. If Fish gets to the finals, he'll play Thursday - Sunday straight through. Remember, it's Friday afternoon and Fish has played one match all week. In my scenario, he gets Friday off and he's already finished with the QFs. I've got it all figured out.
 
Well you have good points man, but remember that people are just getting off of a weekend Monday and Tuesday. Mondays and Tuesdays are when places of business are most busy, and people are most tired after work. Wednesdays are hump days, and the day when they are most likely going to go out for the first time.
 
Anyway, back to the thread.

Hopefully the crowds will get better. It's always disappointing to me seeing empty seats when I watch tennis on TV.
 
No props for the local guys King & Bernstein who took out the #1 seeds Lipsky/Ram in dubs???

I think I'd rather watch some of that match than Almagro/Mayer just to see how they play, especially when I already know the result of the Almagro match.
 
Rob_C said:
Anyway, back to the thread.

Hopefully the crowds will get better. It's always disappointing to me seeing empty seats when I watch tennis on TV.
Click to expand...

Well, the field isn't that impressive this year. At least we had Roddick last year.
Only recognizable names are Fish and Isner...hardly big draws.

I think the finals on Sun will be sold out
 
Update: Just ended.

John Isner d Yen-Hsun Lu 6-1 6-2

Sidenote: That was a good old American style beatdown of the highest order. Congrats to John Isner. Probably the best I have EVER seen him play. Maybe it was an inferior player to him, but he covered that court well today, and did a lot more than just serve well. I'd like to see that a lot more often.
 
bjk said:
What bothers me isn't so much the bye as the fact they're playing a second round match on Thurs. If I'm paying for Thurs tickets, I want to see a competitive match for a seat in the semis, not Fish's first match in the tournament.
Click to expand...

Thats pretty much the schedule for every 32 draw tournament, save a few. Qtrs on Fri, semis - Sat, finals - Sun. That means 1st rd Mon/Tues, 2nd rd Wed/Th.

Occasionally if someone is traveling or has another issue they might get a Wed 1st rd.
 
Anybody have a stream for the Harrison match??

Don't understand why TTC is showing a replay of the Muller - Anderson match right now instead of live coverage.
 
During TTC's coverage of the Muller match, when they cut to a view of the commentator's booth when they were discussing college tennis, was Gimelstob shirtless?? That's how it seemed to me. Anybody else catch that??
 
Rampras didn't play half badly, to be fair. It was fun to watch him continually approach the net.
 
Ram hit the hardest forehand I have ever seen at 5-6 in the third. This guy is good.

Tough loss for Ram. He was the better player for the latter half of the third set, earning two break chances including a match point. But Harrison saved them with good serving. Then finally Harrison won 7-5 in the tiebreak because of a lucky net cord that made the ball skip over Ram's racket.

Ah well. Harrison is a nice kid, I hope he goes all the way.
 
Rob_C said:
I tried that, didnt work for me. All I got was a freeze frame of a court, not even sure if it was ATL.

TTC is supposed to be showing another qtr final in a few mins, hopefully its the Harrison match.
Click to expand...

It froze on me but not this match. Try closing your web browser and open a new one next time. It may work. I don't have TTC.
 
Unbelievable!!!

TTC is showing the Anderson - Muller match for the 3rd time today, including a replay that just got done an hr ago.
 
Updates:

Ryan Harrison d Rajeev Ram 4-6 6-1 7-6(5)
Mardy Fish d Somdev Devvarman 6-4 6-3

Tomorrow's matches.

John Isner v Gilles Muller
Mardy Fish v Ryan Harrison

Very happy to see 3 Americans in the semis. We haven't seen that too often in this era.
 
Ail

^I we're to mix men's and women's tennis there, in terms of viewing...
I don't mind Harrison. Serena is certainly interesting, but for the tennis, no thanks.

Venus is nice, personally, but the tennis, no thanks.

Hey, American tennis enthusiasts, let's start a club called AIL..... AIL pretty much sums it up. It stands for Americans I Like (and would buy tickets to watch live):

McEnroe (still great)
Fishy (good story, sweet serve and BH, kind of an odd FH, but overall nice attacking game with good feel for the court)
Kevin Kim (if he's still around)
Rampras (I look at him and I see a good would-be dubs player ... and all of a sudden he has a good week in singles)
Pete Sampras (still just majestic even though he's old and slow now)
James Blake (just a good guy and you never know with his high risk, flattyflattyboomboom game. Very easy to root for, though)
Derrick Rostagno (great game, great guy)
Mel Purcell (just thinking of that goofball makes a tennis player smile)
Agassi (I have never openly rooted for him, but that school thing's awesome and as a name, he is too big to fail).

No thanks division of AIL (Americans' I Loathe...and I root for them only in Davis Cup or while playing against Dorkovic or Soda-Jerk):

Sam Querrey (brings the Lindsay Davenport game to men's tennis!)
Roddick (heinous game)
Mike Russell (easy to root for, but the defensive grinder game makes me root for the invariably more stylish opponent).
Jimmy Connors (commitment to Davis Cup was wavering at best).
Brad Gilbert (I liked him as a player, but he must have done something to make my opinion of him sink over the years. Could be the incessant blabbing and self-promotion. Could be the Metallica cap he wore at the International Hall of Fame. Did he learn the attention wh0re thing from Agassi or did he teach it to Agassi?

Turning from past and present players....looking ahead, we ought to start an organization for Future Americans I Like (FAIL):

Jack Sock (great name, plays like a good DI college player)
Donald Young (wild card conspiracies and histrionics aside, when he's playing well, it's pretty smooth and Rios-ish)
Milos Raonic (Kind of sad I needed to add a Canadian guy to FAIL, but c'mon, we need the dues, and he's Bosnian dude who happens to live in an NBA town which happens to be in Ontario, so basically, he is one of us and I love watching him play).

AIL and FAIL. Sign me up.
 
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What, is it too hot in the ATL today? Malisse looks like he totally doesn't give a ****. He's barely moving. He and Berankis oughtta be winning this doubles match, and they're getting creamed.
 
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