Calabasas Challenger

edmondsm

edmondsm

Legend
To bad that Taylor Dent didn't feel up to playing another event. They haven't updated the qualifier results yet, but there are still some interesting matchups. Scoville Jenkins, who took out #1 seed Spadea last week and played a really tight match with Donald Young, is playing Robert Kendrick in the 1st round.
 
R

Rob_C

Hall of Fame
The last rd of qualies was played today. Van der Merwe, Oudsema, Smyczek, and Clemens made main draw.
 
edmondsm

edmondsm

Legend
Hopefully for Somdev he can take out Bogomolev Jr. Another 1st round exit would be rough. I looked up Young's 1st round opponent (Lester Cook). Seems he's a local boy ranked in the 300's. Maybe he can cash in on the home crowd element as well as DY being a bit fatigued.
 
J-man

J-man

Hall of Fame
Go Lester Cook!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kenderick vs Jenkins first round is intriguing
 
chlsmo

chlsmo

Semi-Pro
Just got back from Young vs. Cook. I may try to make it out on Thursday as well.

I took some pics and will try to post them soon.
 
Fedace

Fedace

Banned
Alex Clayton would have won this event if he entered but he has to play in the ITA regionals this weekend so tour guys, consider yourselves lucky....
 
DNShade

DNShade

Hall of Fame
I was there today...

Young won. He didn't look great, and Cook had his chances and the home crowd, but just couldn't really pull it out when he needed.

Kendrick looked very strong - his serve was on fire - he schooled Scoville... 1 & 4

Devvarman wasn't too impressive. Lost 46 64 63. He has a stronger first serve than you might think when he hits it, but his second just sits there and it seemed today that he has a bad habit of running around the backhand and then just hits his forehand loopy with spin and no pace - couldn't figure that play out - it opens the court up for the other guy nicely.
 
J-man

J-man

Hall of Fame
Not to surprised about the Kenderick match. Too bad for Cook, lol. Very disappointing for Devvarman,
 
chlsmo

chlsmo

Semi-Pro
Young d. Cook 6-3, 7-5.

Sorry for the poor pics. I am definitely no camera man. Once they started playing I switched to "sport" mode and took the pics without any flash, thus they are kinda blurry.

Cook definitely had the crowd on his side. I kind of felt bad for Donald Young, the crowd sometimes applauded after a few unforced errors. But they weren't too bad except on one point where like half of the spectators on the chair ump's side called a ball out pretty obnoxiously during a point. There was also a guy on my side of the court who kept going on and on about line calls, and even called out to the umpire which I thought was totally rude.

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DNShade

DNShade

Hall of Fame
Fedace said:
How there is no crowd in the stands ?? Isn't Calasbas the Hotbed of tennis in Cal?
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Actually there were quite a few people there - but they were all on the side the pics were taken from - there were having a private party thing up above the stands on the far side - so not many people down sitting on that side by the end of the night.
 
edmondsm

edmondsm

Legend
Yeah, Isner's time seems to have come and gone very quickly. Hopefully for him that isn't true, but he went from knocking off ATP players to losing pretty routinely on the challenger tour. I guess you do need more then just a big serve after all. Some people around here owe Andy Roddick an apology.:)
 
T

tennisdad65

Hall of Fame
edmondsm said:
Yeah, Isner's time seems to have come and gone very quickly. Hopefully for him that isn't true, but he went from knocking off ATP players to losing pretty routinely on the challenger tour. I guess you do need more then just a big serve after all. Some people around here owe Andy Roddick an apology.:)
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Isner's serve is not as big as karlovic's right now, and the rest of his game is not as good either.

It will take time. I expect his career to be similar to Karlovic's . i.e. he will make it into the top 50 for a couple of seasons. He will eventually figure out how to get to the net and dominate from there. Playing all these challenger doubles will help him.
 
edmondsm

edmondsm

Legend
tennisdad65 said:
Isner's serve is not as big as karlovic's right now, and the rest of his game is not as good either.

It will take time. I expect his career to be similar to Karlovic's . i.e. he will make it into the top 50 for a couple of seasons. He will eventually figure out how to get to the net and dominate from there. Playing all these challenger doubles will help him.
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It's possible. One really noticeable improvement about Karlovic has been his movement. That will really be big for Isner if he can become more mobile because right now he really lumbers around.
 
edmondsm

edmondsm

Legend
Young defeats Kendrick. I'd love to hear how the match went if anyone saw it. The scorline is impressive. Young rallied from a set down. There was only one break between them in each set. 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
 
M

MEAC_ALLAMERICAN

Legend
edmondsm said:
Young defeats Kendrick. I'd love to hear how the match went if anyone saw it. The scorline is impressive. Young rallied from a set down. There was only one break between them in each set. 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
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DY seems to be finding his challenger magic, nevertheless I hope he is learning from these matches. God this is a long journey with this guy.
 
M

MaggieMay

Banned
MEAC_ALLAMERICAN said:
DY seems to be finding his challenger magic, nevertheless I hope he is learning from these matches. God this is a long journey with this guy.
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Nothing wrong with Challenger magic. Plus Challengers are actually good now.

DY is still only 18 or 19. Gulbis is already 20 and he's still pathetic, although better than Young.
 
edmondsm

edmondsm

Legend
MaggieMay said:
Nothing wrong with Challenger magic. Plus Challengers are actually good now.

DY is still only 18 or 19. Gulbis is already 20 and he's still pathetic, although better than Young.
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Yes Gulbis is definitely better than Young. But yeah Challengers have some real points now. I don't know when this happened, but I was looking at the points for Tashkent and the winner gets 90 points!!! I don't know, that seems like a lot when you consider that semifinalists in Stockholm (an ATP event) only got 100.

To win this Tashkent tournament the highest ranked player you would have to beat would be #69 in the world. But obviously to make the semis of an ATP tournament you would have to beat at least a couple players in the top 50. It just doesn't seem balanced.
 
C

Causing_A_Racket

New User
Great news for Donald, he really seems to have found a new confidence and consistency in the last few weeks, no doubt his win in Sacramento has done him the world of good, the last time i saw Donald in action was his game against Nadal earlier in the year and even before that viewing his matches had been difficult so i haven't been able to properly judge his game yet, so for those who have seen him regularly i've got a few questions,

How good technically is he?

How is his backhand?

How is his forehand?

has he got good net game?

How good is his serve?

can he defend well?

is he a counter puncher or attacker?

What kind of coach would improve his game?

Does he have the potential to reach the top ten?


The thing that i believe is holding him back are his coaches to be honest, i can't believe he's still with his parents, especially when you look at the impact a change of coach has had on the likes of Murray and Monfills this year, he's proven that he can beat top 40 players like Lopez and Haas so he's proven he can player at a decent level, i think he's got a good chance of winning this Challenger too which would be fantastic for his confidence.
 
M

MaggieMay

Banned
Causing_A_Racket said:
Great news for Donald, he really seems to have found a new confidence and consistency in the last few weeks, no doubt his win in Sacramento has done him the world of good, the last time i saw Donald in action was his game against Nadal earlier in the year and even before that viewing his matches had been difficult so i haven't been able to properly judge his game yet, so for those who have seen him regularly i've got a few questions,

How good technically is he?

How is his backhand?

How is his forehand?

has he got good net game?

How good is his serve?

can he defend well?

is he a counter puncher or attacker?

What kind of coach would improve his game?

Does he have the potential to reach the top ten?


The thing that i believe is holding him back are his coaches to be honest, i can't believe he's still with his parents, especially when you look at the impact a change of coach has had on the likes of Murray and Monfills this year, he's proven that he can beat top 40 players like Lopez and Haas so he's proven he can player at a decent level, i think he's got a good chance of winning this Challenger too which would be fantastic for his confidence.
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good technically, not like flawless though

two-handed backhand is his best shot

forehand can be big but it breaks down a lot. This is the shot opponents target.

very good net game, doesn't get in enough.

Serve is about as good as you would expect for a guy who is 5'10 or 5'11. He can hit his first near 130 when he wants. His second serve is not good and can be attacked.

Good defender just cause he is so fast.

Basically an attacker, but he looks like a counter-puncher since he is so small and fast. He does not like being pushed around though, so he attacks.

Um whatever coach he would "click" with. Brad Gilbert or Cahill if he ever gets good enough to lure them. I imagine though that his mom will be his lifetime coach.

I doubt Top 10, but u can never say never. He has Top 20 talent. I mean I saw him play Lopez at the USO and he thoroughly outplayed Lopez. Granted Lopez is nothing special, but he used to be a Top 30 staple. Young is just a headcase. If he gets his head on he can be Top 20.
 
C

Causing_A_Racket

New User
MaggieMay said:
good technically, not like flawless though

two-handed backhand is his best shot

forehand can be big but it breaks down a lot. This is the shot opponents target.

very good net game, doesn't get in enough.

Serve is about as good as you would expect for a guy who is 5'10 or 5'11. He can hit his first near 130 when he wants. His second serve is not good and can be attacked.

Good defender just cause he is so fast.

Basically an attacker, but he looks like a counter-puncher since he is so small and fast. He does not like being pushed around though, so he attacks.

Um whatever coach he would "click" with. Brad Gilbert or Cahill if he ever gets good enough to lure them. I imagine though that his mom will be his lifetime coach.

I doubt Top 10, but u can never say never. He has Top 20 talent. I mean I saw him play Lopez at the USO and he thoroughly outplayed Lopez. Granted Lopez is nothing special, but he used to be a Top 30 staple. Young is just a headcase. If he gets his head on he can be Top 20.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info, and if anyone else cares to add to that feel welcome to do so.
 
edmondsm

edmondsm

Legend
I highly doubt that DY will reach the top 10. When he was young, as in 14-18, there was lots of hope that he would develop a weapon and strong mental game. Neither of these things have happened yet, and the chances of that happening will diminish with each passing year. He could have a very solid career with his athleticism and variety, but to fulfill his dream of winning slams he would need either a bag of weapons (Safin), a tenacious mental approach (Hewitt), or both (Fed and Nadal). Right now he is not even close.
 
J

JohnP

Rookie
MaggieMay said:
I imagine though that his mom will be his lifetime coach.
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Great overall analysis. On this line, when I saw him win the Sacramento challenger, he said in his victory speech that this was "one of his first tournaments being without his parents".
 
edmondsm

edmondsm

Legend
MaggieMay said:
so D.Y. lost. Expected but still disgusting.
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It's a decent result for him. At least he strung together some wins and gained points these last two weeks, he didn't really do that all year. It's to bad that he hasn't wanted to travel to any of these "Tretorn Serie" tournaments. They give 90 points to the winner, twice as much prize money, and the fields aren't any tougher. I guess he doesn't like traveling, kind of a bad thing for a tennis player.
 
M

MaggieMay

Banned
edmondsm said:
It's a decent result for him. At least he strung together some wins and gained points these last two weeks, he didn't really do that all year. It's to bad that he hasn't wanted to travel to any of these "Tretorn Serie" tournaments. They give 90 points to the winner, twice as much prize money, and the fields aren't any tougher. I guess he doesn't like traveling, kind of a bad thing for a tennis player.
Click to expand...

all the Americans, of course, play the ones in the U.S. This is nothing new. I'm sure D.Y. is fine with traveling. :confused:
 
R

Rob_C

Hall of Fame
edmondsm said:
It's a decent result for him. At least he strung together some wins and gained points these last two weeks, he didn't really do that all year. It's to bad that he hasn't wanted to travel to any of these "Tretorn Serie" tournaments. They give 90 points to the winner, twice as much prize money, and the fields aren't any tougher. I guess he doesn't like traveling, kind of a bad thing for a tennis player.
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I wouldnt want to travel all the way to the Far East, stay 2-3 wks, get jet lagged going and coming, and then have to go back to Australia a few wks after that either.

This way he gets a wk off, then plays the last 3 or 4 Challengers, most likely.

He can still accomplish his goal of getting DA into the Aussie Open by playing the US swing. Hopefully he can high enough to maybe get into the qualies, if not MD of some of the warmups. That way he gets some matches in.
 
edmondsm

edmondsm

Legend
Rob_C said:
I wouldnt want to travel all the way to the Far East, stay 2-3 wks, get jet lagged going and coming, and then have to go back to Australia a few wks after that either.

This way he gets a wk off, then plays the last 3 or 4 Challengers, most likely.

He can still accomplish his goal of getting DA into the Aussie Open by playing the US swing. Hopefully he can high enough to maybe get into the qualies, if not MD of some of the warmups. That way he gets some matches in.
Click to expand...

It's too bad that there aren't any of those bigger challengers in the states. The tough part for DY is he actually has points to defend at the upcoming US challengers. He's going to lose points because he didn't defend his final appearance in Calabasas, and he also made the finals in Louisville and Champaign last year. So that's why I thought if he could swing the trip to South Korea and play those two tourneys there, he might stand a better chance of advancing in the rankings because there are more points to pick up. But like you said it could backfire and just end up screwing him up.
 
M

Moose Malloy

G.O.A.T.
I was at the matches yesterday. Young served for the 1st set at 5-4, was broken at love by some fine play by Sam. Warburg was up 5-2 in the 2nd, Young played great to get to 5-5(held from 4-5, 0-40 down) had bp's to go up 6-5. Warburg won the tiebreak 7-2. Pretty long match under difficult conditions(started around 5 pm, when there was a tough glare across the court, and ended under pretty chilly conditions at 7 pm)
I would say that Warburg won this match, more than Young lost it, though he had to play longer service games than Young. Didn't see Young's parents anywhere. Warburg's really annoying to watch, he gets rattled by the slightest noise or movement. Young said something to him after he stopped his service motion for the umpteenth time because the ball boys/girls were moving behind Young(I don't know what his definition of movement is, but they weren't doing anything unusual imo)

Spadea played great to get back in it, he was getting nowhere on Frank's serve through 2 1/2 sets(& was pretty upset, I could hear him say to himself at one point, "how can you be losing to this guy? he's the worst player ever...)

Extremely hot during this match, I'm guessing high 80s, with no wind at all.

Some minor controversy with Spadea's very vocal coach. An official sat behind him at one point & said something to him about coaching I think(was sitting close by) The coach was upset, saying, "what, I can't say come on or let's go?"

The official left after a few games, I guess he was satisfied that there was no coaching going on.
 
R

Rob_C

Hall of Fame
edmondsm said:
It's too bad that there aren't any of those bigger challengers in the states. The tough part for DY is he actually has points to defend at the upcoming US challengers. He's going to lose points because he didn't defend his final appearance in Calabasas, and he also made the finals in Louisville and Champaign last year. So that's why I thought if he could swing the trip to South Korea and play those two tourneys there, he might stand a better chance of advancing in the rankings because there are more points to pick up. But like you said it could backfire and just end up screwing him up.
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Yeah, but he skipped the last Challenger last year to be on the Davis Cup practice squad, so if he plays that one, it'll give him a chance to pick up more pts.

BTW, thats why I thought he should have played the qualies in Stockholm, an opportunity for more pts.

As for last year, he lost qtrs in one of the Fall Challengers, so I think he's ahead of last years pts tally.

And for last resort, there are a couple of Challengers in Peru and Cancun he could play to pick up some last ditch pts, the week after Knoxville.
 
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J

JohnP

Rookie
Moose Malloy said:
I was at the matches yesterday. Young served for the 1st set at 5-4, was broken at love by some fine play by Sam. Warburg was up 5-2 in the 2nd, Young played great to get to 5-5(held from 4-5, 0-40 down) had bp's to go up 6-5. Warburg won the tiebreak 7-2. Pretty long match under difficult conditions(started around 5 pm, when there was a tough glare across the court, and ended under pretty chilly conditions at 7 pm)
I would say that Warburg won this match, more than Young lost it, though he had to play longer service games than Young. Didn't see Young's parents anywhere. Warburg's really annoying to watch, he gets rattled by the slightest noise or movement. Young said something to him after he stopped his service motion for the umpteenth time because the ball boys/girls were moving behind Young(I don't know what his definition of movement is, but they weren't doing anything unusual imo)

Spadea played great to get back in it, he was getting nowhere on Frank's serve through 2 1/2 sets(& was pretty upset, I could hear him say to himself at one point, "how can you be losing to this guy? he's the worst player ever...)

Extremely hot during this match, I'm guessing high 80s, with no wind at all.

Some minor controversy with Spadea's very vocal coach. An official sat behind him at one point & said something to him about coaching I think(was sitting close by) The coach was upset, saying, "what, I can't say come on or let's go?"

The official left after a few games, I guess he was satisfied that there was no coaching going on.
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Thanks for the report, Vince's coach was coaching the crap out of him when I saw him play in Sacramento. There were just about having conversations between points. It was pretty ridiculous.
 
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