Early US Open Ruminations

[NADAL2005RG]

17yr old borna coric, rank 193. uso junior winner 2013..and they didn't give him a wildcard ?..that's a bit shabby.

That's a shame. Big mistake. Tennis needs a prodigy.

You both are missing the basics. Why would the USTA want to give a wild card to a
Croatian player when there are plenty of US players looking for one and some deserving
too. Only under very rare circumstances that a country gives its WC to players from
other countries. Bernard Tomic and Michael Llodora are exceptions as they got it
through reciprocal agreement with FTF and TA. i.e, French Tennis Federration will
give one wild card for a US player at the French Open and Tennis Australia will give
one wild card for a US player at the Australian Open. They give it to USTA and the
USTA will select the player.

Only UK gives some of its wild cards to players from other countries. That too,
not because they are philanthropic. It is just that they often could not find local
players who will not embarrass UK to give wild cards.

Good for them.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

17yr old borna coric, rank 193. uso junior winner 2013..and they didn't give him a wildcard ?..that's a bit shabby.

That's a shame. Big mistake. Tennis needs a prodigy.

You both are missing the basics. Why would the USTA want to give a wild card to a
Croatian player when there are plenty of US players looking for one and some deserving
too. Only under very rare circumstances that a country gives its WC to players from
other countries. Bernard Tomic and Michael Llodora are exceptions as they got it
through reciprocal agreement with FTF and TA. i.e, French Tennis Federration will
give one wild card for a US player at the French Open and Tennis Australia will give
one wild card for a US player at the Australian Open. They give it to USTA and the
USTA will select the player.

Only UK gives some of its wild cards to players from other countries. That too,
not because they are philanthropic. It is just that they often could not find local
players who will not embarrass UK to give wild cards.

borna coric is clearly going to be awesome..and he did win u s open junior singles title last year..but looks like he's going to go into the qualifiers.

I don't like home majors giving easy wc to home players, it usually ends up being wasted by the usual 1st rd defeat. as was the tradition at Wimbledon.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

LTA proudly announced at one time that they will not give wild card to a player ranked
outside 500 just because they are British.

While American tennis is not great currently, they have plenty of players available
in the range from 100 to 500.

In fact, the lowest ranked American guy who got the wild card has a rank of 308.
As he is a 17 year old teenager, he fully deserves it. The other two discretionary wild
cards were given to players with a current rank of 95 and 164, which is reasonable.

Got to remember that only three of the five wild cards are really discretionary
for the USTA. The other five goes to: a French player, an Australian player, winner
of Pro Circuit WC Challenge events, Boys 18 champion of USTA and NCAA Champion.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

yes I know but its a bit nauseating and iffy, I just don't like this wc reciprocation..its too cosy and "country clubby".. back scratching tub of aching pustules..

just cos tomic the tank engine is aussie he gets a wildcard ?..lol. they might as well give the wc to coco the clown, Its prob got more chance of justifying it than that oaf.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Actually, the wild card reciprocation is a good idea. That way promising folks get a chance
to play multiple slams.

If there was no reciprocation agreement, for example, Robbie Ginepri would have got
the wild card instead of Bernard Tomic.

The thing is without these reciprocal agreements all 8 wild cards will go to USA players
only and they have to go far down in the bottom to select players. That is the reason
why reciprocal agreement is better than not having these agreements.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

its good if you live in countries that hold majors..if you do not then its not good.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

its good if you live in countries that hold majors..if you do not then its not good.

Even otherwise, it is better than the alternative.

Would you rather see the last two wild cards given to US players ranked outside 500 or
to players ranked in the range 100-200 from AUS and France?

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

what ?..no, other countries that don't hold majors..players like borna coric from Croatia.

anyway its a rubbish system that gives an unfair leg up to aus/French/uk/usa players.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

JMDP has finally officially withdrawn from US Open.
Simon Bolleli of Italy gets into MD due to his withdrawal.

This is the 5th withdrawal from eligible participants:
So far: Nicolas Almagro, Tommy Haas, Dog, Florian Meyer and JMDP.

Three more possible: Rafa, Kishori, Gasquet

 

[TennisFanatic7]

Benneteau has secured his place amongst the seeds this week, kicking out somebody like Chardy, Verdasco or Joao Sousa - it isn't clear who until Rafa, Kei, Gasquet confirm whether they're in or out for New York.

Otherwise, there isn't much significant movement. As it stands we have Daveeeed 5th seed and Milos 6th seed - they could swap places but it doesn't make much difference to the draw.

Murray's loss to Roger tonight guarantees that he's in the 9-12 seeding bracket, so he will be seeded to face somebody between #5 and #8 (Raonic, Ferrer, Dimitrov, Berdych) in the fourth round. If he was to lose at this stage it would be his first failure to reach the QFs of a slam (that he's competed in) since Wawrinka saw him off in the third round of the 2010 US Open.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

The official list of seeded players will be announced sometime before the
draw ceremony that will be held on Thursday, the 21st of Aug. However, the
seeding is based on the rankings that comes out tomorrow, the 18th of Aug
and which we already know. There are 32 seeded players at USO
and I am only focusing the top 16 seeds. There are three playes who
might potentially withdraw due to injuries (Rafa, Kei and Gasquet) and
so in the list below I am giving 19 players.

1 Novak Djokovic
2 Rafael Nadal
3 Roger Federer
4 Stan Wawrinka
5 David Ferrer
6 Milos Raonic
7 Tomas Berdych
8 Grigor Dimitrov
9 Andy Murray
10 Jo Wilfried Tsonga
11 Kei Nishikori
12 Ernests Gulbis
13 Richard Gasquet
14 John Isner
15 Marin Cilic
16 Fabio Fognini
17 Tommy Robredo
18 Roberto Bautista Agut
19 Kevin Anderson

Andy's top 8 seeding depends on Rafa's withdrawal.

The top 16 seeding of Robredo, Agut and Anderson depends on how many of
Rafa, Kei and Gasquet withdraw.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Here are the impacts of Rafa's announcement.

1. Roger Federer gets the second seed and cannot face Novak before finals.
2. David Ferrer get a Top 4 seeding and cannot face Novak or Fed before SF
3. Andy Murray gets the coveted Top 8 seeding; remains to be seen whether he can make good use of it.
4. Tommy Robredo gets Top 16 seeding.
5. Joao Sousa of Portugal is now a seeded player (i.e, Top 32).
6. Kenny De Schepper of France gets into the MD.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Here is my dream draw for Roger

R16: Fog
QF: Milos
SF: Ferrer
F: Surprise opponent.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

^ That semi is really hard man...but then again Roger's only opponent is himself.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

^ That semi is really hard man...but then again Roger's only opponent is himself.

Fixed it so that no body can understand the joke.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

WC Alert: If two more players withdraw Tim Smyczek of USA will get into the MD directly
thus freeing up the wild card given to him. Most probably that freed up wild card will be
given to either Robbie Ginepri or Dennis Kudla.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

WC Alert: If two more players withdraw Tim Smyczek of USA will get into the MD directly
thus freeing up the wild card given to him. Most probably that freed up wild card will be
given to either Robbie Ginepri or Dennis Kudla.

No, take off Ginepri. He got a WC into Winston-Salem and promptly lost in the first
round and so I don't think USTA would be inclined to give him a wild card for USO
even if a slot frees up.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

The qualifying tournament begins tomorrow. There are 128 players in the draw. The
16 players who win three matches in a row get in to the main draw. This tourney runs from Tuesday
to Friday. As typically, there is much less interest in qualifying tourneys instead of creating
a separate thread, we can just use this thread itself to discuss it.

Malek Jaziri of Tunisia is the top seed. Here are some names in random order
Michael Russel and Rajeev Ram from USA, James Duckworth and Kokkinakis from Australia,
the two Nadal slayers Darcis and Zeballos, Somdev and Bhambri from India, James Ward and Daniel Evans
from GBR, young chaps Zverev from Germany, Tiafoe from USA, Borna Coric from Croatia.
Old chaps Marco Chudinelli from Switzerland, Peter Polansky from Canada, Thiemo De Bakker
from Netherlands, Andreas Beck from Germany and so on.

By and large the field looks pretty young as I could only recognize very few names
of old players who have fallen out in the rankings.

Here is the draw . There is no charge to watch the qualifying matches and so folks staying nearby
might want to take this opportunity to watch it free, if interested.

There are a total of 14 USA players in the qualifying draw.

 

[Moxie]

The qualifying tournament begins tomorrow. There are 128 players in the draw. The
16 players who win three matches in a row get in to the main draw. This tourney runs from Tuesday
to Friday. As typically, there is much less interest in qualifying tourneys instead of creating
a separate thread, we can just use this thread itself to discuss it.

Malek Jaziri of Tunisia is the top seed. Here are some names in random order
Michael Russel and Rajeev Ram from USA, James Duckworth and Kokkinakis from Australia,
the two Nadal slayers Darcis and Zeballos, Somdev and Bhambri from India, James Ward
from GBR, young chaps Zverev from Germany, Tiafoe from USA, Borna Coric from Croatia.
Old chaps Marco Chudinelli from Switzerland, Peter Polansky from Canada and so on.

By and large the field looks pretty young as I could only recognize very few names
of old players who have fallen out in the rankings.

Here is the draw . There is no charge to watch the qualifying matches and so folks staying nearby
might want to take this opportunity to watch it free, if interested.

Thanks for the heads-up on that. I'd forgotten it was free to go the quallies, so I may take myself out there. I'd like to see a few of these guys for myself. (Tiafoe and Coric stand out.) Petzchener is in the qualifying. And Darcis is playing Iñigo Cervantes. (I just love the name.) Good call, I think, to discuss quallies here. (Oh, and Kokkonakis of Australia is in there, too. He had a good match in the main draw of the AO.)

 

[TennisFanatic7]

Evans got through qualifying and reached Round 3 last year, beating Nishikori and Tomic. That's a lot of points to defend for somebody ranked where he is.

Ward I think can get in although he has a tricky second round against either Millot or Pella. Evans looks like he'll struggle as he's got Jimmy Wang first up, with a potential third round against Coric or De Bakker. We also have Smethurst and Cox in the draw, but Kyle Edmund who I'm much more interested in doesn't appear to be.