Hall of Fame Tennis Championships

[I.Haychew]

Brown is up a break and leading 4-3. He could serve it out tomorrow.

And I hope he does it. Would be great to see Bob Marley getting some good results, nit just the occasional Rafa upset.

Brown looks odd in a way though. This huge head of very heavy looking hair and these skinny arms.

He has nothing on Federer! Two of Federer's left arms equals one of Brown's.

 

[Kirijax]

Dreadlocks Brown finishes No. 6 Querrey off 6-4 in the third and advances to the quarterfinals! Brown now plays Dr. Evil. This one could be fun to watch.

 

[herios]

First into the SF, American veteran Rajeev Ram, defeating Mannarino.
Ram is currently ranked only 161, but his lone career title was obtained at this event, Newport in 2009.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

First into the SF, American veteran Rajeev Ram, defeating Mannarino.
Ram is currently ranked only 161, but his lone career title was obtained at this event, Newport in 2009.

Rajeeve's best ever ranking was 78. But, he has a good chance of reaching finals here as his SF opp are weak.

There is a big match against GOOD and EVIL today.

 

[Kirijax]

For whatever reasons, Ram excels at this tournament. He's into the SF! Knocks out the No. 5 seed Mannarino. John-Patrick Smith, or is it John Patrick-Smith (those darn hyphens!) is up a set in his QF as well. I would love to see a Brown-Sock match. They have never met.

 

[Kirijax]

R2
D Brown (GER) bt S Querrey (USA) (6) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
QF
R Ram (USA) bt A Mannarino (FRA) (5) 2-6, 7-68, 7-6(2)
J Smith (AUS) bt T Ito (JPN) 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-3


Smith beats Ito in three sets to move on to the SF. He'll face Ram.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

this john Patrick-smith character..3 wins in this tourney are hisfirst ever wins at atp worldtour level.

 

[Kirijax]

this john Patrick-smith character..3 wins in this tourney are hisfirst ever wins at atp worldtour level.

This is what beating Tomic will do. The winner wins wins wins and the loser....:cover

 

[Kirijax]

Ivo Karlovich blasts 23 aces and beats Dustin Brown 7-6(3), 6-3!

Jack Sock wins when Jan Hernych retires with an injury after holding his serve for a 1-0 lead. Weird.

So the semis are set!

No. 2 Karlovic vs. No. 4 Sock

Unseeded Smith vs. Unseeded Ram.

 

[tented]

Jack Sock wins when Jan Hernych retires with an injury after holding his serve for a 1-0 lead. Weird.

That is weird. Did he get hurt?

So the semis are set!

No. 2 Karlovic vs. No. 4 Sock

Poor Sock. He's going to have a miserable day at the office tomorrow, but I hope he wins.

 

[Kirijax]

Jack Sock wins when Jan Hernych retires with an injury after holding his serve for a 1-0 lead. Weird.

That is weird. Did he get hurt?

So the semis are set!

No. 2 Karlovic vs. No. 4 Sock

Poor Sock. He's going to have a miserable day at the office tomorrow, but I hope he wins.

I heard he had a leg injury. Can't remember ever seeing that. Winning your first service game and then retiring. Sock will be very well-rested for tomorrow. Not sure if that is a good thing going into tomorrow's match. Maybe he can spend the day having balls bazookaed at him, you know, just to get a feel for tomorrow's game. And lots of tie break practice would be good too.

 

[tented]

Jack Sock wins when Jan Hernych retires with an injury after holding his serve for a 1-0 lead. Weird.

That is weird. Did he get hurt?

So the semis are set!

No. 2 Karlovic vs. No. 4 Sock

Poor Sock. He's going to have a miserable day at the office tomorrow, but I hope he wins.

I heard he had a leg injury. Can't remember ever seeing that. Winning your first service game and then retiring. Sock will be very well-rested for tomorrow. Not sure if that is a good thing going into tomorrow's match. Maybe he can spend the day having balls bazookaed at him, you know, just to get a feel for tomorrow's game. And lots of tie break practice would be good too.

I wonder how often players practice tiebreaks? I remember Roger once being asked about it, and he said he never does. Serving is key to a successful tiebreak, so other than practicing serves, he doesn't think in terms of "OK, now I'm going to practice playing a tiebreak."

As for Karlovic, is there any way to prepare for him? You're not going to find a player of equivalent height, so what can you do? I seem to remember Roddick once saying he had a practice partner or coach serve to him while standing several feet inside the baseline in order to approximate the trajectories of a Karlovic/Isner-type serve.

 

[Kirijax]

That is weird. Did he get hurt?


Poor Sock. He's going to have a miserable day at the office tomorrow, but I hope he wins.

I heard he had a leg injury. Can't remember ever seeing that. Winning your first service game and then retiring. Sock will be very well-rested for tomorrow. Not sure if that is a good thing going into tomorrow's match. Maybe he can spend the day having balls bazookaed at him, you know, just to get a feel for tomorrow's game. And lots of tie break practice would be good too.

I wonder how often players practice tiebreaks? I remember Roger once being asked about it, and he said he never does. Serving is key to a successful tiebreak, so other than practicing serves, he doesn't think in terms of "OK, now I'm going to practice playing a tiebreak."

As for Karlovic, is there any way to prepare for him? You're not going to find a player of equivalent height, so what can you do? I seem to remember Roddick once saying he had a practice partner or coach serve to him while standing several feet inside the baseline in order to approximate the trajectories of a Karlovic/Isner-type serve.

Well, they could set up a ball machine on top of a ladder... :snicker The tie break practice was a joke but who knows? I'm always amazed at how intelligent tennis players are because they change ends after every sixth point without batting an eye. You'd think there would be more players standing to receive and then being told, no dude, other side.

 

[Moxie]

^ Worth remembering the always-quotable Andy Roddick here. Receiving serve from Isner was like being served to from a tree. I guess the ladder is comparable. i hope Sock wins with breaks of serve.

 

[Front242]

Dr. Ivo is flying up the rankings since turning 36. Number 23 now and a chance to go higher if he wins the whole tournament and he has a good shot with his serve and the speed of this court.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

dr ivo is in top 10 list of oldest winners of open era event with his 250title earluier this year.

first in that list: pancho gonzalez age 43, v Connors September 1971.

 

[Kirijax]

Saturday's Results!

Rajeev Ram (USA) defeated John-Patrick Smith (AUS) 6-4, 7-6(4).
No. 2 Ivo Karlovic (CRO) defeated John Sock (USA) 7-6(3), 6-4.

Final:

36-yr-old No. 2 seed Karlovic (#24) vs. 31-yr-old unseeded Ram (#161)

They met once back in 2009. Karlovic won in straight sets on a hard court.

 

[Kirijax]

Shocker! :eyepop

Unseeded Rajeev Ram upset No. 2 Seed Ivo Karlovic 7-6(), 5-7, 7-6(2) to win his second ATP tour title as well as his second Newport title. On the way to the final, Ram escaped match points against No. 1 Seed John Isner in the first round and No. 5 Seed Adrian Mannarino in the quarterfinals. Ram's ranking will jump up about 74 spots to around No. 87. Karlovic will move up to No. 23.

Official Site
Singles Draw
Doubles Draw

Seeds:

1. John Isner (Lost in 1st round)
2. Ivo Karlovic (Lost in Final)
3. Bernard Tomic (Lost in 1st round)
4. Jack Sock (Lost in Semifinals)
5. Adrian Mannarino (Lost in Quarterfinals)
6. Sam Querrey (Lost in 2nd round)
7. Steve Johnson (Lost in 2nd round)
8. Tim Smyczek (Lost in 1st round)

 

[herios]

Very impressive result by R. Ram!!
How many times a player ranked 165 wins an event, on top of it he is a veteran!

 

[GameSetAndMath]

This shows that no matter how low GOOD is ranked and how high EVIL is ranked, GOOD always triumphs over EVIL. :laydownlaughing

What is even remarkable is that Rajeev won the two sets in tie-breakers and lost a set because he was broken. You would expect it to be the other way with Dr. Evil.