Future Tennis Stars

If you don’t live in Canada, you don’t have to endure TSN showing an insipid special on Carling Bassett every freaking chance it gets. It is 4:30 on Friday, the match between Tommy Robredo and Mardy Fish just finished and you would think that the match with Serena Williams would be shown next. Not on TSN. Whatever half-wit was at the switch decided we needed yet another dose of Mrs. Bassett-Seguso for whatever reason. If you don’t know her, Bassett won two singles titles and two doubles titles. She reached the quarters a couple of times at the French, the semis at the US Open and was ranked in the top ten. She retired in 1992 and sadly that makes her Canada’s top player. Ever. I really like Aleksandra Wozniak, I want her to succeed and get into the top 10 in the world at some point in her career not only for her benefit but also for the fact that hopefully TSN will start showing a profile of her or at the very least, show some tennis matches when it should.

Seriously TSN, give it up. Bassett has little to no impact on today’s game, she isn’t a commentator on any network that I can see, even when the Rogers Cup is on TSN hires Tracey Austin to commentate. I don’t know of any pro that has her as a coach. Whatever the appeal is, it’s lost on me.

Well, the US Open had it’s first big upset and got less interesting in the process. Tatiana Golovin was upset Monday night 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 by Ahsha Rolle. Things looked bright when Golovin rolled in the second set but it fell apart in the third.

It gets worse for Golovin, she was a quarterfinalist last year and will drop in the rankings when her points from 2006 fall off. Golovin was projected to meet Dinara Safina in the third round in what would have been a highly entertaining match. After Tatiana reached the semis in Toronto and had Mats Wilander as her coach, she had high expectations placed on her for this year. Hopefully she will bounce back and finish the year on a strong note.

Since his exciting match and loss to Andre Agassi, Marcos Baghdatis won over a ton of fans last year and a lot of people were looking forward to Baghdatis doing well this year. Well that hope is over after Max Mirnyi upset everyone’s favourite Cypriot 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6).

On a bright note, Donald Young beat Chris Guccione 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.  Richard Gasquet rolled over Sergio Roitman 7-5, 6-1, 6-2. R-Fed is up 5-2 on Scoville Jenkins. You really have to feel for Jenkins after having to face Andy Roddick (2004 1st round), Rafael Nadal (2005 2nd round) and now Roger Federer, this guy just can’t get a break.

The 2007 US Open will begin with the #3 seed on the womens side, Jelena Jankovic taking on Jarmila Gajdosova. Of course it’s the first round so don’t read too much into whatever happens. The top seeds, Justine Henin and Roger Federer will follow with Federer taking on qualifier, Scoville Jenkins. Jenkins should be psyched to have the chance to play on the stadium court against Roger Federer but it’s unlikely he will be able to do much damage. Jenkins of course had an exciting night match against Rafael Nadal a couple of years ago.

Baghdatis, Golovin, Ivanovic, Safina, Douchevina, Young, Stosur and Gasquet will also be in action on Day One.

Check back as I will be posting comments as the action happens.