Future Tennis Stars

Finally.

Up 2-0 in the third set against Kevin Anderson, Novak Djokovic was warned by the chair umpire for excessive ball bouncing before he served. It certainly had an effect on Djokovic and though he won the next point, he lost the next 13 en route to being upset. Even the crowd turned on Djokovic, jeering him in the third set.

“I didn’t focus myself in that moment,” Djokovic said. “But, you know, that’s OK. It’s all part of the game.”

This has been an issue with players for a long time. The tighter the situation in the match, the more ball bounces Djokovic seems to take. It will be interesting to see how Djokovic responds to this as now that one umpire took action, more will have to follow or else opposing players will speak up even more.

A similar incident happened at Wimbledon in 1992 when Monica Seles was constantly ridiculed for her loud grunting. To stop the negative press, Seles made an effort to stop the grunting and it obviously effected her play and she lost the title to Steffi Graf in a lopsided match, losing 6-2, 6-1.

Andy Roddick made possibly the dumbest move of the year yesterday by stating he will be skipping the Olympics to play in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic. That idiot.

His reasoning is that defending his title will better prepare him for the US Open. Apparently, Roddick hasn’t been paying attention to the tennis world for the last few years. He is not now, nor has he been, a favorite to take a Grand Slam title since he won the 2003 US Open. He hasn’t been in contention for a Slam title in years. Had he gone to Beijing this summer for the Olympics, he may have gotten a bronze which would be far better than another Legg Mason trophy.

However, I understand Roddick’s thinking, why go all the way to Beijing and face the likes of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Gasquet and the rest of the Top 10 and most likely come up empty handed? But, here’s the flaw in his thinking (I don’t actually think he does think), he can go to Washington DC, face a cartoonishly weak field and walk away with the trophy not facing one player who would seriously test him and his preparation for the US Open would be incredibly poor. Wouldn’t you rather go where the top competition is? Perhaps the tournament is paying him a bundle just to show up.

Sure he beat Nadal and Djokovic in Dubai but those results are few and far between. If he were to face Nadal, Djokovic and Federer in a Grand Slam, I wouldn’t like those odds for Andy.

With Dubai going on, you would think that Las Vegas would have a bad draw. They do have some great players with Marcos Baghdatis, Lleyton Hewitt and Robin Soderling entered. Hewitt opens against Marat Safin.

Draw courtesy of Steve G Tennis

(1)Fernando Gonzalez (CHI) vs Dudi Sela (ISR)
Sergio Roitman (ARG) vs Evgueni Korolev (RUS)
(WC)John Isner (USA) vs Alejandro Falla (COL)
(6)Michael Llodra (FRA) vs (q)
(3)Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) vs Vince Spadea (USA)
(WC)Robby Ginepri (USA) vs Xavier Malisse (BEL)
Nicolas Massu (CHI) vs Ernests Gulbis (LAT)
(7)Robin Soderling (SWE) vs (q)
(5)Potito Starace (ITA) vs Carlos Berlocq (ARG)
Jurgen Melzer (AUT) vs (q)
Victor Hanescu (ROU) vs (q)
(4)Guillermo Canas (ARG) vs Thomas Johansson (SWE)
(8)Nicolas Kiefer (GER) vs Benjamin Becker (GER)
Samuel Querrey (USA) vs Sebastien Grosjean (FRA)
Julien Benneteau (FRA) vs Jonas Bjorkman (SWE)
(2)Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) vs (WC)Marat Safin (RUS)

Roger Federer plays his first event since losing at the Australian Open. Gael Monfils also returns to the ATP Tour.

Draw courtesy of Steve G Tennis

(1)Roger Federer (SUI) vs Andy Murray (GBR)
(WC)Rainer Schuettler (GER) vs Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) vs (q)Jan Hernych (CZE)
(5)Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) vs (WC)Mohammed Al Ghareeb (KUW)
(4)David Ferrer (ESP) vs Tommy Haas (GER)
Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) vs Olivier Rochus (BEL)
Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) vs Feliciano Lopez (ESP)
(8)Tomas Berdych (CZE) vs Gael Monfils (FRA)
(7)Richard Gasquet (FRA) vs Dmitry Tursunov (RUS)
Igor Andreev (RUS) vs (q)Jan Minar (CZE)
Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) vs Fabrice Santoro (FRA)
(3)Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs Marin Cilic (CRO)
(6)Andy Roddick (USA) vs Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP)
Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) vs (q)Joseph Sirianni (AUS)
(WC)Mahmoud Nader (UAE) vs (q)Mikhail Ledovskikh (RUS)
(2)Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER)

Jelena Jankovic is the top seed this week at the Bangalore Open. Other seeds include Maria Kirilenko and Agnes Szavay.

JANKOVIC, Jelena SRB vs. BYE
CHAN, Yung-Jan TPE vs. MAMIC, Sanda CRO
O’BRIEN, Katie GBR vs. SAVCHUK, Olga UKR
YAN, Zi CHN vs. KIRILENKO, Maria RUS
SCHNYDER, Patty SUI vs. BYE
NAKAMURA, Aiko JPN vs. TANASUGARN, Tamarine THA
AMANMURADOVA, Akgul UZB vs. SHVEDOVA, Yaroslava RUS
UBEROI, Shikha IND vs. SZAVAY, Agnes HUN
BAMMER, Sybille AUT vs. MORIGAMI, Akiko JPN
RODIONOVA, Anastasia RUS vs. QUALIFIER
QUALIFIER vs. OBZILER, Tzipora ISR
BYE vs. WILLIAMS, Serena USA
ZVONAREVA, Vera RUS vs. QUALIFIER
LAKHANI, Isha IND vs. QUALIFIER
KREMER, Anne LUX vs. PENG, Shuai CHN
BYE vs. WILLIAMS, Venus USA