DELRAY BEACH ANNOUNCES 2015 FIELD
Karlovic, Tomic and Americans Querrey, Sock, Johnson & Young Into The Mix
DELRAY BEACH: The top five-ranked American tennis players are among the field of 32 players who will compete in the upcoming Delray Beach Open by The Venetian® Las Vegas, as the ATP World Tour event announced its singles field on Thursday.
Sam Querrey, Steve Johnson, Jack Sock and Donald Young have joined No. 1 American John Isner, who announced in November he would play in the 23rd annual tournament.
The 10-day event, which includes a three-day ATP Champions Tour event over President’s Day weekend, takes place February 13-22 at the Delray Beach Stadium & Tennis Center. The event is the only one of its kind in the world that includes ATP Champions Tour and ATP World Tour events at the same venue in the same week.
While Querrey is seeking to regain the form that had him ranked as high as No. 17 in 2011, Johnson is a four-time NCAA champion at USC who improved his ranking more than 100 places to world No. 37 by the end of 2014.
Sock, a 22-year-old who won the Wimbledon doubles title last July, has been tabbed as a player with the potential to lead the next generation of American players, while Donald Young, who many thought might be that generational player, is still only 26 years old.
Also in the field is veteran Ivo Karlovic, a 2010 Delray Beach finalist who is second all-time among ATP World Tour servers with more than 9,000 career aces; young up-and-coming Australian Bernard Tomic and compatriot Marinko Matosevic, a Delray Beach finalist in 2012; and 2004 Delray Beach doubles champion Radek Stepanek, who also has a pair of Grand Slam doubles titles to his credit.
That group joins an impressive list of ATP World Tour stars who signed on early to play in Delray Beach. In addition to Isner, that group includes four former Delray Beach champions: Marin Cilic (2014), Juan Martin del Potro (2011), Kevin Anderson (2012) and the doubles-playing Bryan Brothers (2009, 2010, 2014).
Cilic (2014), del Potro (2009) and the world No. 1 Bryans (2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014) are all former US Open champions. Cilic, the world No. 9 from Croatia, will play his opening-round match on Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 8:00 pm, with the world No. 1 Bryan Brothers beginning their quest for a fourth Delray Beach title on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 12:30 pm.
Tournament director Mark Baron still has three wild cards to exercise before the singles draw is completed.
The tournament’s ATP Champions Tour field features legends of the game and includes two-time Delray Beach ATP World Tour finalist James Blake (2007 & 2008), 1989 French Open champion Michael Chang and two-time mixed doubles (with Venus Williams) Grand Slam champion Justin Gimelstob leading an American team against the 2003 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic-led internationals. All ATP Champions Tour matches are scheduled between February 13 and 15 and can be seen at YellowTennisBall.com/schedule.
Ivanisevic and Gimelstob will stick around for the ATP World Tour competition as they coach Cilic and Isner, respectively.
Tickets are available at YellowTennisBall.com or can be secured from the on-site box office (30 NW 1st Avenue in Delray Beach) or over the phone (561-330-6000 ext.1).
The 2015 Singles Entry List: Kevin Anderson (RSA), Benjamin Becker (GER), Marin Cilic (CRO), Juan Martin del Potro (ARG), Ivan Dodig (CRO), Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR), Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS), Sam Groth (AUS), John Isner (USA), Malek Jaziri (TUN), Steve Johnson (USA), Ivo Karlovic (CRO), Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ), Lukas Lacko (SVK), Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE), Adrian Mannarino (FRA), Marinko Matosevic (AUS), Sam Querrey (USA), Igor Sijsling (NED), Jack Sock (USA), Radek Stepanek (CZE), Bernard Tomic (AUS), Donald Young (USA).
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Scoop Malinowski · February 3, 2015 at 8:44 am
Another very solid field for Delray Beach Open. Looking forward to see Tomic, Groth, Delpo, Dolgopolov, Dr. Ivo, Sock, Stepanek, DY, Steve Jo.
Ryan Balon · February 3, 2015 at 3:24 pm
Dan, Scoop
Happy New Year to you both, I hope all is well.
As always I enjoy reading your posts and wanted your thoughts and insights on Jared Donaldson. Having won his first challenger last week in Hawaii (including a doubles with Kozlov) and now being ranked 178 in world – where do you see his overall potential?
Also, I wanted to mention that last week the ATP’s former number 1 supporter and fan, the infamous Lou Noritz turned 70 years old. I’m sure tennis fans would enjoy maybe a memorable encounter you both might have witnessed or experienced while Louie was traveling the tour.
I’ll be in Palm Springs, Newport and the US Open this year hope to see you guys then.
-Ryan
Scoop Malinowski · February 3, 2015 at 4:29 pm
Hey Ryan always great to see and hear from you. Dan should re-post his story about Lou which ran in a magazine. Classic character and good story. Hope Dan has that stored away in his Archives. Donaldson no doubt is a force to be reckoned with. Huge win for just a teenager. To win singles and doubles at Challenger level as a teenager is impressive. And could be a springboard for greater things. Tennis is so competitive now that even Chally wins are remarkable. Donaldson looked good vs. Monfils on grandstand at US Open last year. He hung in there with Monfils. Serve is a work in progress but he’s got the Dents in his corner and they know the game. Big upside for this kid, who is still under the radar. Not going to label any potential ranking # on him, just will say he’s on the right road and heading in the right direction to become a solid ATP pro. Hope he stays healthy and keeps working and improving. Anything is possible.
Dan Markowitz · February 3, 2015 at 8:13 pm
Hey Ryan,
When are you going to be out at Indy Wells? I’m going to be attending the event from Thurs-Sun, March 12-15. It is one of my favorite events. I can’t say it’s as good as the Open, but the setting is very enjoyable.
Lou turning 70, that is great, please send him my birthday regards. I’ll have to look to see if I have that old Lou Noritz story I wrote for Tennis Magazine. All I can say about Lou is he’s one of the most colorful and outrageous characters I’ve ever met in the pro tennis game. I spied him for the first time in Indy Wells when this little guy was changing sides of the court every changeover just like the players and yelling specific encouragements to the player he was supporting.
Lou later told me the specific things he said to each player he supported and they were really quite wise and I could see that there was a method to his madness. I asked him where he was staying and he told me Motel 6 and he didn’t even have a car, he took the bus to the tournament every morning and went back on it at night. I felt then that Lou was the personification of the crazy mad and passionate tennis fan. The guy hadn’t even played tennis ever in his life, he’d been a softball player, but he loved the sport. I’ve never met anyone who loved the sport and had as much appetite for it as Lou.
Long live Lou Noritz.
Scoop Malinowski · February 3, 2015 at 10:30 pm
Lou has competition. I know a guy who played tennis in 4 degrees. I know a guy who takes a bus up from Virginia every year for the first day of the Open, then busses right back to VA. He’s done this many years. I know a guy who had 20 pairs of Nike Oscillates, 25 Wilson Pro Staffs and played tennis like a spitting image of his hero Pete Sampras, of course, with more modest results. Charlton Heston was quoted as saying “Tennis is better than sex.” I know of one tennis pop who sold the house and lived in hotels while teaching his daughter tennis on public courts, she later became a two time major champion, and could get to the Hall of Fame this year. Lou has competition Dan. 🙂
Ashoke Ganguli · February 5, 2015 at 8:16 am
Hi Scoop,
Hope you are playing a lot of tournaments.I was wondering how the great players we saw at the Eddie Herr did in junior Australian open.
Scoop Malinowski · February 5, 2015 at 11:48 am
Hi Ashoke; Just played a 4.5 in Tampa and won 3 matches in the span of 24 hours and made final but had nothing left in the tank and my elbow was hurting. Mmoh didn’t do well in Australia, the Hungarian girl who won at Herr did pretty good. Seemed to be a different batch of players than we saw at Herr. We have to hit soon Ashoke, hopefully my elbow will feel normal again soon.
Bryan · February 7, 2015 at 2:23 pm
Nice lineup. This is in Florida correct? The Venetian is an odd sponsor. They should host the tournament in Vegas and lots of us on the West Coast would fly in for it.
Bryan · February 7, 2015 at 2:25 pm
“Indy Wells? I’m going to be attending the event from Thurs-Sun, March 12-15.”
Glad you’re attending Dan. Can we expect a bunch of stories? Also did those IW dorks give you press credentials?
Scoop Malinowski · February 7, 2015 at 4:58 pm
Wonder how the sponsorship is working out for The Venetian, Bryan. It must be going well because they are back again, unless they have a locked in deal. Will try to find out more in Delray next week.
Bryan · February 9, 2015 at 2:42 pm
I’d be interested to hear more on this Scoop. Venetian could be targeting a lot of high rollers from Florida? I know a rich guy from NYC who brings a crew of Florida gamblers to Vegas a few times a year. Is drawing some whales enough to justify bankrolling a whole tennis tournament on the opposite side of the country? Just seems like an odd pairing.