Tennis Prose




Oct/12

15

Jack Sock Silences His Critics, For A Week Anyway


Jack Sock, who is already a Grand Slam mixed doubles champion, gets a lot of criticism for his up and down results around these parts.

But the “Young American” had a stellar week at the Tiburon Challenger last week. Sock got a default win over #1 seed Ben Becker, then socked Rhyne Williams in three sets, Steve Johnson 64 76 in the semi. In the final, Sock stomped Michael Zverev 61 16 76 (3) to take home the title, the points and over $14,000 cash.

Zverev had been on a bit of a roll as he blew out #2 seed James Blake in the third round 60 62 (Blake may have been tired after winning the previous week Challenger).

Other interesting results were Bobby Reynolds beating Christian Harrison in two and Bradley Klahn 76 in the third.

Dennis Kudla was in the draw and posted wins ove Fred Nielsen and Chris Guccione, before bowing to Steve Johnson 16 26.

So Jack Sock wins again. Could this be a springboard to bigger and better things in 2013? I’m gonna say yes. I think Sock will make a move up the rankings next year and into the top 75 or 60.

18 comments

  • Dan Markowitz · October 15, 2012 at 4:02 pm

    Now wait a second, beating Zverev is not a big win. Come on, is any of these guys he beat in the top-100? Definitely not! And how is Reynolds beating C. Harrison interesting. C. Harrison isn’t a big-time prospect. What surprised me is you can win $14,000 for winning a Challenger in U.S. The Challengers in Europe are much harder to win. Sock’s going to have to do much more than beat Williams, Johnson and Zverev to get my notice, but hey, it’s a start, I guess.

  • Steve · October 15, 2012 at 6:18 pm

    This is great news. Nice to see our young champion get back in the winner’s circle.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 15, 2012 at 6:27 pm

    It’s not a US Open Mixed Doubles trophy Steve, but a tourney win is a tourney win, nothing comes easy in pro tennis at the pro level. This will be a good step for Sock to start a move up the rankings.

  • Dan Markowitz · October 15, 2012 at 6:54 pm

    Scoop,

    You and Steve should get together on the date of the Sock/Oudin Mixed Doubles Slam win and celebrate it, like in a bar in Trenton every year. Toast Jack and Melanie.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 15, 2012 at 8:55 pm

    Jack Sock wins a major title in the very first major he ever competed in, is that some kind of record? I think the US Open last year was Jack’s first main draw in a major. And to think that Vince Spadea, for all his attempts, was never able to bag a major mixed title, you really gotta take your cap off to Sock.

  • Steve · October 15, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    WInning events is good habit to have. It’s an encouraging sign.

  • Steve · October 15, 2012 at 9:56 pm

    And Dan we’ll be sure to get you a pair of Melanie Oudin “believe” sneakers in pink for the holidays.

  • Dan Markowitz · October 16, 2012 at 5:57 am

    I really appreciate that, Steve. And Scoop, I believe JMac won the Mixed at the French in his first slam ever. Spadea not only never won a mixed, he never reached a semis which I think gets you free tics at the slam you semi-ed in. But let’s hope Sock has a better career than Spadea, has more weapons.

  • Harold · October 16, 2012 at 7:22 am

    Pmac should hire Scoop and Steve to write press releases for the USTA. You guys can spin a challenger win into a favorite for the Aus Open(well maybe in Mixed)..

    Lets get real, theres no American on the horizon with enough talent able to win a Major in the next 5 years..maybe theres a 14 year old at some academy that is blowing people away with Major winning talent. Otherwise we are going to have to wait for the young Markowitz protege to mature his game

  • Steve · October 16, 2012 at 9:16 am

    Hehehe that would be a sweet gig. I think US tennis could use a little optimism.

    Talent is only half or 75% of success at most. I heard an announcer say (maybe Taylor Dent?) if you had the top guys hit balls & rated them Gasquet would be near the top. Same with Nalbandian. Is Nadal a much better ball striker than Nalbandian? Nadal talks about this in his book. If you see two top guys practicing you won’t see that much difference. Who wants it? Whose working harder? Who has confidence? Who believes? Oudin was onto something. I think getting some hard earned Ws no matter the status of the event builds on this.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 16, 2012 at 9:52 am

    Winning Challengers helps spark careers. Victor Hanescu just won some some events and after falling to below 140-150 range he won a couple of Challengers and is now back in the top 60 range. We know what happened to Agassi after he finaled in the Vegas Challenger. All aboard The Sock Express!

  • Mitch · October 16, 2012 at 11:20 am

    I get the feeling that Sock and Ryan Harrison will end up like Sam Querrey – good enough to win smaller events in the US, but unable to play well on clay or in Europe and not a real threat at the bigger tournaments.

  • Steve · October 16, 2012 at 12:41 pm

    Just so happens during my lunch-time radio listening a Professor named Ian Robertson was being interviewed on his book called “The Winner Effect”. Turns out winning, even easy contests has a longer term winning effect.

    “a term used in biology to describe how an animal that has won a few fights against weak opponents is much more likely to win later bouts against stronger contenders.”

  • Steve · October 16, 2012 at 4:52 pm

    Scoop, the prof. mentioned boxing too. Throwing certain fighters easy fights to improve the chances of a career comeback.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 16, 2012 at 5:35 pm

    Steve; They are called set ups, tomato cans or handpicks. There are a lot of those kinds of fights today as American boxing is down and the American powers that have to manufacture stars because there are so few true stars in boxing today in the US. Can you name any?

  • Steve · October 16, 2012 at 7:01 pm

    Yes, tomato cans. Sure. the two guys Tyson fought after being released from jail.

  • Patrick · November 5, 2012 at 3:56 am

    You mean Hurricane Peter McNeeley? How dare you!

    I’m kidding.

  • Patrick · November 5, 2012 at 4:00 am

    I think Jack Sock has more game than Ryan Harrison and I think he’ll be ranked higher than him in a year.

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