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Apr/14

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Sarasota Open Challenger Starts Saturday

scopatsara
One of the coolest tennis events is the Sarasota Challenger which will be contested for the eighth time at the Longboat Key Club Tennis Gardens on Longboat Key, Florida from Saturday April l2th to the 20th.

This year’s $l00,000 main draw field once again is strong: Defending champ Alex Kuznetsov is back to defend his title. Joining Kuznetsov will be Donald Young, Ryan Harrison, Steve Johnson, Robby Ginepri, Bradley Klahn, Jack Sock and Michael Russell among others. Last year’s doubles champions were Somdev Devvarman and Serbia’s Illya Bozoljac.

There is also a women’s event with local pros which runs concurrent with the men’s competition. Alexandra Stevenson played here two years ago.

Last year, various tennis celebrities attended the event including Carling Bassett Seguso, Robert Seguso, Jimmy Arias, Mary Pierce, Peter Haas (father of Tommy) and Nick Bollettieri.

Several marquee players have competed at the Sarasota Open in the past including James Blake, Sam Querrey, Ivo Karlovic and Kei Nishikori.

Tickets are available by calling 94l-809-8996 or go to www.SarasotaOpen.org

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24 comments

  • Dan Markowitz · April 10, 2014 at 9:33 pm

    Love these events. Sounds like a Southern Forest Hills when they used to host their Challenger. How do they draw fan-wise. Scoop, you’ve got to get the latest on Harry. Who’s his current coach and what does the USTA think it has to do to turn Harry’s fortunes around?

  • Dan Markowitz · April 10, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    Also, I want to give two American players their due. In Houston today, DY beat Monaco on clay, which is no small feat, although Monaco has dropped in past year. And Sock took care of Harry-Miami-killer, Becker in straight sets. Can one of these Americans keep either the Spaniard, Almagro and Verdasco, from winning the title?

    On another note, Chase Buchanan, who had some strong backers on this sight last year, lost in a Futures to the No. 891 player in the world.

  • Mitch · April 10, 2014 at 10:21 pm

    I’m on the same page as Dan on Donald Young’s win over Juan Monaco. Despite Monaco’s having a bad start to the year, he’s still one of the top clay specialists. For Donald to grit out the win after dropping the first set is all the more impressive, given his tendency to implode when the going gets tough. We’ll see if he can keep it up.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 10, 2014 at 10:22 pm

    The venue is more modern than Forest Hills and it’s really nice place to play in such a beautiful setting. Michael Kors and Maria Sharapova live just down the road. President Bush was staying at the Colony when 9-ll happened, the Colony is about a mile down the road. You or anyone would fall in love with Longboat Key, it’s just a fantastic place. The tournament draws nicely, good crowds, not huge but solid. It’s been going on here for eight years so I think the TD Tony Driscoll knows how to run a successful event.

  • Dan Markowitz · April 11, 2014 at 9:01 am

    Scoop,

    I know I’m going to love your posts from Sarasota, but in that pic, I can’t tell if you look like you’re there to cover the event or steal the proceeds from the box office ticket sales. Love the stubble and shades!

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 11, 2014 at 9:04 am

    That is a fine win for Young. He looked good at the Sony Open too, losing a very close battle with Isner but he really could have won that match. Young might be in the midst of the best run of his career right now. He made the finals of Bangkok in ll and 4th rd at US Open but we know he will someday best those achievement. Maybe it’s gonna happen soon.

  • Dan Markowitz · April 11, 2014 at 9:09 pm

    How about Dustin Brown, extending Querrey into a third set. Jimmy Arias called him his favorite player and said he could be the greatest player on tour if the flashy shots he hits were more consistent.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 12, 2014 at 7:51 am

    It was enjoyable to hear Arias sing his praises of Brown and show the excitement and awe of his magic. He used so many different adjectives to describe his shots, ‘punch forehand approach – I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone hit that shot.’ ‘He went for such an angled drop volley that the ball hit him on the chin, his head got in the way.’ ‘slapshot.’ Brown’s a barrel of fun to watch. It came down to the wire and Sam won with his more steady reliable game. But Brown stole the show.

  • Dan Markowitz · April 12, 2014 at 8:32 am

    How’s this, Brown is so much fun to watch I actually sat through an entire Q-ball match. In the last quarters in Houston, Sock was getting so peeved with Almagro for questioning a call, he approached him at the net and they had some words. Nicolas can be a polarizing figure. He walks around like a toughie in a bar. He’s got his mane of hair sticking out from his head and he has that macho backhand. On top of all that, he wears his shirt a size or two too small. I don’t think Q-ball will do much better against Nicolo than Sock did.

  • Andrew Miller · April 12, 2014 at 9:33 am

    Sock in another quarters is good.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 12, 2014 at 9:38 am

    The contradiction is Almagro is like the nicest guy on the tour if you interview him. We did a Biofile at US Open about seven years ago, just a very friendly nice guy. But on the court as we saw last night, he’s an arrogant feisty mean SOB. Wish Sock would drop that hat, it really diminishes his presence and swag factor, it makes him look like a doggone junior.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 12, 2014 at 9:38 am

    Going to see Noah Rubin and Ginepri in action today at qualies for Sarasota Open. Rubin is playing the top seed. Want to see what Ginepri has left. And if Rubin has the goods. Mitchell Krueger also in the qualies draw.

  • Dan Markowitz · April 12, 2014 at 11:21 am

    Shouldn’t they move this tournament to Barcelona or somewhere if Verdasco, Almagro and Robredo, who surprisingly lost to Giraldo, are all playing and in the semis? I mean back in the day, the US had clay court specialists like Soloman, Dibbs and even Jimbo and Mac were very good on clay.

    Scoop, ask Rubin how much he works with Mac, gets on the court with him.

  • Dan Markowitz · April 12, 2014 at 6:35 pm

    Funny line on another tennis forum. It was reported that Q-ball defaulted with a pinched nerve in his back and someone wrote, “Querrey has nerve?” Here’s another example where if a player can’t play in the next round, especially a semis, the player he beat should move on. Who wouldn’t want to see a Dustin Brown-Almagro semis?

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 12, 2014 at 7:43 pm

    Brown may have physically grinded Sam down with his arsenal of power. Sam is not the best mover and he really had to run down a lot of shots yesterday.

  • Andrew Miller · April 13, 2014 at 4:38 pm

    Steve Johnson: will be #2 U.S. player soon, with Klahn falling back (apparently b/c of very low return of serve %, 9% or so – on par with Isner, Karlovic).

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 13, 2014 at 6:26 pm

    Steve Johnson could be the top American eventually. Jim Courier called him for top 40 a couple of years ago. Capn Courier knows.

  • Andrew Miller · April 13, 2014 at 10:12 pm

    KLahn: 9% Return Games Won
    Steve Johnson: 15% Return Games Won

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 14, 2014 at 9:05 am

    BK and SJ need to work on returns. I wonder if these guys work on specialty shots like bakchand return up the line, etc. I remember seeing Blake working on backhand crosscourt returns from the ad court, he was doing them non stop for a good while. I haven’t seen young Americans work on specialty shots like that though of course it’s not like I monitor all their practice sessions. Just from what I’ve seen.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 14, 2014 at 9:44 am

    By the way, Stefan Kozlov’s dad sent me this nice video of his son hitting with Rafa at Sony Open…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiRnqZAmCmw&feature=youtu.be

  • Abe Froman · April 14, 2014 at 11:42 am

    some of my favourite 1-handers with almagro and robredo….just bootiful !….very spinny though with that dirtballer grip / swing path..

  • Abe Froman · April 14, 2014 at 11:53 am

    seriously though – it would be great if we can focus on the contenders rather than the schlacks on this site……..if the spaniards are in town for some dirtball madness – the johnson / klahn-types dont really deserve a headline or article……..how about gulby getting tossed at monte carlo by “the dog-erino !”….even gulby doesnt deserve all of the buzz he gets on this site, IMO….LOL

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 14, 2014 at 3:02 pm

    Abe, we give respect, publicity, ink, credit to all players, not just the super elites. Unfortunately we weren’t staffed to cover Houston and I didn’t see the whole final of Verdasco vs. Almagro but the points I did see were enjoyable. Also saw the end of the doubles final that was a thriller. Unfortunately Verdasco, despite some huge shots at the end also had a bad miss. Bryans are just amazing.

  • Abe Froman · April 15, 2014 at 9:12 am

    sure scoop, tennis is tennis and a match is a match on any level……but the bryan’s dominance in doubles is definitely impressive and deserves multiple headlines – although it doesnt get the respect / credit it deserves

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