Sarasota Open Tuesday

The first three matches on stadium court all went the distance – to third set tiebreaks. First Tim Smyczek defeated Marinko Matosevic, saving one MP. Then Go Soeda edged Jessie Levine. The third match on the big court showcased Vasek Pospisil outlasting Robby Ginepri. Play began at 11 and at the end of the Posipisil match it was 7:30.

Sam Querrey had been scheduled to go on at 4:30 and then James Blake was supposed to be on no later than 6:30. Obviously, the Sarasota Open is going to have a very late night. I had to leave at 7:30 for my hour bike round north up Gulf Drive on Longboat. One positive though – about a mile up Gulf Drive on the side of the road laying in the grass were presumably Ginepri’s black blue and green Babolat shoes, obviously thrown to the side of the road. I picked them up and they were still wet from sweat and green clay. Anybody need size 11 Babolat Propulse 3’s for clay? They are pretty sweet looking.

Another highlight today was seeing Brian Baker defeat Ryan Sweeting. Baker, as some of you might know, was once a U.S. prospect who disappeared from the pro scene for about five years. He took a set off Carlos Moya on Louie Armstrong about ten years ago. I spoke with him briefly before his match and he told me numerous injuries felled his career but he feels much better now but still not 100% perfect.

Baker won three qualifying matches to make the main draw where he collided with Sweeting today. Sweeting came to Sarasota off a solid performance in losing to John Isner in Houston in two tiebreaks. But Baker just blitzed him from the outset. I watched the warm-up and Sweeting looked confident and almost nonchalant like he expected to crush poor Baker. Sweeting was swatting balls heavily but Baker was like a wall. That pattern seemed to transfer to the match. Baker was like a wall and frustrated Sweeting into missing. Two early breaks and he was up 3-0. Not long later Baker won the set 6-1.

Baker continued to maintain the upperhand to a 2-0 lead in the second when Sweeting suddenly came to the net and retired.

From my view it looked like Sweeting just couldn’t believe what was happening and bailed out of the beatdown. He was frustrated from the outset, constantly looking at marks near lines, missing shots long or into the netcord. Baker just played extremely well. Sweeting left the court with a towel covering his head. A few seconds later, when Baker walked towards me I said, “Congratulations, that’s a helluva win.” But Baker, the sportsman, tried to downplay it, with sympathy for his victim, saying it’s hard to play when you don’t feel 100%.

A few seconds later at the court, a woman asked me, “What happened to Sweeting? Is he hurt? He looked fine.” I told her I felt he just out outplayed today by a really good player. Sweeting looked like he felt perfect early but as he began to lose, he just fell apart. She agreed with my assessment. Another fan commented that Sweeting is “a headcase.”

Nick Monroe won the second set but lost in three to Wayne Odesnik, who had John Eagleton and Ellie Ferreira supporting him. Moments after his loss, Monroe was on a practice court working on returns and also approaches/volleys from the backhand side of the court. Monroe was working extremely hard after the loss.

The first match I saw was Alex Kuznetsov who just trounced Amir Delic 61 61. Kuznetsov looked fantastic, Delic had no answers. At the end, Delic tried a big serve and came in and attempted an Air Sampras slam dunk but the ball flew into the fence. Air Delic isn’t quite Air Sampras. Moments later Delic walked off the court by himself, straight to the parking lot.

Bobby Renolds beat Bjorn Phau 75 63. I did a Biofile with Reynolds right after the match next to the court. Great Biofile too, you’re gonna love it.

Michael Lammer took on Paulo Lorenzo but couldn’t match the Italian’s super consistency.

David Sanguinetti told me coaches Go Soeda. I asked him if he ever played Rios and he said he beat him twice. I told Sanguinetti I wrote a book about Rios and he kind of rolled his eyes and asked what he’s up to now, adding that he heard his third wife just had triplets. When I said that Rios wasn’t as nuts as he used to be, Sanguinetti gave another smile smirk and said something about “a wolf doesn’t change.”

People at the tournament are not delighted by Tommy Haas’ late pullout on Monday night. Haas pulled out of Houston with injury. So there was concern by Sarasota officials if Haas would be able to play here. I was told Haas assured them he would be able to play. So they put him on for 6:30 Monday night, the showcase match of the day. If Haas had told them he was iffy, officials could have scheduled him for Tuesday or Wednesday, to allow his injury to feel better.

But Haas pulled out around 30 minutes before his scheduled first round match. Officials were miffed at why Haas would pull a stunt like that.

I was told about half the fans left when the Haas match was canceled. Officials scrambled to offer a doubles exhibition involving local propsect Sekou Bangoura and his doubles partner, I believe Dennis Kosakowski. The exhibition was well received by the fans who decided to stay.

But Tommy Haas might be lucky if ever gets an invite to play this popular event ever again.

The tournament founder Tony Driscoll, is from upstate New York. He told me he created this event five years ago and staged the first tournament at nearby club El Conquistador. Then he moved it to Longboat Key Club three years ago. The first year he lost $30,000 but it’s been on the upswing ever since. Driscoll has a tennis background working at various USTA events including the old Binghamton Challenger.

He said this tournament has not only staged world class tennis but also raised money to start an orphanage for 100 children in Malawi, which is amazing.

Faces in the crowd: Nick Bollettieri was at the womens match between Nikki Cleaves and Dasha Sharapova and the octegenarian superman was not sitting, he was standing. The man who wakes up every day at around 4:30 am to do his workout routine, may outlive us all.

Former 40 year NBTA coach Julio Moros was watching Ginepri-Pospisil. Moros said his dather Christina, who won a national title with the Texas Longhorns, is now an assistant coach at Oklahoma. She aspires to be coach at her alma mater someday.

Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo is here. I said, You’re Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo right? He said, Yes. I said, I saw some of your matches. He said, Thank you. I didn’t want to tell him I saw him lose to Dan Markowitz’ favorite player Dustin Brown at the U.S. Open.

That’s all for Tuesday, stay tuned for more Sarasota reports…

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