That young phenom Alexander Zverev, ITF number one junior and Australian Open winner, is on center court with Bjorn Fratengelo, who won French Open juniors three years ago but has struggled to make inroads in the ATP. The kid goes up 2-0 but Bjorn breaks back and then it’s a battle. By the end of the set, every point is a dogfight, there are no freebies or bad mistakes. Both are playing well. Zverev finally takes the set 7-5 when Bjorn nets a backhand. And Zverev wins the second set, barely, 7-5.
Robby Ginepri is on next against a Romanian named Gard who wears shades. Gineps, hasa reached the 4th round of all four majors and once made the SF at the US Open but now he’s on the other side of 30 and ranked in the 300s.
Ginepri loses the first set 26 and is behind in the second and then suddenly quits. One of the ballmen (you can’t call a man over 50 a ballkid) tells me his view: Ginepri is in a bad mood because he expected a WC into the main draw. After losing the first and falling behind in the second, he smacks a ball out of the stadium. It looks like he just doesn’t want to be here. Moments later, he quit and walked off.
I have a nice chat with the local sports columnist Mic Huber of the Sarasota Herald Tribune. He’s been covering tennis here since Agassi played junior events. The best story he tells is about Agassi playing a tourney at The Meadows in Sarasota. Agassi lost and walked by himself all the way back home to the NBTA, a lengthy distance of a good ten miles.
Bobby Reynolds and defending champ Alex Kuznetsov are fishing together in a small canal next to the courts. Bobby tells me they aren’t catching anything today, unlike two years ago when they were able to hook an abundance of fish. Bobby loves this event because of the venue, location, weather, everything.
I run into Tim Smyczek in the parking lot, he’s arriving for a practice. Tim says he really likes Washington DC and Newport too. Tim had a big win vs. Sock in Indian Wells.
For the first time I meet Vladimir Novikov, the father of Russian American Denis, who you may remember beat Jerzy Janowicz at the US Open a couple of years ago. Vladimir is a former boxer. He tells me some things about Denis, he went to UCLA, used to practice with Sharapova when he was twelve/thirteen, hit with Nadal twice. Novikov is playing Michael Venus from New Zealand.
When I get there, Denis is up 64 33. Novikov has a huge serve, he can blast it up to the l39 range. He also has a nice drop shot, getting Venus three times with it. They battle to a second set tiebreak and Novikov wins it 75 after having to replay the 55 point which he thought he had the ace for 65 but upon further inspection the umpire called it out by a hair. Novikov had to hit a second serve and still won the point. Then he closed it out when Venus hit a backhand long. Moments after the match Denis is on his phone checking out the serve stats of Venus who served 72% in the second set with eleven aces, compared to two or three in the first. Novikov was impressed by Venus’s serving in the second set.
Vladimir is happy with the result and how his son managed to hang tough in the tight second set (which included Venus calling an injury timeout at 65) to eke out the close win over a player he has previously lost to.
Christian Harrison and Ruben Bemelmans were watching this match and supporting Venus.
Noah Rubin loses on center court 36 46 to the top seed in the qualies Antonio Veic of Croatia in straight sets. Rubin is in need of a growth sport, but he can thump the serve. Veic, a few years older than the teenager, has too much strength, guile and experience for Rubin at this stage. Rubin was here with a coach from the McEnroe Academy but I don’t know who it was.
Practice court action involves Frank Dancevic, Michael Russell, Sekou Bangoura, that Aussie kid Kokkinakis who pulls out because of an ankle issue. Nick Kyrgios is also here and we did a Biofile. Kyrgios plays Jarmere Jenkins in the first round.
I see Peter Haas, father of Tommy, enjoying the action and he tells me my Facing Federer book, which I gave him in Delray, is “very nice.”
There are a lot of players here with names and faces I’ve never seen before or even heard of. Agar of Australia. David Rice of Great Britain. Wildcard Alfredo Perez from USA. Singh of India. Gianni Mina. Dennis Nevolo. Fabrice Martin of France?
The Kendricks, Delics, Levines, Sweetings, Borvanovs, the Korean group, players I’ve seen here in recent years, aren’t around anymore. Brian Baker is also absent.
The number one see is Alex Bogomolov who is ranked #85. Sock is here but Steve Johnson, Ryan Harrison aren’t in the draw. Donald Young, ATP 9l, is the second seed. James Ward, a former champion here is also in the draw. So is Jurgen Melzer’s younger brother Gerald.
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