Match of the day for me was seeing this new kid on the block, eighteen year old Hyeon Chung of Korea. Chung, a wildcard, won the first seven games from Marcel Granollers on court two.
This Korean is a big kid, wears white sunglasses and Le Coq Sportif attire and a Dunlop racquet.
Granollers fought back desperately and won the second set 64, by throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the kid. Grunting, stalling, silence, slices, top spin, offense, defense. The kid hung in there.
Granollers, with support from Marc Lopez, Fernando Vicente and Pablo Carrena Busta, earned a break point late in the third, at 3-3. Ump Layhani gave Granollers a warning for time delay – even though he was returning. So did “Cello” speed it up? Heck no. He then went up to the chair and discussed it in Spanish with Layhani, stalling for another minute. Then he went back to the baseline and was still conferring with Layhani before Chung finally served the break point. Cello netted a backhand and then the Korean showed his mettle and won the next two points to win the game, 4-3.
Chung then won the match 7-5 in the third. Chung can do it all, volley too. Big strong kid. He won junior Wimbledon last year. Talked with American Rielly Opelka about Chung, he said he’s always been good, but has never played him. Opelka pulled out of some recent Futures to concentrate on Challengers.
Great to see Christian Harrison hitting light today. He’s been out for about two years with hip and wrist injuries. The plan is to build up strength for a July-August return to tournament action.
I saw the first set of McHale vs. Cirstea, who has dropped outside the top 120. With boyfriend Santiago Giraldo watching, Cirstea fell to a 2-5 deficit. Then when he left at 2-5, Cirstea won three straight games. But McHale won the next two and the second set 64. McHale was dropped by adidas and is now sporting Head attire.
Ran into Eric Sock in the food court area, minutes before Sock started vs. Saeda. Eric says he feels much better now after the freak throat issues he had. Eric was mistaken by fans for Jack Sock, and he just played along with it. Eric was looking for a place to get a protein shake for Jack.
One former top player who went completely recognized through the food court was Gaston Gaudio, who walked right by me. I said, “Hey Gaston.” He replied coolly, “How are you doing?” Still remember his French Open five set comeback win vs. Coria, one of the best French Open finals of all time.
Dr. Ivo has lightened his hair to a light brown color.
Coco Vandeweghe lost the first set to Ula Radwanska and then asked to go to the bathroom to change. She carried her bag and racquet to the portable bathroom unit behind the court and suddenly, out of nowhere, as she was about to go up the steps into the bathroom, she smashed her racquet two times on the concrete walkway and tossed it into the bushes. A woman picked it up after two kids were afraid to take it. Radwanska won the match in three sets.
Ryan Harrison beat Nishikori in a tiebreak at the end of their practice.
Nicole Vaidisova won her first WTA level match of her comeback 61 76 over Timea Babos with Karel Novacek and Belinda Bencic supporting her. Vaidisova looks super fit and is still wearing those old Reebok shoes from about eight years ago.
Sam Querrey practice on the same court right after his night match opponent Victor Estrella. No pleasantries were exchanged. Q Ball won the match with the feisty Dominican 64 63.
In the morning I stopped by the practice courts called Calusa, just down the street and saw Bojana Jovanovic doing some stretches with her two coaches after her session. Bojana is supermodel pretty and figure-wise. Her coach suddenly started doing this amazing handstand on the picnic table, so the reporter standing there blurted out, “Who is that Superman?” and Bojana laughed.
Interviewed Guy Forget and Karel Novacek for Facing McEnroe.
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Nancy · March 25, 2015 at 10:41 pm
Thanks for all the tournament information, Scoop. Interesting. Missed most of it today.
Dan Markowitz · March 26, 2015 at 6:31 am
Good stuff, Scoop. You’re amazing. I walk around these tournaments and of course I recognize some of the players and former players–for example, saw Brian Teacher at IW, Mark Woodforde, and of course PMac, but only you can see Bojana Jovanovic and know who she is.
Are you going to break the scoop on who Gulbis’ new coach is.
I see Groth is playing the young Zverev today. If you can give us a little match play from that encounter, it’d be much appreciated.
For Johnny Mac book, it would be fascinating if you got PMac to comment on what it was like to face his older bro.
Scoop Malinowski · March 26, 2015 at 7:36 am
Thanks Dan. You know I don’t play around at these tournaments, it’s about maximizing match observing. And will do ask Pat Mac about playing big bro and checking in on AZ vs. Grothzilla.
Scoop Malinowski · March 26, 2015 at 7:37 am
Thank you Nancy, you know where to tune in for the details 🙂 Back at em again today.
Ashoke Ganguli · March 26, 2015 at 9:09 am
Good Morning Scoop,
Hope you won your last tournament.Your coverage is always nice to read.Keep up the good work.
Max · March 26, 2015 at 10:50 am
Dan,
from what I heard Gulbis has still been working with Mats Merkel during his practices in Miami so far. I obviously don’t know if he is considering working longer with him (so he was referring to Mats when talking to you) or the planned “testing” of a new coach in Miami didn’t took place after all (for whatever reason).
Dan Markowitz · March 26, 2015 at 2:53 pm
Thanks, Max. This is getting confusing, Max/Mats. Has Gulbis worked with Merkel before?
Tough loss for Johnson today going down to Kukushkin in 3. Steve Jo just looks like he can’t make the push inside the top 30-40.
Bagman should call it a career. He got abolished by Bollelli 2 and 2. Getting to look a little like Roberto Duran.
Max · March 26, 2015 at 3:03 pm
I saw a bit of Baghdatis’ practice yesterday because it was streamed on Youtube. I’m trying to be diplomatic here but it really didn’t look like an extremely serious/professional practice to me. Not much focus, just a bit of hitting without a real plan, IMO. So I’m not that suprised by the outcome of his match vs. Bolelli…
Merkel is part of the Adidas programme so he has been on the practice courts with a quite a few players in the past, including Gulbis and Thiem. But I have no idea if he would like to work with one specific player.
bjk · March 26, 2015 at 7:28 pm
Have you seen a Federer practice? Very casual. When reporters ask Fed about practice his answer is always “practice doesn’t matter.”
Scoop Malinowski · March 26, 2015 at 11:13 pm
Fed is pretty chill in practice, I covered in detail one of his practices at US Open with Fish in my Facing Federer book. Likes to joke around with the other guy and make funny comments. But then again, this was pre US Open, during qualies week. Imagine he’s more serious during the event bjk.
Scoop Malinowski · March 26, 2015 at 11:16 pm
Steve Jo got hit with 2 foot faults in first set which irked him. Then another in second. Kukushkin is a lethal player. Everyone underestimates him but look at his ATP ranking – 57. He looks like a park player but he can play with anyone in the world.
Scoop Malinowski · March 26, 2015 at 11:17 pm
I haven’t even seen Gulbis once yet down here. He played dubs today. Singles tomorrow.
Scoop Malinowski · March 26, 2015 at 11:19 pm
Thank you Ashoke, we lost in SF 10-8 in the third set match breaker at Bath and Racquet. Mixed dubs 9.0 combined. Good win in QF.