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Feb/17

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Scoop Heading To Delray Beach:

delraybDEL POTRO AND ANDERSON TO MEET IN FIRST ROUND
Two Former Champions Go Head-to-Head

DELRAY BEACH, FLA: Delray Beach 2011 champion Juan Martin del Potro and 2012 champion Kevin Anderson will square off in the first round of the 2017 Delray Beach Open, giving the tournament a prime-time first-round match-up on Tuesday (Feb. 21) at 8:00 pm.

Del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion, is opening his 2017 season in Delray Beach while Anderson is hoping to return to the Top 10 after dropping down the rankings in 2016 following an assortment of injuries.

Del Potro reached last year’s semifinals in Delray Beach, and used it as a springboard to a successful season that saw him climb from No. 1042 in the world to No. 38 at season’s end. He won his 19th ATP title, reached the quarterfinals of the US Open and led Argentina to the 2016 Davis Cup title.

As expected, world No. 4 Milos Raonic is the top seed in the tournament and will play a qualifier or special exempt player in the first round on Tuesday at 12:30 pm. It is possible that the Canadian’s first-round opponent won’t be known until the close of qualifying on Sunday (Feb. 19) afternoon.

Ivo Karlovic, the No. 2 seed and the 20th ranked player in the world, drew American Donald Young in the opening round, a rematch of the 2015 Delray Beach final won by Karlovic.

American Jack Sock, the No. 3 seed, drew Moldova’s Radu Albot in the first round. Sock, 24, recently broke into the Top 20, and has already won an ATP title this year.

Delray’s 2006 champion Tommy Haas, 38, drew Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili for his first-round match.

KOZLOV & FRANTANGELO AWARDED WILD CARDS
Young Americans Enter Main Draw

DELRAY BEACH, FLA: Young Americans Stefan Kozlov, 19, and Bjorn Fratangelo, 23, have secured wild cards to play in the Delray Beach Open’s 2017 main draw.

Kozlov drew fellow American and No. 5 seed Steve Johnson in the tournament’s first round, while Fratangelo will square off against Chinese Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu.

It is the second Delray Beach wild card for Kozlov, who hails locally from Pembroke Pines and played in the DBO in 2015 as a 17-year old. Kozlov won his first ATP Challenger Tour title last November in Columbus, Ohio, and has been ranked as high as No. 116 in the world.

Fratangelo broke into the Top 100 last June and holds two Challenger titles, the most recent title coming in 2016 in Savannah, Ga. The Pittsburgh native and Orlando resident has also won seven Future titles.

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84 comments

  • Andrew Miller · February 22, 2017 at 9:03 am

    Or the more cynical strategic take: Most USA men know the competition is more intense in Indian Wells and Miami, and feel pressure for a good showing in Delray before the clay season takes its toll on their ranking. They know the odds are higher of facing a player motivated and higher ranked in Indian wells and Miami and feel the need to make hay now.

  • Hartt · February 22, 2017 at 9:58 am

    Catherine, I saw parts of the Kerber v Puig match. From what I saw Angie was playing well, a positive sign. She won 6-2, 6-3.

  • catherine bell · February 22, 2017 at 10:09 am

    Yes, thanks – I picked up a bit of the scoring game by game and seemed fairly straightforward – could be Angie’s got her groove back, hope so. She needs a boost before IW.

    She plays Konjuh next – good test of Ana’s real ability – Simona beat her SS in St Petersburg so Angie should dominate.

  • Andrew Miller · February 22, 2017 at 10:26 am

    Kerber avenges Olympics medal match against Puente. Gosh if you’re Puente can’t imagine not thinking about Rio and how she beat Kerber there. If you’re Kerber, you’re probably savoring the victory as making you feel a little less badly about the gold medal you should have had!
    As much as tennis is about the personalities and the game, it’s also about settling scores. As much as I Enjoyed Puente’s epic, golden run, Kerber has to be thinking to herself, got her back 😉

  • catherine bell · February 22, 2017 at 11:32 am

    Angie’s thinking about one thing – if she wins Dubai she’s back in the top spot 🙂

  • scoopmalinowski · February 22, 2017 at 11:57 am

    Brian Baker and Nikola Mektic are on now in dubs beating Dzumhur and Albot 61. Super windy. All four players have different color outfits and shoes and also diff racquet brands. Total hodgepodge. I saw Erhlich Lipsky beat the defending champs Martin and Marach 7676 yesterday. Ehrlich won a mixed major. Was partners w Andy Ram his entire career but Ram retired. Very rare to see teams last so long. Fyrstenberg Matkowski broke up yrs ago after a near decade together. Baker is turning into a bit of a dubs specialist. Sela was coaching-practicing with Ehrlich Lipsky earlier. Spoke with Dude about Facing Murray but he only played Andy once in usopen qualies in 2007. Another draw sched quirk. I assumed every played every player at least three times especially if they are close to same age. Dude looking good but he lost to Querrey monday. Dudi was 2-2 career vs Q before that loss. Surprised Dudi could beat Big Sam. Heard rumor Q got appearance fee as defending champ.

  • catherine bell · February 22, 2017 at 12:48 pm

    Dubai –

    Radwanska has no business losing to Ceci Bellis. If Aga doesn’t get herself together, it’s not too late, she’s in for a depressing year.

  • Andrew Miller · February 22, 2017 at 1:51 pm

    Radwanska has been in lowball mode for a while. One of my favorite players. Maybe Bellis finding her range.

    I’m becoming more doubtful on Kerber despite her barely detectable momentum of several match wins against good players. I think she hit the talk show circuit pretty hard, I’d speculate she racked up some solid endorsements for the Kerber Bank Account, but all this good PR at the expense of her game.

    The WTA once again is failing to launch. They need some capital C coaches to do their job rather than protect their status, and players need to develop better strategies rather than stick with their underdeveloped junior tactics.

  • Andrew Miller · February 22, 2017 at 1:55 pm

    Baker and Mektic won Memphis over Harrison and Johnson. Baker is a fine doubles player and I think he’d be a good dubs partner for Davis Cup, though I’d guess Courier would value more players for their singles than doubles. I saw Baker and Krajicek come back against Harrison and Novikov in D.C. and they were able to overcome some spectacular play from Harrison, with Novikov making the lionshare of errors.
    Novikov had a nice challenger run. Maybe he’s getting serious again, or because challengers were in California he’s playing well in front of a home crowd. KUDLA did well also.

  • Andrew Miller · February 22, 2017 at 1:57 pm

    Dzumhur is doing well on his US swing. He’s one of the world’s best challenger players and routinely does well in Europe and the middle east. I consider him the Carreno Busta of the euro Africa challengers.

  • catherine bell · February 22, 2017 at 2:24 pm

    Andrew –

    I said some of those things about Kerber at the end of last year when she was all over the place in Germany and I thought she’d taken her foot off the pedal a bit, but later I actually thought – why not ? She deserved her celebrity, she’s getting older, it won’t come again like that, this year will probably be just moderate success, and then maybe she’ll start playing less and less and taper off her career. Which is ok.

    I can’t honestly see how the WTA can change things as far as strategies and tactics go – surely that’s up to individual coaches and players. The WTA doesn’t have power to lay down the law in that way.
    And in any case it’s far too busy organising parties for sponsors and fashion shoots and giving players a glamorous image to attract more advertisers etc and hopefully fill a few seats in stadiums with people who want to come and gawk.

  • Andrew Miller · February 22, 2017 at 4:45 pm

    Catherine that is either jaded or funny about wta as party organizers. Yes essentially I repeated what you wrote previously with less style and more bad grammar on my part!

    Yes I think I merely echo Craig Kardon’s statements regarding players and diversifying their games ao they have more options and better strategies on court. It happens on all tours. Players just retreat to what feels comfortable a bit too often for my taste, and to the detriment of any spectator. There’s a reason there isn’t a second coming of Henin out there.

  • catherine bell · February 22, 2017 at 8:43 pm

    Andrew –
    Makes you wonder if there is any real difference between the tours years ago and the way they are now – ie players getting a bit too comfortable etc.

    I’m not sure. I can remember some of the same kind of complaints back in the 80s but with less reason probably. Nowadays the circuits are highly structured and very safe places in a way – so there’s not a lot of incentive for innovation and change. You reach the top, the money etc is good, the styles become a bit conservative, why risk your ranking ?

    Perhaps that has happened in most modern pro sport to some extent.

    Don’t know if I’m funny about the WTA but I’m certainly jaded 🙂 I can’t stand some of the things they do. And everyone there is absolutely terrified of scandal – it’s so transparent. Organisations get like that I suppose.

    Tennis in the 70s and 80s was a roller coaster – as in, it wasn’t pretty but didn’t we have fun ?

  • Andrew Miller · February 22, 2017 at 11:55 pm

    Jarmere Jenkins quits the tour. He was one of the best college players I’d seen, with some of the most potential. He may be better known for hopping the net and falling on his face one time, but for the most part he had a huge game for a smaller player. He will be taking a nine to five or more job in the financial services industry. Steady pay, predictable hours, no injuries save paper cuts.

    Sandgren meanwhile wins a challenger. I found out Jenkins had quit through Sandgren’s feed.

  • catherine bell · February 23, 2017 at 3:05 am

    Caroline Wozniaki on ‘her first’ Elle cover.

    Really sorry Caro but you can’t do both 🙂

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 23, 2017 at 9:37 am

    Baker is 6-1 on the year in dubs – very good record –

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 23, 2017 at 9:39 am

    Bellis is a rising force and this really is not a surprise – young and hungry and eager little WTA future star beats veteran little but fading WTA star –

  • Dan Markowitz · February 23, 2017 at 11:00 am

    Scoop,

    Did Spadea seem interested in coaching pro players? Any word on him working with anyone? You picking an upset for either of the young dudes, Fritz or JD, against Qball and DY?

  • Andrew Miller · February 23, 2017 at 11:10 am

    Bellis, no fan I. Mirrored Woz’ moonballing game. Sucking the marrow out of the sport. Again, junior tactics have a surprising staying power.

  • Andrew Miller · February 23, 2017 at 11:11 am

    No problem personally, just no fan of a very boring way of playing.

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 23, 2017 at 11:47 am

    Andrew, it’s called smart tennis. Give the opponent what he/she doesn’t like or want. Chess match tennis. I enjoy the variety and cleverness of mixing it up instead of every point being a baseline bashing contest. Go CiCi!

  • catherine bell · February 23, 2017 at 11:54 am

    Yes – totally agree re Bellis – thought this when I saw her play last year.
    If she’s the future of women’s tennis I’ll be averting my gaze.

    I remember a remark of Chris Evert’s when someone questioned her supposed influence(bad)on young players: ‘I never moonballed. I was aggressive from the baseline’.

    Would be nice if more young players followed her example.

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 23, 2017 at 12:11 pm

    Catherine: Don’t you think contrasts in styles and tactics makes for more interesting competition? If both players are blasting away on all cylinders it becomes redundant. I like variety and thinking and making the opponent deal with different challenges. Bellis is showing she is very intelligent for such a young player who also has the special talent of ball control and changing speeds and heights. I love that part of tennis (use it a lot myself).

  • catherine bell · February 23, 2017 at 12:36 pm

    Sorry Scoop, I just don’t see that in Bellis.

    Of course I like a variety of styles, tactics etc. but a lot of what I see in the women’s game doesn’t show a particularly interesting mix.
    I get tired of baseline bashing, I got tired of 3 stroke s/v – I like an all court game really.

    Not too many players in WTA deliver that at a consistently high level.

  • Andrew Miller · February 23, 2017 at 1:42 pm

    Scoop I like Bellis, just not her game. Moonballing is helpful for matches, but in terms of watching them I find it extremely boring. I caught a moonball match last year between Stosur and Wozniaki, and I’m afraid to say it was awful. It was deployed as artfully as possible and it was still awful.
    Please tennis fathers and moms, teach your kids moonball as a tactic but not as a strategy. You are killing the sport in the name of low level junior 12s and under wins.

  • Andrew Miller · February 23, 2017 at 1:52 pm

    Scoop, serving contests in the 90s led to major changes. One of the unfortunate consequences is the monotone strategy prevalent on both tours, but more obvious on the wta. Hence Bellis. We like her because she’s a breath of fresh air. But for me I see a trench strategy that relies on moonballs. I didn’t see cleverness or guile or an art to her game. I saw a player who relies on what made them successful in juniors, using that now.
    Bad strategy is epidemic on tours. Maybe players don’t think much about it. Often there’s a lot of just gonna play my gameitis. You already know Craig Kardons opinion on that, which he sees as a cop out.

  • catherine bell · February 23, 2017 at 2:18 pm

    Yes Andrew, that persisting junior strategy is what leads to so many Next Big Things vanishing somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle of late teens-early twenties.

  • scoopmalinowski · February 23, 2017 at 4:24 pm

    Bellis can belt it. Remember she belted Cibulkova out of us open a few yrs ago. She deployed the proper and winning strategy to defeat Aga. Well done. Its a very valuable win for her confidence and experience.

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 23, 2017 at 6:29 pm

    I was at Eddie Herr for the last 3 years and saw very little moonballing – A player must be able to deal with anything and everything because once a player shows he or she dislikes a certain something you can be sure the other players will hear about it and file it in their mental files for when they play that player – like I noticed last year that Sock seems to get very annoyed and loses focus when players fake injuries and call timeouts on him – Then I noticed after the first one did it more players did the same thing and it worked again on bothering Sock – monaco did it at the Houston final vs Sock –

  • catherine bell · February 24, 2017 at 2:50 am

    Yes Scoop but Bellis couldn’t employ any winning strategy against Wozniaki, could she ?

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 24, 2017 at 8:34 am

    Catherine: You never know – I wouldn’t want to bet against Bellis right now – her confidence must be at an all time high right now –

  • catherine bell · February 24, 2017 at 12:21 pm

    So over and out for Angie in Dubai.
    My heart wishes it were otherwise but my head says she will struggle to win a significant tournament this year.

    If only she had developed a better serve to dig her out of trouble, shorten matches that must be a growing strain on her body.

  • Bryan · February 26, 2017 at 6:19 pm

    Kerber’s serve has always been awful. It’s actually better nowadays than it’s ever been. Elina Svitolina has really upped her game. Kerber used to beat her with angles and easily beat her.

    I was court side at the 2015 WTA Stanford semis, the last time she beat Elina. Since then Elina has beaten Kerber four straight times. I hope they both come back this season as since I’m an Elina fan it’ll be more enjoyable to watch. She’s #9 now.

  • catherine bell · February 27, 2017 at 3:08 am

    I think Elina has only beaten Angie twice – haven’t checked so correct me if I’m wrong.

    Angie’s on a plateau. At 29, may stay there, may fall off.

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