Just checked the womens draw, Cici Bellis plays Kimiko Date Krumm first round. Donna Vekic, Taylor Townshend, Vicky Duval, An-Sophie Mestache, Jessica Pegula, Melanie Oudin, Alize Lim, Luksika Kumkum, Grace Min are also in the draw. Vekic could play Edina Galovitz Hall in the next round, Hall has to be 35 years old now – the two played in qualies three years ago with Hall winning in three sets, expect good crowds to watch Vekic this week.
Mens draw not posted yet at the usopen.org site —
Come out and see great tennis action and meet me and Dan —
Lleyton Hewitt, Jonas Bjorkman and Nick Kyrgios have been added to the John McEnroe Academy event on Wednesday on Randalls Island which already includes Rafael Nadal — should be a good chance for Johnny Mac to help repair the badly damaged public image of Kyrgios who was assessed additional punishment today by ATP – 28 day suspension and additional fines IF Nick causes any more controversial incidents in the next six months, like the ruckus he caused in Montreal during his match with Stan Wawrinka.
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Dan markowitz · August 24, 2015 at 9:25 pm
Driving up w Cal from RI tomorrow. That’s a classic match up between Cici and Kimiko.
Scoop Malinowski · August 24, 2015 at 10:07 pm
Mens draw, some good matches:
Zverev vs Zeballos
Karen Kachanov vs Luke Saville
Dodig vs Viola
J Jenkins vs Maximo Gonzalez
Tommy Paul vs Blaz Rola
Reilly Opelka vs Christian Lindell
S Kozlov vs Andreozzi
Almagro vs Sijsling
G Lapentti vs Falla
Nicolas Jarry vs Kudryavstev
Matt Ebden vs Michael Mmoh
Jesse Witten vs JP Smith
Go Soeda vs Andrey Rublev
Taylor Fritz vs Luca Vanni
Dan markowitz · August 25, 2015 at 4:56 am
Wow, Almagro’s playing Qualis? Jesse Witten is still playing? I thought he retired years ago. The new Young Guns are all out in display: Opelka and Fritz and Paul and Mmoh and Kozlov.
Scoop Malinowski · August 25, 2015 at 8:04 am
Was surprised to see Witten is still out there plugging away in the tennis universe, not sure how he maintains his ranking to get into major qualies, never see him in challenger draws and maybe saw his name once in a futures, will have to look up his playing activity — this qualies with all the young American teens should make for some excellent tennis viewing this week —
jg · August 25, 2015 at 8:18 am
Maybe he won the National open playoff challenger, the winner gets a spot in qualifying
Moskova Moskova · August 25, 2015 at 8:18 am
Witten won the USO National Playoffs for a WC into the qualies..
Wowzers, almagro’s tanked out playing qualies ??
Harold · August 25, 2015 at 8:53 am
Be there Thurs. and Friday
Scoop Malinowski · August 25, 2015 at 9:02 am
Well done by Witten, who showed us all he’s a great player a few years ago when he won a set off Djokovic on Armstrong at US Open, and gave him a tough battle — who did Jesse beat in the final and semis? I’m curious to know the final four of that tourney — big credit to Witten for finding a way to hang in there, an example of perseverance —
Ryan Balon · August 25, 2015 at 10:23 am
Scoop, Dan
I’ll be at the Open starting next Wednesday and departing Sunday evening – hope to catch up with you both some point during my stay.
Hoping to see Elias Ymer Q and get into the main draw this week – Scoop if you or Dan see him play let us know how he looks.
-Ryan
Dan Markowitz · August 25, 2015 at 8:24 pm
Very impressed by Elias Ymer today playing a Czech guy who I’d never heard of. Ymer, who has a tough name, some people mix it up and call him Ymer Elias, is one super quick young dude. He looks like a pro tennis player should, with strong but lean sinewy legs and torso. I loved his forehand extension and he plays close to the baseline and is not afraid of approaching the net.
Another player who really wowed me today was Opelka. Man, he is Isner big, but moves better than Izzie and I think even at this stage, his groundies are better than Izzie. He was just practicing, but he looked good.
Taylor Fritz lost in straights to the Italian Vanni. Fritz looks a little like Cary Grant, tall handsome with a Hollywood head of hair, but he looks 17 out there and even though he’s tall, he didn’t look to have an explosive serve or like to come up to net much.
We saw Kozlov walking the grounds with Sisjling and Koz said hi to Scoop. Looks like a good guy, but not a very imposing physique. Alejandro Falla just completely zonked Giovanni Lapentti 0 and 1. It’s interesting being out at the Open and in the stands were a number of Ecuadorians supporting Lapentti and remembering his much-better brother. And I found out from one that Marcus Giron is actually Ecauadorian.
Jamere Jenkins lost again. He’s a classic example how for the majority of players not Izzie or SteveJo, college tennis is not a good springboard for the pro tour.
Scoop Malinowski · August 25, 2015 at 11:21 pm
I saw something today that I’ve never seen before at qualies week: Berdych vs Dimitrov on grandstand, second game of practice set, Berd held first game, Dimitrov was serving down 0-30, getting manhandled by Berd’s power, then he hit a forehand approach which Berdy tracked down and blasted a backhand pass down the line, which made DImitrov DIVE for the volley but he missed it and bloodied his elbow — I could not believe Super G dove for a volley in the second game of a practice set on the Tuesday before the US Open – I think it shows the urgency and desperation by Super G to get his career going right now, but Berd handled him pretty easy today — Hewitt and Lopez were next on – a rematch of their Wash DC three setter, won by FLO, FLO won again today but it was close, Hewitt can still battle but not quite enough to win – Hewitt was friendly and engaging with FLO between changeovers, seemingly leading the conversations — watched a but of French Open junior champ Paula Badosa Gibert of SPain beat Ons Jabeur 64 in the third, Jabeur the Tunisian was up 40-15 at 4-4 in the third and got a cramp and lost four straight points and the game and then the match, a witness told me — maybe the best match of the day was Jurgen Zopp of Estonia beating Darian King of Bahamas 76 in the third. Cici Bellis, age sixteen, beat 44 yr old Kimiko Date Krumm 64 in third — Donna Vekic beat a Japanese girl 64 in the third — was told that Eugenie Bouchard was at the Nike event last night in NYC and Pete Sampras supposedly told Nic Kyrgios to “Behave young man.” — I went to see Ashe Stadium and boy does it look different from the inside with the new roof beams in place, it’s very space age and I think it adds to the atmosphere and it makes the giant stadium seem more intimate, I like it a lot — saw young Alexander Zverev walk by the fountain to catch a bus back to the hotel, kids recognized him and got his autographs — which reminds me, Berdych took a selfie with two Asian girls in grandstand between the second to last and last points of his set with Dimitrov, never saw a player take selfies with fans DURING a game of a set before, chalk that up as another first for today — oh, and I did a Biofile with Paula Badosa Gibert after her win, she was born in NYC and her mom was a model, great Biofile as she shared some very surprising answers — stay tuned —
Scoop Malinowski · August 26, 2015 at 8:21 am
Reilly Opelka was there watching Taylor Fritz play Luca Vanni yesterday, good to see the young Americans supporting each other —
Dan Markowitz · August 26, 2015 at 9:52 am
The US Open Qualis are like the melting pot of pro tennis. You have players like Taylor Harry Fritz playing in his first Open and then guys like David Guez, 33, still out there at 33 and Jesse Witten, a guy who’s career-high ranking was #163 and is 32. Scoop, he beat Matija Pecotic of Croatia in that national playoff.
I’m going to skip the Open today in favor of going to see Nadal-Kyrgios tonight at the Mac Academy in the city. I’ll have a report on that.
Dan Markowitz · August 26, 2015 at 3:55 pm
So far, with Kozlov beaten today and Opelka at 5-all with the Swede, Lindell, in the first set, the only two teen American sensations to have won their first round quali match, are Noah Rubin and Tommy Paul.
Fritz, Kozlove and Mmoh are all out. It’s the Sensational 7, Tiafoe, Donaldson, Kozlov, Paul, Fritz, Opelka and Rubin. How many of these dudes will be in Top 100 by the end of 2016?
Jesse Witten went down!
jg · August 26, 2015 at 4:41 pm
I am planning on being there Friday, let me know your whereabouts
Scoop Malinowski · August 26, 2015 at 11:15 pm
text me and Dan, we will both be there Friday JG
Dan Markowitz · August 27, 2015 at 7:37 am
I’m going to try to make it out on Friday. I’m definitely going out today. I want to watch Reilly Opelka and Ymer, but will probably miss Ymer because he’s first match of the day. And they have the US Open chef’s taste testing today in the Arthur Ashe restaurant at 1 pm.
Some sick tennis last night with Nadal and Hewitt and Kyrgios is a master. The guy looks and moves like an NBA player. Got the chance to talk to Uncle Toni, who’s my age, but he looks like he’s 45. He doesn’t speak very good English, but he was very gracious. He said Nadal’s drop was initially from injuries and then he’s lost his confidence and unfortunately in Cincy, he didn’t get the chance to get many matches under his belt because of the loss to FLo. But he thought Nadal would make a comeback to the top of the game.
JMac at one point posited the idea that he should be Kyrgios’ coach. That would be fun.
Scoop Malinowski · August 27, 2015 at 8:07 am
Kyrgios does move like a power forward, this guy has the goods to win big, let’s hope this minor brouhaha doesn’t damage his spirit and charisma, hope he’s mentally strong to get through and his team gives good advice — looks like he and Hewitt are tight — McEnroe with Nick is interesting, Mac working with Philippoussis and Bruguera were very brief so you have to think Mac will be determined to prove that he can be a very effective and helpful ATP level coach — would love to see that combo prosper —
Dan Markowitz · August 27, 2015 at 8:14 am
Jeff Salzenstein at JeffSalzensteintennis.com says that it’s time to see if Mac can really coach. Kyrgios and Mac got on great on the court. You can see that Mac is not in awe of Kyrgios and Kyrgios seemed relaxed with Mac. It was funny, one point Mac was hitting no-look volleys and then Kyrgios hit one and he seemed to get a big kick out of it. When he netted the next shot, he gave Mac such a big toothy grin.
One thing that makes Kyrgios seem like a heavy is that his two coaches are both guys who look like they just stepped out of a Gold’s Gym and his brother looks like he could be a bad guy in a James Bond movie. He needs a sweet chick in his entourage–sorry for the sexism here ladies–to soften his image.
Scoop Malinowski · August 27, 2015 at 8:26 am
Well he’s involved with Madison Keys I believe – they are playing mixed again – and she is as nice as it gets — but yeah brother Cristos does look like Goldfinger from James Bond or a Hawaii Five 0 villain but he’s a pretty nice mate actually if you talk with him — there is no doubt McEnroe can coach and he can really coach, Phillippoussis said it was a thrill to just pick his brain about tennis when they were together, the man knows his tennis, the question is he’s such a larger than life figure, he could overshadow the player and his presence could add pressure and also motivation to the opponent – like when Angelo Dundee trained boxers after Ali and Leonard, he put extra pressure on his fighters to perform to Ali and Leonard type expectations and also the other fighter got inspired extra to beat the boxer and also Dundee — but Mac just needs to find the right player with the major talent and handle it delicately and be a subordinate to the star — and most of all be a good friend and teammate to the player, be good company like we see Lendl, Becker and Edberg are for their players. Nick definitely could be the right player for Mac to hone and perfect.
Scoop Malinowski · August 27, 2015 at 8:42 am
“Soften his image” — Dan or Harold or any readers from the Mac era, did Mac do anything or make any attempts to “soften his image” during his heyday? Or did he just “keep being Johnny Mac”, as Jack Nicholson supposedly said to him at some Hollywood party (as noted in the Mac boo You Cannot Be Serious)? Did Jimmy Connors ever do anything to soften his image?
Andrew Miller · August 27, 2015 at 10:11 pm
Kyrgios, probably the only young player I believe can win several slams including Wimbledons, plural. I think what he said was obnoxious – no reason to air players’ dirty laundry on the court and no justification either. But he can learn from it, take it in stride. It’s almost as if he needs to be shown by the sport that his place is going to be huge as a slam champ and he needs these dumb things to happen. Kyrgios is a one of a kind player and he’s setting up to be a slam champ and not a one hit wonder either.
No one liked Serena Williams for the awful things she told the linesperson – no one. But Serena Williams ceded a slam to Kim Clijsters for that mistake and I think she was also genuinely sorry for the out of line outburst. Whatever the case, she didn’t do it again.
Same thing for Lleyton Hewitt. He came back better than he was before, also, after one of the worst remarks recorded in the last few decades on a tennis court. Blatant, pretty unforgivable. But here we are over a decade later, and Hewitt’s now more or less an older statesman of the game. What he said at age 20 doesn’t matter in his mid thirties.
If I were Kyrgios I’d grab a beer with Robredo and ask him how he beat Kyrgios. Agassi did this with Gilbert and it helped him to know how it was for another player to come up against Agassi. It’s Kyrgios’ one weak spot – how to hang in there when the opponent starts chipping away at ya. Federer learned how to stay with it, Djokovic, Nadal – they all know how to stay in the game during the match.
Andrew Miller · August 27, 2015 at 10:14 pm
I think Tennis Australia also recognizes that Kyrgios is the real deal. They like Tomic and Kokkinakis, but they know that push comes to shove, Kyrgios is the best of all of them.
I think the fact they have possibly three elite players – if Kokkinakis comes through they may even have three top ten players? It’s a huge deal. It also shows that if Tennis Australia can do it in this globalized era….the U.S. can too.