I cycle down Longboat Key the ten miles to the Longboat Key Club to the Sarasota Open. It’s a $100,000 ATP Challenger. I want to see the qualifying match, second match on court 8 – Brian Baker vs. Sekou Bangoura. Brian Baker was once a U.S. junior prospect, who I saw take a set off Carlos Moya at the U.S. Open on grandstand about seven or eight years ago.
But Baker’s career dwindled after that and he disappeared from the scene before mounting a comeback last year. He’s had some decent results but nothing big yet. Bangoura is an African American from the Sarasota area, he went to the Out Of Door Academy and played in the U.S. Open junior events. He decided to attend Florida University in Gainesville. I once hit briefly with Bangoura about five years ago in Lakewood Ranch. He’s a multi-dimensional talent, an excellent piano player, student and a solid tennis player, reminds you a bit of Monfils with his agility and athleticism.
Longboat Key Club’s Tennis Gardens is a beautiful venue. It costs about $20,000 a year to be a member so you could imagine how nice it is here. Bangoura and Baker hold serve but the veteran gets the break at 4-4 and wins the set. It’s like Bangoura suddenly realized his status on the pro tennis totem pole. He was right in there with Baker but when crunch time arrived, he came up short.
The same thing happened in the stadium court match betweem Amir Delic and Dennis Kosakowski. Delic has about 12 years of experience more than young Kosakowski who I believe attends UCLA. At 4-4 in the third set, Delic was up 40-0 but then blew a few points to let it back to deuce. They had a long baseline rally but the young gun hit the top of the net with a forehand. That costly miss allowed Delic to regain control and he the game. Kosakowski served to stay alive but nerves must have set in and at 15-40, Delic hit a huge forehand crosscourt that landed right in the corner. Match over. Another veteran taking charge in the crunch over the upstart.
I was hitting with a friend of mine who happens to be here from NJ and next to us was Bjorn Fratangelo, who won the French Open juniors. Fratangelo was hitting with a player I didn’t recognize. I made two observations about Fratangelo – he swept the court himself before they started and after a forehand miss, he said to his coach, maybe I should hit the forehand with more spin, the coach responded, like Kuznetov? I didn’t get it though.
Alex Kuznetsov was playing doubles with Mischa Zverev at the same time about 20 yards away.
An interesting match was between Switzerland’s Michael Lammer and Olivier Sajous. Lammer was wearing my Wilson Trances and seemed to play like me too. Super steady from the baseline, with a nice flowing one hander, at least that’s how I think/wish my backhand looks.
Sajous got annoyed with the chair ump late in the third set at 4-4 when Lammer tossed his racquet after a miss. He didn’t smash it or throw it, just sort of dropped it. Sajous wanted a penalty or warning. The woman in the chair wouldn’t oblige Sajous. Then when Sajous missed, he dropped his racquet too and gestured to the chair up that she couldn’t punish him because he was only doing what Lammer did. When Lammer dropped his racquet soon after, the chair ump told Sajous, she wouldn’t punish Lammer. The drama made the match more interesting. Lammer held to go up 6-5, then Sajous faltered and got broke to lose the match when his final cross court backhand missed by an inch wide.
I am surprised at what a big event this is, the #1 court looks like an ATP event stadium. There are lots of sponsors, like Gettel and TDA Global Sports. There are a lot of reconizable people here too. David Sanguinetti is coaching a young Japanese player who I don’t know his name. Tommy Haas was practicing earlier but I didn’t see him. Bobby Reynolds walked right by me. I don’t remember many of his ATP matches but I must have seen his Bag Check 15 times on The Tennis Channel.
Vasek Pospisil of Canada is here. Jamie Delgado, the doubles player from England. James Blake is coming tomorrow, he just won the doubles in Houston with Sam Querrey. Querrey is coming too, Bob Davis told me Querrey is doing a clinic with him this week. Go Soeda ATP #67 is here. Alex Bogdanovic was in the qualies draw. Others in the main draw are Tatsumi Iot (#94) and Paolo Lorenzi (#81).
Phillip Simmonds was playing some guy Lukasz on center court when I left. Simmonds beat the top seed in qualies yesterday. We were wondering how these guys like Simmonds and Philip Bester and Chris Eaton are able to survive on this Tour, year after year as they can’t be making much money and the travel and lodging expenses have to be considerable. But they keep trying, keep battling, this really is a tough sport.
My friend Mark was telling me some stories that Ellis Ferreira told him. Ellis, from South Africa, lives nearby and has an academy up the road about five miles. Ferreira was #1 in the world in doubles. Ellis told Mark that one time in Munich, he was so down that he was gonna quit tennis. He played at Alabama, didn’t make the team the first year, but then improved and got so good that he struggled to hang onto the ATP for a few years. But he wasn’t winning, wasn’t getting past third rounds. Ellis told him he decided to quit in Munich and told his partner, it would be his last match, let’s have some fun. They ended up winning the match, winning the tournament and it changed his whole career. He later won two majors. Amazing story!
As I was leaving, Marinko Matsosevic, the finalist in Delray, was practicing kick serves, shirtless. His kickers were hitting the back fence about waste high too.
I’m going to check out more of the Sarasota Open, so stay tuned…
Scoop Malinowski · April 16, 2012 at 12:28 am
James Blake won here last year, and Kei Nishikori won in 2010. They are also having a womens event which starts on Tuesday. Alexandra Stevenson is in it, as are Dasha Sharapova and the local Cleaves sisters Nikki and Torrie who I played a few times over the years (beat one lost to the other).
Dan Markowitz · April 16, 2012 at 3:26 am
Scoop, nice report on the Challenger. Wow, Brian Baker, that is a name of the past. Be interesting to get an Alexandra Stevenson report. I thought she would bag it after one year back on the tour and not making it back into top 100. She has so many other interests, be curious to know how firm her belief is that she can make it back to being a relevant player.
I always love Challengers. I remember seeing Blake play in one here in Westchester at the Armonk Tennis Club. And then, of course, there was the long-standing one in the Bronx and the other one at Forest Hills. Now there are none in the New York-area, which is kind of sad because they give you a good glimpse of how ridiculously hard it is to make it on tour.
I wonder whether Jesse Witten and Robert Kendrick are still out there grinding.
TC · April 16, 2012 at 11:23 am
sanguinetti coaches tatsumi ito. Kendrick is back from a ban and I think witten is still out there.
Scoop Malinowski · April 16, 2012 at 12:08 pm
Dan this venue is magnificent, it’s a $4.5 million dollar complex, some major members here too, head of the FDIC, etc. I know one of the pros there, will try to get more info. The qualies are surprisingly well attended, the stadium was almost packed, more so than some of the second week Ashe Stadium 11 am matches at the US Open which are almost empty sometimes. This is really a special event by tournament founder/director Tony Driscoll. I’m fascinated.
Scoop Malinowski · April 16, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Thomas Cull the “Tennis Tipster” clearly knows his stuff, to know Sanguinetti is coaching Tatsumi Ito, thanks for the update TC. When in doubt, ask the Tennis Tipster. Kendrick was in Houston coaching I believe Sweeting, who is in Sarasota also. I saw Witten in some Challenger draws earlier this year, yes he’s still grinding it out in pro tennis. Probably will be for another five years or so. Never forget Witten having Djokovic on the ropes on Armstrong at the US Open about three years ago.
Nadine · April 17, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Scoop,
As a former volunteer at Bollettieri’s Academy, I have followed Tommy’s career since he was a pup. Arguably, he has had more setbacks than anyone but his behavior yesterday was inexcusable.
Tommy had more than a week to determine his ability to play on Monday night.
I watched his practice on Sunday and part of his warm-up on Monday. He appeared comfortable on both occasions.
For him to pull out just minutes before his match shows his lack of consideration for anyone but himself. To put Tony Driscoll in such a position was unbelievably selfish.
That’s it for me…No more Tommy fans in this house.
Scoop Malinowski · April 17, 2012 at 3:57 pm
Very sorry to hear that Nadine, thanks for the information. That’s a terrible move on Haas’s part, he should have just tried to play, but we can’t feel what his injury was. Hope this doesn’t hurt the event’s goodwill and credibility in any way. Agree though, Haas has had a lot of unfortunate setbacks and injuries, he’s done very well to get his career back to this point. I saw his return at Newport last year when he first came back and he beat Berrer in three sets in the first round and then had to pullout against Yani. He’s actually looked very good in the few matches I’ve seen him play lately, he’s still a great player when healthy. Thanks for your comment and welcome to our site Nadine.
Dan Markowitz · April 17, 2012 at 8:10 pm
Scoop, Tommy Haas is still a great player when he’s a healthy? Who’s he beaten in the last couple of years to suggest that he’s anything more than a journeyman now?
Nadine, when you’re as good-looking as Tommy Haas you should be allowed to be vain. My wife still sighs deeply whenever she sees him. I think part of Haas’s arrogance stems from the fact that he has a a delvish sense of humor and seems more stuck up than he possibly is.
On another note, doesn’t Murray’s hitting partner look a bit like Haas? Maybe he can double for Tommy when he’s thinking of pulling out of an event.
Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2012 at 2:17 am
Dan I saw Haas play in Melbourne, think it was vs. Nadal, and he was playing really well. Gave Rafa a good battle. He won a round or two there too. No he hasn’t had any big wins in a while but he’s had a few good ones. I thought he was finished, so anything he does now is almost like a bonus. Haas does not give off the nicest vibe, I tried to Biofile him a few times and he has a curt, tunnel vision focus about him.