New York Open Players List

This is put up or shut up time for D-Young, Tiafoe and Johnson. Why isn’t Taylor Fritz there?

My dark horse pick to win it? Karlovic.

Duke. That is what ive been saying since Sandgren made his monumemtal run in melbourne. A lot of players will be inspired especially the ones who beat Sandgren last yr like Fritz, Norrie, Kozlov, Tiafoe etc.

Delray is the week after so he could play both.

So Fed has to play a qualifier, then either Khachanov or Kohlscreiber and then one of Wawrinka, Griekspoor (who I have never heard of), Haase or De Bakker to get to No. 1. Consider it a done deal. Top four seeds are Fed, Grigor Sasha and Goffin so it’s a big-time event in Rotterdam.

I kind of wish one U.S. player had the balls to play over there instead of settling for NY.

The New York Open turned down my request for a media pass. They said I could go out there and buy a ticket and two 12-and-under kids could come in free without me. I’m not going to go as I’m going to Delray the following week, but I wonder what kind of attendance they’re going to attract. It is Long Island/New York, but I remember when they used to charge $0 for a Challenger event staged at Forest Hills in the summer when they had Chang and Blake and Gimelstob and Estrella Burgos playing in it and basically maybe 50 people came.

I looked at the ticket fee for the first day and the cheapest ticket was like $43. I know Delray for the early days of the event is like $25 to buy a grandstand ticket and that event has the stadium court and about five side courts you can mill around and watch tennis from very up close. I imagine in the Nassau Colisieum, even if you have a good ticket, you’re going to be far from the action.

Delray this year is sick with the players coming: Kyrgios, Delpo, Sock, Shapovalov. The best the New York Open can offer is Kevin Anderson, Izzie and Nishikori. I don’t know if the average fan is going to come out to this event when a Kyrgios, Nadal, Fed or even a Sock isn’t playing. When the highest-ranked player in the event is Qball at no. 13 that’s a large ask of the paying customer to come pay high ticket prices because let’s face it, a draw of Qball, KevAnd, Nishi and Izzie is not very appealing. There’s not one player in the New York Open draw where you say to yourself if you’re the casual fan, “I really want to drop $100 to see this guy play.” Maybe that’s why they have Johnny Mac highlighting the event with a cheesy doubles match.

How about this 28-year-old Jason Jung who lives in the U.S. but is from Taipei. He’s never won an ATP match, 0-4, but this week in the San Francisco Challenger, he’s beaten McDonald and Rubin, abused Rubin 3 and 1. Pretty amazing.

And how’s this stat line for Tennis-Prose fave, Brit-Aussie Brydan Klein, who’s currently dropped to no. 322: in his last 19 matches since the Vancouver Challenger, the week before the US Open, Klein has won a total of five matches. In seven of his 14 losses during this period, when his best win was against the American Bjorn Frantangelo who has kind of fallen off the pro tennis earth, Klein won the first set, but couldn’t pull out a third-set victory. In fact, Klein hasn’t win a three-set match since the last week of July when he beat a guy named Hugo Nys in Los Cabos, Mexico. Before that, Klein hadn’t won a three-set match since March of 2017 when he beat Jonathan Grey, no. 1,000+.

All in all, in three-set matches, since 2017 playing in only Challengers except for the Auckland ATP event in 2017, Klein is a dismal 6-20. That’s how you shoot a career in the foot.

There are no Brits in there. I don't know who to support unless I just say may the best man win.

Dan that’s outrageous. Who does this NY Open think it is? Denied a credential in New York? There is no tennis coverage in the States and they are denying reporters. Things are getting very bad.

I was considering going to the final but those prices are insane. Dan you are right that field is too weak to consider paying $100. For John ‘Servebot’ Isner? No way. Terrible job by this NY Open. I will encourage people I know in New York to boycott as well.

I saw pictures of the event and it looks awful.

Fed Cup news – 15 yr old Mostyuk (Ukr) bts Gavrilova, Canada struggling against Simona-less Roumania but doubles may help, and Germany’s B team (absent Kerber, Georges, Withoeft, Petrovic etc) face a tough time if the aforementioned A team stay away.

Another amazing match from Kvitova, dropping 2nd set 1-6 before cruising. Maybe Hartt forgot to water her new Petra plant 🙂

Simona in full Nike gear at Fed Cup.

Well, that was a good baptism of fire for Bianca and I’m sure she’s gained from the experience although she was probably pretty upset. Don’t know who the Canadian capt is but maybe he/she can provide reassurance.

Something I like about Mostyuk is that I have seen her venture to the net, which is a good sign at only 15.Let’s hope she carries on with that and doesn’t get defensive as she grows older.

Simona is going to be a small fish in a very big pool at Nike.

Scoop – this may seem a very silly question – but where does the prizemoney for small tournaments come from ? The amount through the gate is minimal I imagine.
And TV ? Surely not for minor events.Sponsors ? Not that much return from some tournaments.
I’ve often wondered.

The Venue, Nassau Veterans Col is a dump ( unless it’s been renovated heavily in the past few years) it was a dump even when I saw Dan play in the small school high school basketball championships there many many years ago ( they should give credentials for that), nowadays events in the big markets need to be easily accessible to public transportation to work, I think the exception is Indian Wells which is a destination itself, and Cincy, which really isn’t a major market and is more of a driving culture, NYC tennis fans will not want to travel to LI during the weekday unless it’s a marquee match. Really, NY tennis would be better served with a challenger event at Cary Leeds Center or some other location, I don’t think this event has any buzz.

Although Tiafoe Korda is an intriguing match, Tiafoe really can’t afford to lost that one but Korda May have more confidence now.

People in the South love tennis that is why I think the DC Cup tie should be there.

What a win for Kostyuk, can’t imagine playing for your country at that age. I saw Kiki cruised to a win also.

Vasek Pospisil into the Hungarian Open Final against the unknown Nicola Kuhn. Pops should be in the top 70 soon as he makes his way back to where he belongs.

D-Young v. Harrison is your best 1st-rounder at the New York City Open. That tells you the (poor) quality of the event right there.

Sandgren stupidly went to Argentina when he should have been in the Big Apple spotlight. That was a dumb idea.

Nicola Kuhn is unknown because he is all of 17 years old. I just watched his doubles match with Felix as his partner. The two youngsters won over a team of 25-year-old Hungarians in SS, in front of a Budapest crowd.

At first Nicola was the weak link, and Godry and Nagy targeted him. But he played better as the match went on, and he and Felix took it 6-4, 6-2. The poor kid will have 2 finals tomorrow – singles and doubles.

I was very relieved to see Felix’s level. He was not perfect, but more like his usual self after that disastrous singles match earlier this week. So it looks like it was just a bad day, and not an injury.

Scoop – thanks. I thought it was something like that. Would explain the appearance and disappearance of many events over the years.

Re Fed Cup – it’s very popular, and the national confrontations are well supported in many countries, as jg mentions above. Of course a lot of interest in Asheville is centred around Serena’s presence.

Jg,

I’m glad you remember that game. Yes, even then, the Nassau Coliseum was not a palace and yes, getting out to Long Island on public transportation is very difficult. I think it says something about the tournament when they’re stingy about granting press passes. Maybe it says that their box office sales are so bad that they even try to get media members to buy tickets. Although, I could be wrong as Indian Wells is very hard to get a media pass at and that tournament has become a huge success out in the Californian desert. I just don’t know if Long Island in February with Qball, Izzie and Nishikori can match Indian Wells in March with Fed, Nadal et al.

The New York City Open sounds terrible judging from what you guys are saying. I didn’t realize it was so far away from New York too.

Sloane Stephens v. Bouchard exhibition match? Hardly a championship bout.

Can’t wait to see if Simona, who is usually modestly dressed,turns out in those abbreviated Nike shorts I’ve seen around in Fed Cup. I thought Kostyuk was actually on her way to the beach. (I know, it’s Canberra, but maybe a swimming pool.)

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Petkovic%2FKerber+at+Brisbane+2016

Just to add to the conversation we had earlier about trophy presentation moments, this is one of my favourites where winners and losers, especially the losers, seem to be having a good time.

Andrea and Angie are always funny together.

Scoop,

Those are very innovative marketing stratagems. How about one day where the players all have to play their matches with Clement-like sunglasses?

Felix was given that WC some time ago – generous of the tourney. But he is playing in the final of the Budapest Challenger doubles, due to start any minute now. His partner, Nicola Kuhn, just lost to Pospisil in the singles final. The poor guy has had practically no time for “suitable rest” at all. Now I have to switch my cheering hats and root for young Kuhn.

I don’t know how Felix is going to manage to get to Rotterdam and prepare for that tourney – the time is pretty tight. But I suppose that is one advantage of being 17 – he is probably quite resilient. And it was nice to see the “old” Felix in the doubles SF – after that disastrous singles match this week he looked much more like his usual self.

Czechs win Fed Cup tie in Prague, can they ever lose there ?, and I saw that the matches began with a tribute to Jana Novotna and a minutes’ silence which left everyone in tears and as Petra said, not the way to begin, but maybe Jana’s spirit was with them because I can’t honestly see this team, barring accidents, losing.

Petra, pictured with her parents in Prague, seems very much the leader of the team now, a veteran of so many battles.
She was asked which Fed Cup match she remembered the most and was the toughest and she picked the 3 setter v Kerber in 2014. A thriller at the end.

And Germany, who I thought would be thrashed without the best players, got through in the doubles.

I think Tennis Canada does pay the players something for Davis Cup and Fed Cup, including the players who act as hitting partners. I doubt that it is a huge amount, not on the level of appearance fees. It would be interesting to know how different federations handle that.