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The Del Potro Show In Delray Beach
3 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
Juan Martin Del Potro is now the star of the tournament after Andy Roddick pulled out due to illness. Delpo is still not back to his top form yet. The gentle giant’s game is still stuck in third gear, as he blew a break lead in the first but ended up winning the set with a backhand crosscourt pass when Richard ‘Don’t Call Me Ricardis’ Berankis, mishandled the backhand volley wide.
Delpo, sporting an orange shirt and black shorts, said he “missed everything” about tennis while he was out for a year with the wrist injury. He says he is still not where he wants to be and articulated it this way at the post-match press conference which was attended by eight reporters including two Argentines. “When I play top 100 player I beat them easier than today. When I play top 10 players I have more confidnece than I do today.”
I asked Del Potro who he believes will be the next ATP world #1. His reponse: “I don’t know…Rafa, Roger, Djokovic…one of those three. Djokovic has the game to beat every one of them. And he will be #1 for sure, before Federer retires or after.”
It’s been a somewhat bizarre event so far, with Roddick pulling out, Ryan Harrison also struggled with some kind of illness in his first round three-set loss, reminiscent on court of Pete Sampras vs. Alex Corretja at the U.S. Open. And many fans, media, staff still talking about the “rampage” as one veteran photog put it that John McEnroe displayed against Aaron Krickstein in the third place match.
On the way out to center court to watch Donald Young and Jack Sock up a break in the second against Ashley Fisher and Steve Huss, I spotted Denis Kudla and Andrea Collarini on their way in. After jokingly asking Kudla for his autograph, I told the U.S. Open junior finalst that the Americans were up a break on the Aussies to which he replied, “That’s a surprise.”
Dan Markowtiz’s favorite player Dustin Brown had two points to take a 4-1 lead on Sam Querrey in the third set but he missed a lob long and caught the tape on an attempted winner. Q-Ball took advantage of the opportunity and went on a roll, winning five straight games to win the match. It was a rematch of their Newport upset last year when Brown shocked the recent Queens Club winner in two stunningly quick sets. Brown also lost a close match in dubs with partner Rogier Wassen and said next he’s on his way to Dallas. Brown also said he will play Newport again this year.
Kei Nishikori will meet James Blake in Wednesday’s night match, a rematch of their 2008 final.
I was able to get a Biofile with Ivan Dodig, the recent winner of the ATP Zagreb event. Dodig will play Dudi Sela on Wednesday afternoon.
On Tuesday afternoon, before reaching Delray, I had to stop at a media workout of boxing champion Miguel Cotto, which was held at Heavyweight Factory Gym across the street from the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood which is about 25 miles south on I-95 from Delray Beach. I spoke with the promoter Bob Arum who told me that one year while attending Roland Garros, he met Martina Navratilova at a boxing match in Paris. Arum said Martina is a “big boxing fan.” The Hall of Fame promoter says he watched Guy Forget and Yannick Noah in an afternoon five-setter and almost suffered a case of sunstroke but otherwise enjoyed the experience. He’s also attended the U.S. Open and Wimbledon.
Emanuel Steward, who trains three-time champ Cotto, says the other boxers in the camp play tennis almost every day because there is a court near the complex in Fort Lauderdale they are staying at. He says Andy Lee, a middleweight contender from Ireland is the king of the court. Cotto will defend his super welterweight title against Ricardo Mayorga on March 12 in Las Vegas.
Querrey, Blake and Berankis are in Delray without coaches. David Nainkin didn’t make the trip from LA for Querrey who is looking to end his 2011 slump. His win over Brown could be the win that sparks a hot streak for the likeable Californian.
Sock/Young were impressively up 6-3 in the match tiebreak but Sock tightened up and missed some makeable shots at net and the far more experienced tandem of Huss/Fisher took charge to escape with the win 10-6.
Faces in the Delray crowd: Mark McEnroe. Brenda Schultz-McCarthy. Richard Evans. Art Seitz. Sandra Harwitt. Franco Davin.
Delpo looks to regain winning touch
Dan markowitz · February 23, 2011 at 7:35 pm
Geez, not the biggest event when the top celebrity there is
mark McEnroe. What did Jmac do? Give details.
Scoop Malinowski · February 23, 2011 at 10:54 pm
Mark mcEnroe was watching the doubles match on side court of Brunstrom/Zelezny vs. Rojer/Butorac. Johnny Mac went on “rampage” as a top photog described it, the usual F bombs, visit from the tourney referee, then other people said it was the same calibre of volcanicness as last year which was not all that bad as I remember it. Some feathers were certainly ruffled though, that’s for sure.
Scoop Malinowski · February 23, 2011 at 11:05 pm
Another interesting sight here is this older gentleman driving some sort of purple and green carpeted souped up golf cart which has a state of the art sound system from which he blares disco music, he passed by me three times today on Atlantic Ave, playing Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff” “It Only Takes A Miracle” and a couple of others I don’t know the titles of. But a very interesting character. I asked him for a lift back a couple of blocks to the tennis site but he declined. They have a great health food deli about five blocks away, really good tune and spinach on whole wheat.