Tennis Prose




Apr/22

15

Sock Falls But Sarasota Open Thriving

Jack Sock was the last or only marquee name in the 2022 Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open ATP Challenger before he fell in straight sets to Denis Kudla in the quarterfinal tonight but the tournament is thriving in the first year at the new Payne Park venue in downtown Sarasota.

Ticket sales “are way, way up” ahead of projections, said one tournament insider, the galleries have been packed and the tennis quality has been sensational. Sock again, as has been his unfortunate pattern all year, squandered the winning position and allowed Kudla to escape in both sets 75 64. Kudla will battle his longtime American rival Steve Johnson in tomorrow’s second semifinal.

Chilean Alejandro Tabilo outclassed American rising star JJ Wolf 60 64, with former ATP world no 1 Marcelo Rios cheering him on from a VIP table just behind his chair. Lefthander Tabilo had too much variety for Wolf, and superb performance even drew a hug from an impressed Rios.

Tabilo, who grew up in Toronto, will face Colombian Daniel Eladi Galan in the first semi final tomorrow. Galan won today’s quarterfinal when the Bulgarian Adrian Andreev retired down 2-0 due to a wrist injury. Tabilo told me after his win today that playing Galan will be a rematch of his first grand slam win, a five setter vs. Galan at Australian Open. Andreev was seen later watching Sock vs Kudla and his wrist didn’t seem badly injured enough to need any icing.

The Sarasota Open has been a wonderful success. Rios has been out watching the action twice this week and was in such a good mood he even did a rare media interview with local TV host Dave “The Koz.” Koz asked Rios what he learned from Nick Bollettieri? Rios answered, “Not to marry eight wives. And to smile all the time and be nice.”

Bollettieri was here earlier in the week, along with other celebrities like Dick Vitale, Jimmy Arias, and Bobby Bonilla.

Sock may have sputtered out of the tournament but in the first round he displayed again his extraordinary sportsmanship. In the second set of a close match vs Christian Harrison, Sock overruled an umpire call in his favor and gave the point to Harrison which also gave him the game. Sock did the same thing to Lleyton Hewitt in Hopman Cup years ago.

The tournament has progressed almost perfectly all week, even tonight dark clouds threatened the third set of Johnson vs. Mitchell Krueger but the downpour never happened.

There have been talks of plans to schedule the 2023 Sarasota Open ATP Challenger during the second week of the Miami Open, which would attract a lot of first week losers in Miami and possibly up to 15 top 100 ranked players which would add major star power to this blossoming event.

Tomorrow features the doubles final at 1, and then the first semi at 3 Galan vs. Tabilo, followed by Johnson vs Kudla.

No tags

Comments are closed.

<<

>>

Find it!

Copyright 2010
Tennis-Prose.com
To top