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Thursday At Qualies with Rosol, Canas and Harkleroad?
17 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Bios, Scoop
Roger Federer worked a kid’s clinic indoors in the afternoon and was more than generous with his time and also had a lot of fun with the kids, a worker at the clinic told me. Federer could have showed up and waved hello and said goodbye in a couple of minutes and everybody would have been happy. But Federer stayed for an hour and twenty minutes. Everyone was beyond thrilled.
They’re still not done constructing the new two-tier Hieneken bar lounge arena near the practice courts. And it looks like they have a long way to go.
Rhyne Williams beat Golubev, who was playing ATP events earlier in the year. Jack Sock, last year’s mixed doubles champ with Melanie Oudin, came by to show support.
Murray practiced with Monaco on Armstrong. Lopez was with Ferrer.
I saw some of Mitchell Krueger, the highly touted 18-year-old American, lose a close one to South African veteran Rik De Voest 6-4 in the third. In the third set something happened that I’ve never seen before. Krueger was serving at deuce and on two consecutive points his shot hit the line and was called out by the linesperson but then instantly overruled by the chair umpire. Krueger was livid by contained it well. He would eventually lose the game.
I was able to do a Biofile with De Voest moments after the big win.
Tobias Kamke was hitting on the practice court right in front of the Heineken construction site and exactly three people were watching. He looked sharp too but nobody knew who he was.
The last match of the night ended just before ten on court 17 with Paula Ormaechea besting Madison Keys in two sets 64 62.
Lukas Rosol lost some fans today after his win in straight sets over Colombia’s Alejandro Gonzalez on court seven, he ducked the huge throng waiting for photos and signatures by running over to the side exit. Still, some astute fans caught up to him over there and had their photo and autograph requests rebuffed. Rosol ran out of there with a towel over his head as disguise. Fans were not too happy with the superstar treatment, especially when guys like Djokovic and Nadal are incredibly generous with their time for fans. I will never forget Nadal signing everything for everyone after an Armstrong practice last year and then hopping the barrier and climbing into the stands – without security – to leave the court that way. On his way through the crowd, Nadal signed some more and took more photos with fans. Unbelievable.
Spoke with Guillermo Canas for a minute about his two wins in 2007 over Federer by court seven. While we spoke, his new player that he coaches Teymuraz Gabashvili, on his way back the locker room after beating Simon Gruel 7-5 in the third on court eight, was super intense, sweaty and smiled scowled a muffled VAMOS!! to Canas. It was cool to see the facial expression of such fire and passion in a pro player after a big win. Canas is just coaching Gabashvili for this week but by that positive interaction look for the two to stay together longer. Canas, looking jacked up and muscular, operates an academy in Key Biscayne.
Marco Trungelliti of Argentina was playing American lefty Bradley Klahn in a bright pink shirt. Far more eye-catching than that one Dominik Hrbaty wore about eight years ago.
Dustin Brown lost to Tim Smyczek 64 64.
A couple of upsets for young American prospects – Laruen Davis lost to Julia Glushko and Krista Hardebeck fell to Tatjana Malek.
Grigor Dimitrov was supporting his buddy and sometimes doubles partner Dimitry Tursunov who beat Rochette of France. Tursunov, ever the clown, was communicating and making faces at Dimitrov while on court.
Remember Elena Bovina? The tall pretty Russian is still around the pro tour but she lost to another Russian.
Oddest sight of the day: I saw a Filippino fan named Miranda sporting a custom made white shirt with the Ashley Harkleroad Playboy Magazine cover on the back.
A player to watch: 16-year old Croatian Donna Vekic defeated the #7 seeded Karolina Pliskova.
Rosol
Miranda with his Harkleroad shirt
Dustin Brown
Harkleroad makes an appearance · sort of
Dan markowitz · August 24, 2012 at 5:40 pm
I’m out here on Friday at Court 7 watching Gulbis practice. He’s got a new coach and the weirdest forehand I’ve ever seen. With a severe Western grip, he takes the racket back sideways around his body and hits it with a straight arm, real unwieldy looking.
Nieminem practicing on the same court has a shirt that says, “id hit it,” and his partner has the “Just Do It ” shirt on. The sexual innuendo is high.
Dan markowitz · August 24, 2012 at 6:28 pm
Out on Court 4 and I don’t believe my eyes. I’m watching Daniel Kosakawski, a young American from So Cal and he actually has a one handed backhand and a good one . He looks kinda short, but he’s got a big serve and heavy spin on his forehand. He’s up 3-0 to a Japanese player and the two of them combined, if they went to a bar, would probably get carded. Someone in the crowd just said, “Come on, Danny boy” I like the moniker and this kid.
Dan markowitz · August 24, 2012 at 6:49 pm
Ryan Harrison is practicing on Court 5 and Tim Mayotte was watching him. I asked zoom what he thought of his strokes and he said , “He’s a mess.” his footwork on his backhand is all off, he doesn’t open up his hips enough, says Mayotte as he demonstrated how his feet are too closed. On his fh, Mayotte says he keeps his elbow in too close to his body and comes across his waist with the follow through rather than extending out. Mayotte says every inch you get the racket back produces 10 mor mph. Mayotte says he told all this to PMAC last year after being on court with RH and PMac got mad at him.
Michael · August 24, 2012 at 7:05 pm
I walk into Armstrong about 240pm. Fed is just finished with Cilic and the courtside seats are packed. I’m standing in the aisle. Fed takes off his sweatband and throws it towards me and it lands just at my feet. I make no move toward it because who wants that sweaty thing (later I think I would have been fun to throw it back at him and why doesn’t anyone do that). Anyway, some ADULT just about about knocks me over to get to the effin’ thing. People are crazy.
Scoop Malinowski · August 25, 2012 at 1:06 am
Just one year ago Gulbis was slaughtering Youzhny in straight sets. Then he got zapped out of the tourney by Muller. Now Gulbis is a forgotten man. Jarkko is wearing the Wilson shirt that’s one of their slogans, saw it last year.
Andrew Miller · August 25, 2012 at 1:36 am
Dan, Kosakowski! That guy has an easy game on the eyes, I love how he hardly needs to move to shots – suggests good footwork and anticipation. Too bad he lost – he played 1 year at UCLA and I was watching youtube clips of him. Ease of game – just makes it look easy. Maybe he’ll make it.
Man, that Mayotte analysis was spot on. Ryan Harrison’s attitude makes wins possible on tour, and I think he’s also destroying the possibility of big wins vis a vis his stroke mechanics. Harrison makes Nadal’s unnatural strokes look “beautiful” (sometimes Nadal’s strokes are beautiful). But no matter how much I cringe at his mechanics and the apparent lack of strategy and lack of court sense, Harrison’s a lot tougher, sees himself through to decent wins, and I respect his on court toughness.
Mayotte’s letter in response to Wayne Bryan certainly showed someone with a love of the game. Maybe Mayotte will be a coach – take someone like Kosakowski under his wing, or Rhyne Williams, or anyone. Who WOULDNT want Mayotte on his side?
And to bring up some taboo subjects, like race, listen, if Vince isn’t the coach for DY, why not someone who’s been there and faced similar pressures on tour. There are some pretty solid former players that are coaching who reflect the amazing diversity of the country. It would be interesting to see someone like Malivai Washington back in the game – Malivai has the kind of structure of game that would benefit a player like Donald Young. Or how about Bryan Shelton from Georgia Tech – I loved watching that guy play – he hit a huge ball.
Andrew Miller · August 25, 2012 at 2:06 am
Mayotte’s comment on Harrison’s footwork looks right. I watched some clips – as I am not sure what I am looking at, the only thing I can say is he’s out of position an awful lot, which makes it easy for a Cilic or a Djokovic to knock him off balance (on almost every shot), then put him away.
I know my bias – real hard to watch awkward mechanics. For me as a tennis fan Harrison’s game is very difficult to suffer through – aint gonna lie, O switch to different matches just to avoid watching a bad looking game. But if it works for him, it works for him. I just shake my head and wonder – isn’t there some way for these strokes to get straightened out? Mayotte’s comment on the footwork would be welcome too – probably the easier of the two things to fix. Fix the footwork, then start changing that game, make it more lethal, less ugly.
Same criticisms as always. Spinny forehand. No court-sense. Toughness in spades. Will to win indisputable. No weapons. Decent serve. Groundstrokes from who knows where!
Michael · August 25, 2012 at 3:44 am
So if it was my blog the post would be “Federer throws his dirty laundry at me and some guy knocks me over to get at it.”
The tail end of that story begun in my earlier post from the tennis center is a women next door watching Roddick practice on the Grandstand saw the scene and told me she would have paid me $50 for the dirty wristband. And then we got into talking about pheromones and other Federer material that would repel men but attract women…
It was fairly crowded today (Fri). In fact while Dan’s report of a certain period Tuesday may have been his experience it highlights the fact that there are many USO experiences. There are at least 3 very distinct periods (qualies, week 1 and week 2) and within those, depending on what time you go, where you sit and and what you see, you will also have widely different experiences.
But I can tell you overall, the qualies to a practical extent (as in watching the field oourt matches) can get crowded. It was hopping today. And the last match Berankis v Smyczek was almost full during the last set. That court alone holds about 2800. There had to be 6-8,000 people today if I had to guess. Main Draw gets around 25-27K (I think). But 15K min must get sucked up between the 2 stadiums and the GS. Plus a chunk in the food court and the USO club and that mexican place and the bars. So, yes, main draw is a zoo but the qualies are not exactly a ghost town. They can get crowded too. I couldn’t get a seat courtside to watch Fed practice which is why I must have been an easy target for him. I was standing.
They must be getting Ashe ready for Kids Day tomorrow so players like Fed and Suger-Pova who have been practicing on Ashe were pushed to Armstrong. Joker likes to practice on Armstrong anyway. I missed him but was told he pulled a little kid on the court with him to hit. Joker is already a huge crowd fav in NY but if he keeps this up someday he will reach Fed/Nadal heights.
Scoop pointed out Tim Mayotte to me at the Grandstand and I told Tim that I saw him play that great 5-set with Lendl on the same court (though it had a different seat layout then) and it was a classic match. Tim said he was glad he was a part of it and then turned to his friend and said he lost it in 5.
I wonder if Tim will run across Lendl during the event and whether players reminisce about great matches they had with each other like the fans do about those matches. Or it’s more like Springsteen sings in “Glory Days.”
I told Tim I heard he was teaching tennis at the club in Chelsea but he said he was teaching at Cunningham Park, which is not too far from the USTA Tennis Center. Gentleman Tim was his nickname way back when and it’s not too bad a name to be tagged with.
There were some American juniors watching Roddick practice along with one of the USTA coaching guys. The USTA guy said I should take the juniors photo because she would be a star so I did and told her I would check her out during the juniors. I remember bumping into Oudin’s mother at the food court years ago and she said, you should shoot my daughter later that day. So I did. She was playing Pavlychenkova. So to close the circle. This junior turns out to be Oudin’s hitting partner during this USO. Small world tennis is. The USTA guy told me a bunch of kids that train at the center. McCale (from NJ I think) is the only name I remember. Maybe the USTA tennis center will revive Long Island tennis and it will become like Florida is today. But I bet JMac and his academy would have another view on who will revive the area for Jr. Development.
I saw Polansky briefly, Pliskova (the lefty), Burnett (very excited, first time qualifying I believe. Mother/coach was pretty excited too), a lot of practice (don’t tell Dan). Then a little here and little there. Roddick intentionally cracked a racket during his practice with Devermann. He did some autographs but nothing compared to the time Fed put in.
Michael · August 25, 2012 at 3:45 am
Agree completely with Miller’s analysis of Harry’s game. But I like to watch him.
loreley · August 25, 2012 at 12:09 pm
I don’t think that Gulbis is forgotten. There is always a lot of talk on twitter when he is playing.
He was never really in the focus of the media anyways. They care about the top-4 and not so much about a guy from Latvia. Media doesn’t even report a lot about Berdych and he is top-10. They also ignored Davydenko until he won WTF in London.
The name of Gulbis’ coach is Günter Bresnik, he is from Austria and coached Boris Becker in the past.
Ernests played qualifying at Winston Salem. Made it into 3rd round, where he lost in 3 sets against Granollers. Probably he was worn from the 6 matches in 5 days. He drew Tommy Haas for 1st round. I hope he can handle him.
Here is an new article about Gulbis. The guy talked with him after his 2nd round match against Anderson:
http://adjustingthenet.com/2012/08/21/ernests-gulbis-talks-rankings-reputation-and-new-york/
loreley · August 25, 2012 at 12:18 pm
I forgot to say, that I enjoyed your reporting from the Qualifying. Good job guys.
Scoop Malinowski · August 25, 2012 at 1:11 pm
Thanks Lorely, and thanks for reading and supporting the site. I enjoyed that interview with Gulbis, he is a genuine person and very sincere, he is definitely different than most of the other star players and it’s so refreshing. I can see why Gulbis has so many devoted fans, he is a special kind of tennis player and person. Really hope he can get to the top 50 or higher.
Scoop Malinowski · August 25, 2012 at 1:14 pm
As always Michael your essay of your day at the Open is captivating reading. You have a one of a kind perspective and you always see or stumble across things. Tim Mayotte is indeed a classic, one of the great guys of the sport.
Steve · August 25, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Looks like a great day. I have some killer photos from a fez years ago, Scoop, Ill send you a link:
Scoop Malinowski · August 25, 2012 at 2:25 pm
Thanks Steve, and thanks for checking in from Northern Italy.
Dan Markowitz · August 25, 2012 at 4:17 pm
What the hell are you doing in Northern Italy during the US Open?
adb · August 26, 2012 at 12:19 pm
So what’s surprising about Canas looking bulked up? He doesn’t have to pee in a cup anymore for anybody, since he’s not playing. Cheater then, maybe now. Cannot trust the guy.