WISH WE COULD WATCH more matches. Verizon FIOSTV STOPPED CARRYING THE TENNIS CHANNEL.

Negotiating the FIOS bundle, when I said we had to have TENNIS CHANNEL Verizon rep said we had to buy their top tier plan, "Ultimate" ?

Had to sign up for 2 years to get the bundle price.

Now, Verizon has CANCELLED THE TENNIS CHANNEL because they do not want to pay for it.

What can we do?

Does anyone else have this problem?

Watch more at http://www.pennietour.com

Atlanta Tennis Championships 2011 - The Pennie Tour (via ThePennietour)

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Atlanta Tennis Championships

July 2011 – Norcross, Georgia-

Racquet Club of the South was the premier tennis host for the 2011 Atlanta Tennis Championships held July 18 through the 24th. The change of venue from the Atlanta Athletic Club, kicked off the first tournament of the annual men’s tennis as part of the ATP World Tour and also launch of the Olympus US Open Series Season.  Racquet Club of the South is the home club of Georgia’s tennis sweetheart and US top player Melanie Oudin. RCS offers a USTA Regional Training Center, eight indoor courts, 26 outdoor courts and two platform courts.  RCS also had an extensive air-conditioned indoor area to escape the sweltering July heat.

2010 ATC singles winner, Mardy Fish, John Isner, James Blake and many other tennis players returned to compete in Atlanta.  Isner , a 2010 finalist AND a Georgia Bulldawg, was a local favorite but in the end,  Mardy Fish retained his title.  It was like dejavu from last year’s 2010 ATC match, as Fish once again defeated Isner, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 to repeat his championship title.  The title was Fish’s first time to successfully defend a championship. Fish is also the first repeat winner since Andy Roddick’s repeat win in 2004.  Unfortunately Roddick did not make it to Atlanta this year for the ATC – we miss you Andy!!!

Along with onsite VIP parking and extra practice courts, RCS hosted many vendors and even a fun, family area!  Live music was provided by Wesley Cook, and guess what ladies, he’s available and a Jezebel magazine Most Eligible Atlanta Bachelor.  An outside bar, concessions and the air-conditioned International Food Court made this event enjoyable for the whole family!  Or, for the avid tennis fan – they also served cold beverages like BEER!  Who knew beer and tennis went so well together!  Hey, it is July in Georgia!

You couldn’t help but notice that Georgia hero John Isner was a bit tall.  At 6’9”, Isner towered over many of the attendees.  We thought we would have some fun and ask people their thoughts on height requirements….

Thanks for joining us at the Atlanta Tennis Championships.  Tennis Balls for everyone!

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I made it up to last year's open and had a great time seeing guys like Nadal, Fed, Djoker, and Murray. You know, guys who are pretty decent at tennis. (Actually, Murray was completely horrendous at last year's Open, but the others were quite good.)

A huge missing ingredient from last year's Open was the absence of Juan Martin Del Potro (delpo), who was the defending champ. Delpo is back in the mix this year, and even though he hasn't had the most impressive hard court season, all it takes is a couple good matches under your belt to get back in top form. And, when in top form, Delpo is arguably the best hardcourt player in tennis. And if it wasn't for the Djoker's obscene current level, I would have removed the "arguably" from the prior sentence. But can he win this tournament? These and other questions will be addressed Right. About. Now.


Contenders:

1. Novak Djokovic: Djokovic is the heavy favorite because he is simply playing better tennis than anybody else right now. And he is the only player in the draw who is immune to the random upset by a player not named Fed, Rafa, Delpo, or Murray. Outside of those players, nobody can beat Djokovic. You may notice that the best players in Djoke's quadrant are Gasquet, Berdych, Tipsy, and Monfils. You may also notice that none of those players are named Fed, Rafa, Delpo, or Murray. It logically follows that Djokovic has been appropriately penciled into the semifinals by yours truly.

To the extent you have convinced yourself that any of Gasquet, Berdych, Tipsy, or Monfils can beat Djoker, allow me to introduce you to my good friend Mr. Reality.

Djoker will meet Mardy Fish in the semi's. More on that in a second.

2. Rafa Nadal:
Many of you may note that something has been off with Rafa since Wimbledon, and that he hasn't looked like himself. I would agree, but I also don't read much into it. I mean, has Rafa ever won a U.S. Open tune-up tournament? Which is to, more specifically, ask: has Rafa ever won Montreal or Cincy? Let me know if I'm wrong, but I don't think he has.

What we also know about Rafa is that he is very much a player that needs to get his reps in. With continued reps muscle memory starts to produce better shots, better shots produce wins, which in turn results in increased confidence and increased opportunities for continued reps. You can rinse, lather, and repeat this cycle with Rafa, and eventually he'll find himself in top form, where he is basically unbeatable. His unbeatableness will end either with an injury or just fatigue from the grind. And he'll have to start the cycle from the beginning. This is just how Rafa is.

The reason the above paragraph is important in assessing his chances at winning this tournament, is that Rafa has a pretty pedestrian draw. Check out his quadrant and find somebody who has a chance of beating him? Youzhny? No. Roddick? No. Ferrer? No.

So what will happen is that Rafa will keep getting better with each match, and then after he beats Ferrer in a 4-set match to get to the semifinals, "emo Rafa" will have been completely replaced by "confident Rafa".

3. Mardy Fish:
Fish and Federer are in the same quadrant. If they end up meeting in the quarters, who do you think wins? If you answered Federer, you are operating on the assumption that his form will have improved by the time that match takes place. Because if Fish had played Federer at any point this summer, the evidence points to the conclusion that he would have won.

I really like the way Fish is playing right now, and so I predict he will make it to the semi's. But once there, he will likely be matched up against a not-so-shabby opponent by the name of Novak. Fish and Novak recently played in the Montreal final, and Fish showed that he can play with the Djoker. By no means was he outclassed, and indeed right up until the very end, Fish was in a position to win the match. If they end up playing again in the Semi’s, I definitely give Fish a decent chance of winning. To be clear, I give Djokovic much better chances of winning, but a Fish victory would not be shocking to me. To put it another way, at present form, Fish would beat Djokovic twice for every 9 matches they played. Djokovic prevails 7-2 in a best of 9 series.

4. Andy Murray:
I know. I know. But he's in good form, and the most dangerous guy in his quadrant is Delpo. I mentioned before how good Delpo is on hard courts when he is in top form, but he is just SO FAR away from top form right now that I think it would be unreasonable to conclude that he is going to be able to get there in 4 matches.

Good form though Murray may be in, think about this for a second. Or, rather, just do a little exercise with me. Close your eyes and then picture in your imagination Andy Murray beating Rafa Nadal in a grand slam semifinal. ::waiting 5 seconds::

You couldn't do it could you? I couldn't. I mean, I could for a second, but the scene looked so not believable that I started giggling. Sorry Andy Murray.  That wasn't personal, I promise.

5. Delpo:
See the Andy Murray section above, but assume Delpo was able to pull out a win. He would likely have Rafa in the semifinals, and at that point would be bursting with confidence. He would have a decent -- or maybe even good -- chance of winning that match. From there, we would be able to say that he is indeed at top form, and we would likely be seeing a lot of that punishing punishing Delpo forehand where it appears that the ball has been shot out of a damn cannon.

I'm not picking Delpo, but I can't rule him out because he's got that punchers chance.

6. Roger Federer:
I'm putting him this low, not because I think he is the 6th best player in the world, but because he already upset Djokovic this year by playing his best tennis of the year and it isn't happening again. Nobody's beating Djokovic twice this year. Mark that down.

That covers it. Don't talk yourself into anybody else, and I wouldn't even talk myself into Federer if I were you.

In gambling terms, this tournament is really all about Djokovic vs. The Field.  If it were even money, I would take the field over Djokovic, but Djokovic is definitely the heavy favorite.

My unsurprising pick: Novak Djokovic

The Atlanta Tennis Championships begin Monday and the draw was released on Saturday. As Rick Limpert noted in his article, the draw is not top-heavy but features many young rising players as well as a slew of Americans.

Quarter I

(1)Mardy Fish (USA) bye
Richard Berankis (LTU) vs Nicolas Mahut (FRA)
Michael Berrer (GER) vs Tatsuma Ito (JPN)
Ryan Sweeting (USA) vs (8)Somdev Devvarman (IND)

I think this is a pretty good draw for Fish. Richard Berankis, the talented Lithuanian, who was ranked as high as 71 this year, is coming off a long strech of not playing, but still could give Fish some trouble should he beat marathon man Nicolas Mahut. I also think the winner of the Somdev Devvarman vs Ryan Sweeting match could give Fish a little trouble. Sweeting is coming off his first career win at Wimbledon and has a clay court title from earlier this season in Houston. I like Devvarman and easily advance against Berrer or Ito. Projected Semifinalist- Fish

Quarter II

4)Xavier Malisse (BEL) bye
(q) vs Ryan Harrison (USA)
Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) vs (q)
(q) vs (5)Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)

This is certainly the most interesting quarter, but there is much uncertainty due to the number of qualifiers in this quarter. Two aging veterans and two youngsters on the rise. Assuming Harrison can get by the qualifier, which is not a given, he is known to play up or down to his opponent, I believe he can beat Malisse. Lleyton Hewitt dominated Kei Nishikori in the first round of Wimbledon only to blow a 2 set lead to Robin Soderling in the second round. However, his play surprised me and I think he is a player to watch in this tournament, hoping to get his career back on track after several bouts with injuries. Grigor Dimitrov is a very dangerous player, once nicknamed, "baby Fed," but I think Hewitt can defeat him and set up a battle with American Ryan Harrison. If Dimitrov wins, however, a Dimitrov-Harrison match is very appealing. Projected Semifinalist- Hewitt

Quarter III

(6)Igor Kunitsyn (RUS) vs (q)
Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) vs Matthias Bachinger (GER)
James Blake (USA) vs Ernests Gulbis (LAT)
(3)John Isner (USA) bye

I don't really believe the top half of this quarter will pose much of a threat to the bottom of this quarter, so lets start with the bottom. James Blake vs Ernests Gulbis. Gulbis is known for his lack of mental toughness, but he is very talented. Blake is working his way back, and is up to 89 in the world. Both players lost tough matches in the first round of Wimbledon. I like/hope Blake can win and set up a duel with Isner. I like Isner in the quarter easily, and he is coming off of a tournament win in Newport last week. Projected Semifinalist- Isner

Quarter IV

7)Alex Bogomolov Jr. (USA) vs Gilles Muller (LUX)
(WC)Tommy Haas (GER) vs (WC)Robby Ginepri (USA)
(WC)Donald Young (USA) vs Michael Russell (USA)
(2)Kevin Anderson (RSA) bye

Gilles Muller, a journeymen  Lëtzebuerger with an amazing ace to double fault ratio could make some noise in the quarter. I think he can beat the tempermental Bogomolov Jr and then he will face the winner of Tommy Haas and Robby Ginepri, two former top 20 players ranked outside of 300 because of injuries. I 'll take Ginepri to beat Haas, partially because I'm American and the tournament is in Ginepri's home state of Georgia. But I like Muller to win the next match. He put together an impressive performance in a 3rd round loss to Nadal at Wimbledon this year. Donald Young, another Georgia boy, will take on Michael Russell, a tough guy competitor. I think Young will take it, but you know it won't happen without a fight from Russell. WIth all that being said, I like the hard serving South African to advance to the semis. Projected Semifinalist- Anderson

Those projections would set up Fish vs Hewitt and Isner vs Anderson. I would like world number 8 Fish to advance and the second match would be a rematch of last year's semifinal where Isner won in 3 sets. Isner is 6'9''. Anderson is 6'8". I'll say the extra inch makes the difference.

In a rematch of last year's final, I'll say the result is the opposite with Isner being crowned the 2011 Atlanta Tennis Championships Champion.

Should be a great tournament!

Some of you may be familiar with the game, others may not, but it is actually a pretty fun game. For the US Open Series, there are 6 mens tournaments. YOu pick a bracket for each of the tournament, round by round, before each tournament starts. After you make your picks, you email them to drawchallenge@yahoo.com . Here is what a typical entry from last year looks like.

1st round

Kevin Anderson
Robby Ginepri
Ryan Sweeting
Janko Tipsarevic
Mardy Fish
James Blake
Xavier Malisse
Ernests Gulbis
Karol Beck
Temyuraz Gabashvili
Qualifier
Horacio Zeballos

2nd round
Andy Murray
Ernests Gulbis
Feliciano Lopez
Mardy Fish
Janko Tipsarevic
Marcos Baghdatis
Robby Ginepri
Sam Querrey

Quarterfinals

Sam Querrey
Marcos Baghdatis
Feliciano Lopez
Andy Murray

Semifinal

Marcos Baghdatis
Andy Murray

 Final Andy Murray



We keep all picks, results, and updates at drawchallenge.webs.com . It is a fun game, but we need at least 2 or 3 more people to play. Right now, we have 3 and last year we had 5-6. (4 of them being from The Daily Forehand.) If you would like to play, please email drawchallenge@yahoo.com so I can have your email address and will be able to know if you are playing. We need at least 2-3 people. Please respond as quickly as you can. Thanks. We also keep track of the overall standings for each tournament to determine a US Open Series Champion. Last year's winner was Big Al.

If Paul Annacone wants to earn his money, he needs to teach Federer how to better read a match.  Against Tsonga in the Wimbledon QFs, Federer played about as good a technical match as anyone who's ever lost.  He was hitting balls cleanly throughout.  He had a 5-1 winners/UE ratio.  I don't think he has a single double fault.

But for all that skill and execution, he played a horrible tactical match.  He had his game plan, and he didn't vary. He needed to mix things up. Serve and volley. Chip and charge. Some off-speed junk now and again. Move around on the return of serves.  Serve and volley (which he did, I'd wager, no more than 3 times all match).  Anything to keep Tsonga off balance and get him out of his rhythm.  If he had done that, he likely would have won.

This has been a Federer problem for years now.  When Annacone came on, they talked about him getting more aggressive, especially on the return. And he has.  But that's not all he needs to do. He needs to recognize when his game plan going in needs to be adjusted and respond on the fly.  You simply should not lose a match where you play so well, without more of a fight.

In my view, Federer should have even more majors than he has. He should have won the Nadal AO/Wimbledon 5-set loss finals, where his unwillingness to do anything but chip returns back into play came back to haunt him, and the DelPorto US Open final, where his desire to try and match pace with DelPorto backfired.  I'd even bet he could have even pulled off one of the early French finals against Nadal, when Nadal served *exclusively* to his backhand, if he had just tried to give Nadal a reason to mix it up on serve.

 Federer still has time to win more Slams...but its running short. DelPorto is almost fully back. Murray/Nadal/Djokovic aren't going anywhere.  You've got Soderling, Berdych, and Tsonga capable of pulling the upset.  And in a few years, Dmitrov, Tomic, and the next wave are coming. 

The first week has been thrilling one to say the least. Their were upsets (I'm looking at you Berdych and Almagro) and their are qualifiers and unknowns still playing (Falla, Fognini, Chela). Champions got pushed (Rafa and Inser, Djoker and Del Potro) and a streak continues (42 and counting). But the biggest thing to me is that 8 of the top 10 seeds are still playing, which will make this week a great one for tennis fans. After the jump I will preview the fourth round and give my predictions for the rest of the tourney.

Continue reading this post »

                                                    Match of the Day... and Tournament So Far

Rafael Nadal survives a five set thriller at Court Philippe Chatrier against American big guy John Isner. The final score was 6-4 6-7 6-7 6-2 6-4. Nadal got off to the start he needed by winning the first set with a single break. He lead the second set by a break also, but a key Isner breakback was vital in getting the set into a tiebreaker. In teibreakers, Isner took over as he won both the second and third set tiebreaks 7-2. Nadal handily won the fourth set, and an early break in the fifth set gave the victory to world #1 ranked Raphael Nadal. Said Nadal, “Tough, tough moments for me. I played too nervous, in my opinion.”

                                                   Sam Wins One for the Americans

Last year, heading into Roland Garros, Sam Querrey was playing well, having won a tournament on clay in the previous weeks. The result: A straight sets loss to Robby Ginepri in the first round. Now Sam had been struggling and faced a difficult opponent in Philip Kohlschrieber. A perennial seed, Kohlschrieber won the first set and it looked like Querrey may be headed down the road of a first round loss. But he turned it around, dominating the second set 6-1. He won the third set 6-2 and the fourth set 6-4. Querrey converted 5 more aces than the German, and only gave up one break of service. It was Querrey's first ever win at Roland Garros.

                                                    Soderling, Murray Advance

Andy Murray looked impressive in a straight set win over unheralded Frenchman Eric Prodon. Soderling had a little more trouble however, as he needed 4 sets to dispatch 19 year old American Ryan Harrison. Harrison stole the second set in a tiebreak and gave Soderling, two time runner up, everything he could handle. All in all, a promising day for the future of American tennis.

                                                    Almagro Loses

That's all I have to say about that. My final four sleeper Almagro lets me down again in a 5 set loss to Lukasz Kubot in a match where the Spaniard blew a 2 set lead. Au revoir Nicolas.

                                                                  Best Bet Tomorrow

There are top players in action tomorrow, including some Frenchmen, but I think this may be one of the more competative ones. I like Nishikori, who reached a clay final in Houston, to reach the round of 32 and fulfil project-45, a goal set by Nishikori and his crew to get his ranking up to 45, which would make him the highest ever ranked Japanese player.