Patricia Mayr contemplates what hell she will raise next. Photo by Ben Rothenberg, via The Daily Forehand's Picasa

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BRONX--While Hurricane Bill steered east of New York City, the powerful gusts of  Patricia Mayr are swirling around the boroughs for a couple weeks.

Mayr, a 22-year old from Austria currently ranked #82 was one of the players in the Bronx Open draw that I was most excited to see.  I had never seen her play, but the accounts of the havoc she wrought in Budapest had me excited to see just how nuts she would be.

Her first round match against Paraguay's Rossana de los Rios was not nearly as packed as I would have hoped.  Clearly the word had not yet reached New York tennis fans as to just how crazy this unassuming Austrian blonde could be.  At 34, de los Rios is easily one of the oldest singles players on the tour, and I was curious to see how a player with her experience would grapple with Mayr's sophomoric tendencies.

The match started out relatively calmly, with Mayr holding easily.  Then de los Rios held easily to level the first set at 1-1.  Furious at herself for even dropping one game, Mayr cocked her racquet back as though she was going to smash it into the light pole, but resisted. 

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Galina Voskoboeva prepares to smack a forehand (Photo by Ben Rothenberg)

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BRONX--The match up of 90th-ranked Galina Voskoboeva and 312th-ranked Kimberly Couts did not look to be a close one on paper.  Voskoboeva travels the globe on the WTA tour, and has taken a set off of Maria Sharapova in Doha, whereas Couts plays North American challengers almost exclusively.

Nor did it look like it would be a close match in the early going.  Voskoboeva got off to a 4-0 lead, and held on to win the first set 6-1.  Voskoboeva crushed the ball off of her forehand side time and time again, hitting winners and drawing numerous forced errors off the Couts racquet.

But despite the lopsided early going, Couts hung tough and cut down on her unforced errors, reeling off four games in a row to close out the set 6-3 and send the match to a decider.

"In the second set I lost a little concentration," said Voskoboeva.  "I had many chances which I lost."

The final set started routinely enough, with each player holding twice to bring the score to 2-2.  But from there it went haywire, with the next eight games all ending in breaks.  Both players screamed in frustration after losing points on serve, with Voskoboeva twice melodramatically collapsing to the ground after being broken.

"It was a very nervous match," Voskoboeva admitted.

"I don't know why it happened!" "In the beginning I had a good serve, and"It's really frustrating, because I'm sure we both felt like 'hey, we can hold serve!'" Couts said of the third set break-fest.

Disgusted with her charge's play, Voskoboeva's coach Tatiana Naumko stormed off the court after Voskoboeva was broken for 6-5.

"I left because she did mistakes," Naumko said after the match.  "We work for this.  It's getting better, but in the end she got nervous, and I was disappointed."

"When I left, I knew it would get better."

"I saw that she left, and I knew that I was playing wrong, but what could I do?" Voskoboeva laughed.  "I had to keep playing."

The tactic might have worked.  Voskoboeva broke to send the set to a deciding tiebreak.  Voskoboeva raced out to a 4-0 lead, but Couts answered with four points of her own to level the tiebreak at 4-4.  Voskoboeva stayed calm, and won three of the last four points to win the match, ending it on an ace (a call Couts protested vocally and by throwing her racquet to the ground).

Despite the difficult loss, Couts appeared remarkably composed after the match, able to keep the match in perspective only a few minutes later.

"She's a great player. she's top 100, and she's there for a reason." Couts said of Voskoboeva afterwards.  "Coming close to beating somebody like that is nothing but a confidence booster." 

"But of course, in the immediate right now, I'm really disappointed."

via www.nyjtl.org

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For the next couple days I'll be at the EmblemHealth Bronx Open, a $100k ITF women's challenger being held this week in Crotona Park in the Bronx.

With lots of players wanting to get warmed up for the US Open next week, it's a pretty strong field made up of predominantly players who have already qualified for the US Open.  Big names include Anna-Lena Groenefeld, Julie Coin, and recent TDF interviewee Vania King.  There are also a couple intriguing blast-from-the-past wild cards in Alexandra Stevenson and Mirjana Lucic.

It's my first time going to a stand-alone challenger, so I'm not entirely sure what to expect, but I hope I'll be able to get some interesting looks at and insights into the lives of the non-marquee, grinding players on the upper end of the top 100.

Fernando Gonzalez, via d.yimg.com

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WASHINGTON--With the type of tennis displayed by the two top ranked South Americans in the ATP today, it's not only Argentina that should be cried for--it's Chile as well.

Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro defeated Chilean Fernando Gonzalez 7-6(2), 6-3 in the semifinal of the ATP 500 level Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, DC.  The match started with some excellent shot-making on both sides, but dissolved into a lackadaisical, sloppy display in the second.

Almost the entire first set was made up of some real nice tennis, with the two players riding strong serves and massive forehands to some brilliant shot making.  The preference for the forehand both players displayed was almost ridiculous at points, with Gonzalez running around his backhand on every possible opportunity.  Gonzalez even managed to run around his backhand to return an out wide serve with his forehand, hitting an inside-out winner while standing outside the doubles alley.

On serve at 5-5 in the first, the quality of play really picked up.  Each of the two needed six deuces to hold serve for the tiebreak, with del Potro saving three Gonzalez set points to level the set at 6-6.

Perhaps demoralized by the blown set points, Gonzalez's forehand disappeared in the tiebreak, and took Gonzalez's fighting spirit with it.  Gonzalez dropped three of the five points on his serve in the breaker, the last two with some very careless forehand errors to give del Potro the set, 7-6(2).

The same way Serena Williams' forehand went on vacation "in Hawaii"during Wimbledon, Gonzalez's seemed to desert him for Vina del Mar.  The rest of his game went south as well, and he seemed almost amused by how horribly he was playing, at once falling to the ground and lying there prone for almost a minute, smiling.  He seemed to want to get off the court as soon as possible, dropping the first five games of the second set.  del Potro wasn't doing much special to win the games, just sort of winning them by default.

"I didn't play good tennis," Gonzalez agreed after the match, blaming the heat and humidity for the low quality of tennis on both sides, a diagnosis with which del Potro agreed.

Gonzalez started to play more loosely by the end, and was able to make shots he had missed before to real off five straight games, making proceedings slightly more interesting.  "I was completely loose. I had nothing else to lose," he admitted.

The late surge awoke del Potro, however, and the big Argentine was able to close out the set 6-3 to advance to his second straight final in Washington.  He made a sign of the cross as he walked to the net after match point, a wise decision considering how many unholy forces were at work in this match.

del Potro won four straight tournaments last summer (Stuttgart, Kitzbuhel, Los Angeles, and Washington), but only attempted to defend Washington, letting the other points and titles fall without a fight.  After the match I asked del Potro how it felt to defend a title for the first time, and to see his name in the row of previous champions that circle the stadium, a question that seemed to hit a heartstring for the normally non-emotive del Potro.

"Now I have the chance to defend here in Washington, tomorrow, in the final.  To see my name on the stadium, it's unbelievable.  It's like a dream.  When I was younger, I played here three years ago and I saw the names of the very good players.  And now I am there.  It's a very good feeling for me."

Aww.

Andy Roddick, via d.yimg.com

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WASHINGTON--Andy Roddick made his fifth semifinal at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, beating Ivo Karlovic 7-6(4), 7-6(5) in front of a sell-out crowd of 7,500 on Friday night. 

Tiebreaks are the order of business in any Roddick-Karlovic match, but the two took  more roundabout paths to the end of each set tonight.  Karlovic broke at 2-1 in the first and in the first game of the second set.  Roddick broke back a few games later each time, making it four breaks total on the match.

To put into perspective just how bizarre that was, in the previous five matches the two had played, there were only three total breaks.  All of those belonged to Roddick.

The difference for Roddick on return seemed to be his ability to take relative advantage of Karlovic's second serve.  The Croat made only 59% of his first serves, and Roddick was able to win 53% of those points, including two in the first set tiebreak and one in the second, the only three minibreaks in either match.

"You're at his mercy on his first serve," Roddick said after the match.  "You're just reacting.  The second serve is definitely the opportunity to win the point."

"I think we were both getting a better hit on returns than we normally do against each other."

There was a strange dust-up midway through the first set, with Roddick upset at how much time chair umpire Norm Chryst was allowing Ivo Karlovic to deliberate before challenging a call.  However, instead of complaining to Chryst,

"I don't know what he was doing," Karlovic said about the incident.  "I don't know.  I don't know what's wrong with him.  It was a surprise."

"Ivo and I were laughing about it just now," Roddick said in his press conference, which followed Karlovic's.  "He's well within his rights to do whatever the ref is gonna let him do."

Juan Martin del Potro celebrates his second round win over Lleyton Hewitt (Photo by Ben Rothenberg for The Daily Forehand)

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WASHINGTON--I was all set to write up the most thorough, blow-by-blow recap of the del Potro-Soderling quarterfinal throwdown possible.

So here I go:

It didn't happen.  The end.

Robin Soderling pulled out before the start of the match with a right elbow injury.  He is not sure if he will play Montreal, and is undergoing an MRI later today to find out just how bad the damage is.

Bad news for Soderling is good news for #2 seed and defending champion Juan Martin del Potro, who instead of facing a player who is 20-1 against everybody not named Federer since Madrid, gets a day off before his semifinal.  In that semifinal he will play #4 seed Fernando Gonzalez, who took care of #10 Tommy Haas 7-5, 6-4.  Though both sets were long it was a quick match, with only two games even going to deuce.

Should be a good semifinal between the two highest ranked players in not only South America, but in the Southern Hemisphere.

The four quarterfinalists yet to play today are all from the upper half of the planet, and occupy upper parts of the atmosphere as well.  6'2'' Andy Roddick is the munchkin of the group, with Tomas Berdych (6'5''), John Isner (6'9'') and Ivo Karlovic (6'10'') all towering over the Texan.  Not everything is bigger there.

Andy Roddick hits balls into the stands after his 500th career win. Photo via d.yimg.com

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WASHINGTON--A match between two of the biggest servers on the ATP Tour, on a court described by Ivo Karlovic as the fastest court on the ATP circuit, somehow dissolved into a match of finesse games.

The two traded breaks to open the match, and Querrey broke again in Roddick's third service game to go up 4-2.

With Roddick's serve misfiring (only three aces and an uncharacteristic six double faults by the end of the match), the three-time Legg Mason Tennic Classic champion was forced to play more long rallies, having to lean on the variety in his ground game to win points.  Roddick used the variety effectively against Querrey, bringing the lanky 6'6'' into the net and keeping the ball low and out of his reach with some well-placed slices.

It was a frustrating night for Querrey, who seemed at times overwhelmed by the occasion of playing the American favorite in front of a Washington crowd that was solidly behind the recent Wimbledon finalist.  Querrey, who is coming off back-to-back-to-back finals and a championship last week in Los Angeles, will still keep his lead in the US Open Series through the end of the week.

Roddick is only the fourth active player to reach the 500-win milestone, joining Roger Federer (657), Carlos Moya (573), and Lleyton Hewitt (509).

In recognition of his 500th win, tournament organizers presented Roddick a cake with the number "500" written on it.  What more could you ever want?

John Isner gets knocked down, but he gets up again. Via d.yimg.com

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WASHINGTON--Only five of twelve seeds in action on Wednesday in Washington at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic advanced to the third round, with rust clearly hanging off some of the more potent racquets in the draw.

The biggest upset of the day was one of the last.  In a match interrupted by the ever-so-rare rain delay in the third set tiebreak, John Isner came back to defeat #3 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(4).  Tsonga had not played since Wimbledon, where he lost to another big server, Ivo Karlovic.  It's tough to think of a worse opponent than Isner to play in your first match back in terms of getting back into the rhythm of tennis.

With the win, Isner improved to an absurd 7-0 in third set tiebreaks in his three years at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.  That has to be a record.

While the rain delay hit Isner-Tsonga at 3-3 in the third set tiebreak, the same delay hit #14 seed Dmitry Tursunov's match against qualifier Sebastien de Chaunac at 5-5 in the third set.  de Chaunac was able to fend off two break points to hold for 6-5, then Tursunov showed why he's the most bipolar player in the game, with a bizarre stretch of profanity and yelling as he was broken for the loss at 7-5, followed by signing autographs for the same bleu-blanc-et-rouge wearing fans he berated earlier.

#13 seed Igor Andreev went down to Wayne Odesnik, who befriended the local high school tennis team from Walt Whitman in Bethesda, and turned them and their families into a rowdy cheering section that seemed to somewhat unnerve Andreev, who fell to the unheralded American 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Other seeds to go down Wednesday (apart from the previously reported on Robredo and Fish) included #15 Dudi Sela, who lost a thriller to Lleyton Hewitt in three sets, and #12 Viktor Troicki, who retired with an ankle injury three games into the match and was not able to defend any of the points he had from making the final here last year.