Savannah's World: Legg Mason

Friday, August 6, 2010

To Everything There Is A Season

by Savannah

13] G Simon (FRA) d [2] A Roddick (USA) 63 63

[3] [WC] F Verdasco (ESP) d [Q] R Sweeting (USA) 64 75

[4] M Cilic (CRO) d [15] M Fish (USA) 64 46 62

X Malisse (BEL) d [5] J Isner (USA) 64 36 76(5)

There will not be any Americans taking the court to play singles in Washington DC later this afternoon. As you can see by the above results Andy Roddick, Ryan Sweeting, Mardy Fish and John Isner all lost to European players. For Roddick this is especially hard since the loss will see him ranked #11, the first time he's been out of the top ten since August of 2006.

Is it time for weeping and gnashing of teeth? It's been that time for American tennis for quite some time. The bigger culprit in my very humble opinion, aside from the fact that we don't have players who can compete against the best Europe has to offer on a regular basis, is the schedule.

In case you didn't know there is a Masters 1000 event being played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada next week. Legg Mason is a Masters 500. All of the big boys, like it or not, will be in Toronto with their eyes on the prize.

I don't know how many of you remember this but when the ATP under Etienne de Villiers was revamping the schedule many players wanted the events in Canada moved to a different part of the year. The Canadians refused. The ATP and WTA backed their stance. So while venerable tournaments like Hamburg were downgraded the Canadian events were made as sacrosanct as the Slams. Meanwhile the US Open series becomes a glorified Challenger event where the best we have to offer is put on display with the hopes someone will catch fire going into the US Open.

Are the players making choices? I doubt it. But look at what they're facing. For the men there is Toronto followed by Cincinnati, also a Masters 1000. For the women after Stanford and San Diego, both Premier events come Cincinnati, Montreal and Pilot Pen, all Premier events.

On the men's side the Europeans don't bother to come over until Toronto. The American men are expected to play the US Open series as well as those back to back Masters 1000 events.

So before we start bemoaning the state of American tennis we should bemoan the schedule that would have the last Slam of the calendar year see the sports top players limping into Flushing Meadows instead of coming in rested and ready to compete at the highest levels.

Miscellany

A few years ago a promising young American girl was served up as cannon fodder on opening night at the US Open. She was hyped as the next best thing and after her loss faded into oblivion. Only tennis junkies noticed her name on Challenger entry lists and figured her to be another victim of the system.
Well that little girl has grown up and Coco Vandeweghe is suddenly winning on the main tour. Her win over Vera Zvonareva in San Diego is huge. Let's hope that she is not "oudinized" and that she is able to set her own pace and terms for her career.

Pictures of the Week
Note to WTA: Feminine does not mean slutty. I'm just sayin'.