Field Announced for 2014 BB&T Atlanta Open

All the action starts on July 19 at Atlantic Station in Midtown Atlanta.

Here is the initial entry list:

1 Isner, John USA 11
2 Gasquet, Richard FRA 14
3 Anderson, Kevin RSA 18
4 Monfils, Gael FRA 20
5 Tursunov, Dmitry RUS 32
6 Karlovic, Ivo CRO 33
7 Pospisil, Vasek CAN 35
8 Dodig, Ivan CRO 38
9 Stepanek, Radek CZE 42
10 Hewitt, Lleyton AUS 43
11 Lu, Yen-Hsun TPE 48
12 Istomin, Denis UZB 49
13 Matosevic, Marinko AUS 60
14 Johnson, Steve USA 63
15 Young, Donald USA 65
16 Gonzalez, Alejandro COL 70
17 Klahn, Bradley USA 72
18 Sock, Jack USA 75
19 Querrey, Sam USA 78
20 (SE)
21 (SE)
22 (Q)
23 (Q)
24 (Q)
25 (Q)
26 (WC) Smith, Austin USA
27 (WC)
28 (WC)

Alternates
1. Becker, Benjamin GER 79
2. Ebden, Matthew AUS 86
3. Lacko, Lukas SVK 89
4. Rola, Blaz SLO 91
5. Stakhovsky, Sergiy UKR 93
6. Estrella Burgos, Victor DOM 95
7. Donskoy, Evgeny RUS 102
8. Smyczek, Tim USA 106

Danielle with the IronX for 2XU

Happy to help Danielle with the verbage, but it's all her when it comes to the images and graphic design.

Here, she is using her new IronX action camera to help promote her compression company in 2XU.

Robin Bateman's Great Piece on Me Receiving the USTA Media Excellence Award

Thanks to Robin for writing such a fantastic piece.

Link to the entire piece:

http://www.examiner.com/article/atlanta-tennis-writer-honnored-by-the-u-s-southern-tennnis-association

The USTA Southern Marc Kaplan Media Excellence Award

What a great honor and was happy to share the experience with my family and friends.

This sets the bar high for 2014.

A Busy 2013 - Part 1

Before I focus on what is already going to be a busy 2014, I have to reflect on what a busy 2013 was.

Not only with events, travel, and writing over 800 pieces, but also meeting some great new friends, collegues, PR people and even co-authoring a top-selling book on Amazon.  Oh, I also won a couple awards- not sure how that happened.

2013

January:

The annual trip to the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando with Courtney Capps and Brian Katrek.

Exclusive interview with John O'Hurley - better known as J. Peterman from Seinfeld at the PGA Show.

Starting doing the "Tech Tuesday" gadget/tech segment on Sirisu/XM PGA Tour Radio.

February:

U.S. National Indoors in Memphis - ATP World Tour 500 event and WTA International Event

March/April:

College hoops with the Final Four in Atlanta and the SEC Women's Tournament at the Gwinnett Arena.

Special access from the NCAA - tons of interviews and features.  Most memorable: talking with Coach Bob Huggins as he participated in a pizza cooking contest.

My Atlanta Journal Constitiution women's running safety article was a rousing success and picked up by almost 60 newspapers around the country. 

Also the PGA Champion's Tour returned to the Atlanta area with the Greater Gwinneet Championship with Bernhard Langer taking the title.  This event will get bigger and better.

May/June

May was busy with product reviews, college tennis, and my first appearance on NBC 11 Alive's Sport Extra with my good friend Sam Crenshow talking about sports gadgets for Mother's Day.

Also the 2013 U.S. Open National Playoffs began in Atlanta.

And the NCAA Men's Golf Championships were played at Capital City Club - Crabapple Coure in Roswell.

I was back on 11 Alive's "Sports Extra" with Sam Crenshaw for Father's Day gift ideas for the sports-minded Dad.