Pictures From 2011 USTA Australian Open Wildcard Playoffs: Day 1

An interesting day to say the least at the 2011 Australian Open Wildcard Playoffs put on by the USTA today Atlanta.

The winner of the men's and women's fields get a coveted wildcard entry into the 2012 Australian Open in January. 

Results today on the women's side:

Coco Vandeweghe over Taylor Townsend

Madison Keys over Jamie Hampton

Alison Riske over Grace Min

Gail Brodsky over Melanie Oudin

Coco Vandeweghe

Taylor Townsend

Jamie HamptonMadison KeysGail Brodsky

Melanie OudinAlison Riske

Grace Min

USTA Australian Open Wildcard Playoffs Kick Off With Media Day

The USTA will be hosting their annual Australian Open Tennis Wildcard Playoffs this weekend outside of Atlanta. 

The event kicked off today with media festivities which I was fortunate enough to participate in.

It included a doubles match with world #84 Irina Falconi as my partner against local sports anchor Sam Crenshaw and his partner in ATP #127 Bobby Reynolds.  Additional press and tennis fans were watching the action and a couple Atlanta news channels were rolling tape.

My serve was rusty, but I hit a nice angle drop volley that Bobby made a great play on, a nice backhand topspin lop for a winner and a forehand down the line winner past Bobby.  Irina was a great partner.

Following the set a half of doubles, the players answered questions at a press conference and ate lunch and talked further with the media.

 

A Quick Chat With USTA Troy 50K Tournament Director - Eric Hayes

There was nobody working harder this week in the world of tennis that Eric Hayes.

Who is Eric Hayes, you ask? 

He's this guy...

Here's a quick interview with Eric Hayes, the tournament director of the USTA Classic of Troy women's circuit event held this past week in Alabama.  Hayes is the men's and women's tennis coach at Troy and he's pretty much a one man show running this tournament.

From driving the players around to setting up the tennis center for play and everything in between including spending time on the court as a ball boy during some of the matches.

Hayes is a long time college coach and a former coach of players on the pro tours.  This is the ninth year for this event in Troy and as you can tell by the interview, Hayes is looking forward to next year and the 10th year of professional tennis on the campus of Troy University.

Here's an Audioboo of the interview, give it a listen.

Here's the USTA Tennis Classic of Troy.  You can see Hayes as a ball boy on the far court.

Congrats to Eric Hayes on another successful event.

Oprandi Gets Revenge and Takes Troy Women's USTA Circuit Event

TROY --  Romina Oprandi of Italy claimed the women's singles title at the USTA Tennis Classic of Troy on Sunday with a quick 6-1, 6-2 victory over American Varvara Lepchenko.

Playing a tennis tournament in the state of Alabama during the month of October is apparently quite a hard sell to just about everyone outside of hardcore tennis fans in the South. High school, college and professional football are on the minds of most Alabamans this time of the year.  In fact, on Saturday, a Louisiana-Monroe vs. Troy University football game took place around the corner from the tennis center.  "The weather and the fact we are the smallest city to host an event of this size and importance, makes this a challenge," says tournament director Eric Hayes. "But it's a challenge I love."

Hayes does love it as he he takes a break from his post as Head Tennis Coach for both the men's and women's teams at Troy University for a week to run this event. I have to admit it was the first time I've even seen the tournament director take the court as a ball person when ball kids were in short supply.  Hayes did a great job as tournament director, host and ball person.

While there might have been more officials on the grounds of the Lunsford Tennis Center than spectators, the players didn't seem to mind.  "I'm glad I came," said Sessil Karatantcheva of Kazkhstan who beat American Melanie Oudin early in the week before losing to Lepchencko in the semi-finals.

The veteran Oprandi was the best player all week long, and from early in the first set on Sunday, there was going to be no stopping the Italian on this day.  Oprandi avenged a loss against Lepchenko from last week at a similar tournament in Kansas City.  Oprandi refused to admit she is tired as she travels around the U.S. playing these smaller tournaments to earn points that will get he directly into bigger events, but she does get inspired when she sees other Italian women like Francesca Schiavone, Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci doing well as they approach the age of 30, or have passed the 30-year mark like Schiavone. 

Lepchenko played a lot of tennis this week in Troy as she also reached the finals in doubles.  She will take a short break and recharge her batteries.  The doubles winners were the team of Elena Bovina and Valeria Savinykh of Russia.  Lepchenko partnered with Mashona Washington this week.

Oprandi will now continue east as she is slated to be the top seed at another USTA Circuit Event, this one in Rock Hill, SC.

Romina Oprandi captures the singles title in TroyStill a successful week for Varvara Lepchenko even though she lost in the finals

Valeria Savinykh of Russia was one-half the winning doubles team

U.S. Open Match to Watch: Day 9

A men's round of 16 match between American, John Isner and Gilles Simon of France.

We'll find out with this match on Armstrong if anyone can tame the serve of John Isner.  Isner has served his way through multiple tiebreakers to reach this point. 

Simon has been getting better all summer and is trying to peak here at the Open.

These two have never played before.  You can count on Isner going big with the serve and Simon looking to stay at the baseline and rally.  Both are playing some of the best tennis of their career and it should be high quality action.

Prediction:  I like Isner to win a couple more tiebreaks and win in 4.