Newport is a smaller draw this year (because of the Olympics I think) but even so, the initial entry lists are not that different. I know many think the status of Surbiton should be raised but, why offer more prize money when it draws a field this strong anyway.....its unlikely to atract any better players. The point I would raise is that if we feel confident that Boggo, Josh or Bloomers could get through Surbiton qualies, would it be a good idea to travel over to attempt to qualify there. There's not much in the way of challengers that week!
Newport 1 Fish, Mardy USA 39 2 Mahut, Nicolas FRA 43 3 Santoro, Fabrice FRA 50 4 Kunitsyn, Igor RUS 77 5 Isner, John USA 82 6 Nishikori, Kei JPN 100 7 Anderson, Kevin RSA 101 8 Becker, Benjamin GER 103 9 Karanusic, Roko CRO 110 10 Dancevic, Frank CAN 111 11 Spadea, Vincent USA 112 12 Navarro, Ivan ESP 120 13 Petzschner, Philipp GER 121 14 Muller, Gilles LUX 125 15 Pless, Kristian DEN 127 16 De Voest, Rik RSA 130 17 Ramirez Hidalgo, Ruben ESP 140 18 Capdeville, Paul CHI 141 19 Levine, Jesse USA 147
Surbiton 1Zverev, Mischa GER 73 2Young, Donald USA 80 3Clement, Arnaud FRA 88 4Ginepri, Robby USA 96 5Nishikori, Kei JPN 99 6Anderson, Kevin RSA 100 7Becker, Benjamin GER 103 8Kunitsyn, Igor RUS 111 9Petzschner, Philipp GER 117 10 Muller, Gilles LUX 122 11 Roger-Vasselin, Edouard FRA 125 12 Stakhovsky, Sergiy UKR 130 13 Kukushkin, Mikhail RUS 131 14 Capdeville, Paul CHI 134 15 Jones, Alun AUS 136 16 Bohli, Stephane SUI 142 17 Golubev, Andrey RUS 145 18 Qureshi, Aisam-Ul-Haq PAK 147 19 Chardy, Jeremy FRA 160 20 Smeets, Robert AUS 161 21 Levy, Harel ISR 162 22 Stadler, Simon GER 168
its always been a weak field, but i remeber a lot of the players dont like the courts much. andy murray was less than complimtary about them in the past, boggo also doesnt like them said really you have to play serve and volley.
I did ask boggo bout newport and he said he wasnt going, but he may change his mind. maybe he just wants to avoid the place as thats where all his problems started last year.
would blooms make the Q cut? definalty think with his serve he could do well here.
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
Newport courts are awful, and almost all the winners of the event have been serve/volleyer's, which makes it so amusing to see Ramirez-Hildago in the entry list.
It's only a 16 player quali draw, with 3 WC amongst that, so only 13 places up for grabs which makes it a bit dangerous to travel across to the USA, but if you're planning on playing the US challenger circuit then you may go anyway and play this event.
I'd be surprised if they didn't make the cut, although it may be a bit touch and go for Bloomers, and would be good to see someone give this a try and it's by far the weakest field of the year and a decent chance of at least 5 points for qualies, given then no top 150/200 player will be playing
I hadn't realsied the qualies draw was so small. Shame, because by the sounds of it, a returning Jonny Marray may have had an outside chance judging by peoples comments.
The thing is, even if Jonny played here, he'd probably have to stay in the US for a while and I'd prefer it if he played on grass/carpet.
He should be doing a carpet Challenger in Dublin in the second week of Wimbly, followed by a Futures on grass (which clashes with Newport) and then Manchester.
I'm scared that Newport will be done away with in the next few years unless the proper grass season is expanded and it's brought inside it. The fields are very weak and I don't think a tournament makes much money when it doesn't have a top player (sad case, but probably true).
If they would replace this by another hard court tournament, they would be far better off. The only good thing is that Americans are normally reluctant to let events go and this one has a lot of tradition involved. Hopefully Isner or Anderson will have a few good runs in Britain (as long as they don't run into Brits) and they'll raise the profile of this tournament.
Newport is a little bit of a mystery over here.....it is alway on TV and I remember watching Greg do well there and also watching Martin Lee make the final by beating Blake in the semi I think. The match went three sets and was great!
Count is correct, the combination with the Hall of Fame thingy helps, but I also think it is the history of the place and event. Plus, it is the only US tourny played on grass.
I, for one, love events on grass & also it is great to see those who serve and volley get a break. I would be so disapointed to see Newport disapear from the tour.
Lee was just born in the wrong era, wasn't he? Had he been there in the '70s, he would have been a top 80 regular.
I long for a lot more grass tennis, too, but it's not going to happen anytime soon. Barring the proper season, only Britain and the US have grass tourneys and I think Australia, Pakistan and India have Futures on grass once in a while. At least we will have less clay tennis next year, which is a start!