Today’s Men’s News (08/25)- Winston-Salem Results

Written by: Staff on 25th August 2012

Today's Men's News (08/25)- Winston-Salem Results

epa03248005 Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic returns to Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina during their round of 16 match for the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 03 June 2012. EPA/CHRISTOPHE KARABA |

Winston-Salem

Singles – Final: (3) J Isner def. (2) T Berdych 3-6 6-4 7-6(11-9)

As we headed into the final tiebreak of this, we couldn’t help having some philosophical thoughts. On the one hand, it probably meant that a match that was effectively a tie would have to go to one player or the other, probably by luck (indeed, John Isner got his match point on a Berdych ball that just ticked the net and went out); on the other hand, it might never end if they didn’t play a tiebreak! After all, Isner hadn’t been broken — indeed, hadn’t faced a break point — since the first set, and Tomas Berdych faced only one break point in the whole match; it’s just that he lost it. Odd that there were so many minibreaks in the tiebreak — Isner earned an early one, and lost it; Berdych had a chance to serve it out at 6-5, and let Isner win the point. From then on, obviously, there were no minibreaks until the final one.

Berdych must be wondering when he is going to win another title. He hasn’t won anything since Montpellier at the beginning of February. The other side of it is, he wasn’t going to move in the rankings no matter what; he remains #7. But a title would have at least slightly helped his chances of rising at the U. S. Open.

John Isner clearly likes playing in the eastern United States. Four of his five titles have come there. In 2010, he won Auckland, but that was the only exception to the rule. In 2011, he won Newport and Winston-Salem. And in 2012, he defended both of the latter! That’s not something you see very often. It doesn’t help him much; he remains #10. Still, that makes him the #1 Americans going into the U. S. Open.

Doubles – Final: S Gonzalez/Lipsky def. Andujar/L Mayer 6-3 4-6 10-2 (Match TB)

Forget their lack of seeding. It really isn’t a surprise to see Santiago Gonzalez and Scott Lipsky win this; the real surprise is that it was as close as it was (Gonzalez/Lipsky won 58% of the points, which usually translates into a score on the order of 6-3 6-3). It’s the second title for Gonzalez/Lipsky this year — they also won the Isner Duo of Newport and Winston-Salem. They’re putting together quite a nice portfolio, in fact, having won Barcelona 2011 also; now all they need is an indoor title. The points won’t matter much, but we’d consider them one of the dark horse teams for the U. S. Open. They won’t win it, but they could certainly pull off some surprises.