****** EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ******
* Bryans complete non-calendar Grand Slam
****** TODAY’S MEN’S NEWS ******
Wimbledon
Doubles – Final: (1) Bryan/Bryan def. (12) Dodig/Melo 3-6 6-3 6-4 6-4
The Bryans seem to have developed a habit of getting off to slow starts here — they lost the first five games. But they’ve also developed a habit of big finishes. As you’ve probably noticed.
With this, they add yet another to their haul of records: A non-calendar Grand Slam, plus the Olympics. In fact, they have thirteen titles in the last year. By tier:
Slams: U. S. Open 2012, Australian Open 2013, Roland Garros 2013, Wimbledon 2013
Masters: Canadian Open 2012, Indian Wells 2013, Madrid 2013, Rome 2013
Olympics 2012
500s: Beijing 2012, Memphis 2013
250s: Sydney 2013, Queen’s 2013
In other words, all the Slams, half the Masters, and the Olympics, plus four other titles! Hard to believe….
Try it this way: They now have almost three times the point total of the #3 players:
1..(1) Bryan………….14460
1..(1) Bryan………….14460
3..(3) Lopez…………..5550
4..(4) Granollers………5550
5.(10) Bopanna…………5380
6..(7) Bhupathi………..5225
7..(6) Soares………….5080
8..(9) Peya……………5000
9.(11) Paes……………4720
10.(14) Stepanek………..4445
It’s hard even to imagine what else we can say. Or what else they can do to top this. Other than maybe win the U. S. Open and convert the non-calendar Slam into a calendar Slam. And we for one aren’t going to bet against them!
Marcelo Melo and Ivan Dodig fail to win their first Slam, but Melo should hit the Top Fifteen and Dodig is up to around #20. They are certainly one of this year’s top surprise teams.
****** TODAY’S FEATURE ******
Men’s Look Forward: Bastad, Stuttgart, Newport
Most events after slams are weak. Most 250 point events are weak. You would think, then, that a 250 the week after Wimbledon would be very weak, wouldn’t you?
Not necessarily. Not Stuttgart, anyway. True, it doesn’t have any Top Ten players — but all of the seeds are ranked above #40. And three of them are German, which probably helped.
Tommy Haas is the top seed and, based on the new rankings, the only Top Twenty player; #2 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber just fell below that mark. Jeremy Chardy is #3, with Benoit Paire #4. Those four have byes. Fabio Fognini, whom we show to have just fallen out of the Top Thirty, is #5. Florian Mayer is #6, meaning that we have three German seeds. Lukas Rosol is #7, with Martin Klizan #8. And there are some pretty good unseeded players. Haas will have to open against either Marcel Granollers or Ernests Gulbis, both of whom just missed seeding. Klizan’s opener is against Albert Montanes, who is still a threat on clay if nowhere else. Rosol starts against Thomaz Bellucci, assuming Bellucci is able to play. Paire’s first match might be against Nikolay Davydenko. And Mayer will face either Paul-Henri Mathieu or Gael Monfils in the second round.
Bastad also managed to do pretty well by itself, snagging one Top Ten player in #1 seed Tomas Berdych (who, to be sure, plays far more than most Top Ten players) and two other Top Twenty players in #2 Nicolas Almagro and #3 Juan Monaco. #4 seed Tommy Robredo, who has the last bye, has also been playing very well this spring. Rounding out the seeds are #5 Grigor Dimitrov, #6 Viktor Troicki (who just fell out of the Top Fifty but seems finally to have his form back), #7 Horacio Zeballos, and #8 Fernando Verdasco (who also seems to be back in form). There aren’t a lot of unseeded threats, though — and Sweden is so desperate for wildcards that they actually handed one to Andra Vinciguerra, who has the bad luck to open against Verdasco.
One of life’s little mysteries is why Newport can’t get stronger fields. It’s an old, prestigious event; it’s the last grass event of the season. But it has only two Top Fifty players, #1 seed Sam Querrey and #2 John Isner. (Who, to be sure, are the top two Americans, so the locals will be fairly happy). Igor Sijsling is #3, with Lleyton Hewitt #4. (Unlike the clay events, the seeds here don’t get byes.) The #5 seed goes to Eduard Roger-Vasselin, with Marinko Matosevic #6, Kenny de Schepper #7, and Rajeev Ram #8. Most of the remaining players are below #100. And yet, we might see some pretty good matches. Querrey’s second round is against Nicolas Mahut, who is in on a wildcard. Roger-Vasselin opens against Ivo Karlovic, whose ranking is in the tank but who can presumably still serve. And Isner has to open against Ryan Harrison, then maybe James Blake.
The Rankings
Last year at this time, we were suffering what might be called Olympic Compression. The ATP had to clear a spot for the Olympics, so more events were squeezed into other weeks — including four events into the week after Wimbledon, when almost no one wanted to play. A lot of points fell into some unlikely hands. It wasn’t much of a surprise when John Isner won Newport, nor that Lleyton Hewitt was the finalist; Ryan Harrison and Rajeev Ram were semifinalists. David Ferrer won Bastad, over Nicolas Almagro; again, no surprise, nor was it too shocking that Grigor Dimitrov made the semifinal. But the other semifinalist was Jan Hajek. At Stuttgart, the title went to Janko Tipsarevic, with Juan Monaco the finalist; the semifinalists were Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Thomaz Bellucci. The title at Umag went to Marin Cilic, over Marcel Granollers; Fernando Verdasco and Alexandr Dolgopolov were semifinalists. But how about these quarterfinalists: van der Merwe (Newport), Zopp (Bastad), Brown (Stuttgart), Cervenak (Stuttgart), Odesnik (Umag)…?
It doesn’t appear any of this will affect the Top Ten. David Ferrer has plenty of points; it doesn’t matter that he won’t be defending Bastad. Berdych can’t add enough points to matter.
In the Top Fifteen, both Cilic and Tipsarevic are defending titles, so there is a pretty good chance one could lose his Top Fifteen spot, with Almagro the guy likely to replace them.
John Isner might well lose his Top Twenty spot and his position as the #1 American, with Sam Querrey the best candidate to replace him in both categories.
KEYWORDS: Preview Bastad, Stuttgart, Newport
******** THIS WEEK IN TENNIS ********
THIS WEEK ON THE ATP WORLD TOUR:
Wimbledon (Slam/Grass). Defending Champion: Roger Federer
NEXT WEEK ON THE ATP WORLD TOUR:
Bastad (250/Clay). Defending Champion: David Ferrer
Stuttgart (250/Clay). Defending Champion: Janko Tipsarevic
Newport (250/Grass). Defending Champion: John Isner
******** STATS AND FACTS ********
RANKINGS
Estimated ATP World Tour Rankings
As of July 6, 2013
Rank &
Prior…Player………..Points
1..(1) Djokovic……….12310
2..(2) Murray………….8560
3..(4) Ferrer………….8060
4..(5) Nadal…………..6860
5..(3) Federer…………5785
6..(6) Berdych…………4865
7..(8) Del Potro……….4500
8..(7) Tsonga………….3480
9..(9) Gasquet…………3045
10.(10) Wawrinka………..2915
11.(13) Haas……………2595
12.(11) Nishikori……….2495
13.(12) Cilic…………..2335
14.(14) Tipsarevic………2310
15.(15) Raonic………….2225
16.(16) Almagro…………2195
17.(22) Janowicz………..2154
18.(17) Simon…………..2055
19.(21) Isner…………..1770
20.(20) Monaco………….1740
21.(19) Querrey…………1730
22.(23) Anderson………..1590
23.(28) Seppi…………..1550
24.(24) Dolgopolov………1545
25.(18) Kohlschreiber……1535
26.(25) Chardy………….1486
27.(29) Robredo…………1425
28.(27) Paire…………..1380
29.(31) Dimitrov………..1330
30.(32) Lopez…………..1325
**DRAWS
Wimbledon — Week of May 24
…………………3R…………….4R…………QF………SF
1 Djokovic………..(1)Djokovic……Djokovic…….Djokovic…Djokovic..Djokovic
28 Chardy…………(28)Chardy
19 Simon………….Lopez
13 Haas…………..Haas………….Haas
9 Gasquet…………(9)Gasquet
21 Querrey………..Tomic…………Tomic
27 Anderson……….(27)Anderson
7 Berdych…………(7)Berdych…….Berdych……..Berdych
4 Ferrer………….(4)Ferrer……..Ferrer………Ferrer
26 Dolgopolov……..(26)Dolgopolov
17 Raonic…………Sijsling
16 Kohlschreiber…..Dodig…………Dodig
12 Nishikori………(12)Nishikori
23 Seppi………….(23)Seppi……..Seppi
29 Dimitrov……….Zemlja
8 Del Potro……….(8)del Potro…..del Potro…..del Potro..del Potro
5 Nadal…………..Kubot…………Kubot………Kubot
25 Paire………….(25)Paire
18 Isner………….Mannarino……..Mannarino
11 Wawrinka……….Brown
15 Almagro………..(15)Almagro
24 Janowicz……….(24)Janowicz…..Janowicz…..Janowicz….Janowicz
30 Fognini………..Melzer………..Melzer
3 Federer…………Stakhovsky
6 Tsonga………….Gulbis
31 Benneteau………Verdasco………Verdasco…..Verdasco
22 Monaco…………(22)Monaco
10 Cilic………….de Schepper……de Schepper
14 Tipsarevic……..Troicki
20 Youzhny………..(20)Youzhny……Youzhny
32 Robredo………..(32)Robredo
2 Murray………….(2)Murray……..Murray…….Murray……Murray….Murray
STATUS OF SEEDS:
1 Djokovic
2 Murray
3 Federer……..lost 2R (Stakhovsky)
4 Ferrer………lost QF (del Potro)
5 Nadal……….lost 1R (Darcis)
6 Tsonga………lost 2R (Gulbis)
7 Berdych……..lost QF (Djokovic)
8 Del Potro……lost SF (Djokovic)
9 Gasquet……..lost 3R (Tomic)
10 Cilic………WITHDREW from 2R
11 Wawrinka……lost 1R (Hewitt)
12 Nishikori…..lost 3R (Seppi)
13 Haas……….lost 4R (Djokovic)
14 Tipsarevic….lost 1R (Troicki)
15 Almagro…….lost 3R (Almagro)
16 Kohlschreiber.lost 1R (Dodig)
17 Raonic……..lost 2R (Sijsling)
18 Isner………lost 2R (Mannarino)
19 Simon………lost 1R (Lopez)
20 Youzhny…….lost 4R (Murray)
21 Querrey…….lost 1R (Tomic)
22 Monaco……..lost 3R (de Schepper)
23 Seppi………lost 4R (del Potro)
24 Janowicz……lost SF (Murray)
25 Paire………lost 3R (Kubot)
26 Dolgopolov….lost 3R (Ferrer)
27 Anderson……lost 3R (Berdych)
28 Chardy……..lost 3R (Djokovic)
29 Dimitrov……lost 2R (Zemlja)
30 Fognini…….lost 1R (Melzer)
31 Benneteau…..lost 2R (Verdasco)
32 Robredo…….lost 3R (Murray)
Bastad — Week of July 8
1 Berdych
–bye
Alund
Eriksson (WC)
Qualifier
de Bakker
Souza
8 Troicki
4 Robredo
–bye
Ramos
Qualifier
Qualifier
Kavcic
Berlocq
7 Zeballos
5 Dimitrov
Ymer (WC)
Volandri
Zopp (PR)
Lorenzi
Qualifier
–bye
3 Monaco
8 Verdasco
Vinciguerra (WC)
Struff
Stakhovsky
Hajek
Garcia-Lopez
–bye
2 Almagro
Stuttgart — Week of July 8
1 Haas
–bye
Granollers
Gulbis
L Mayer
Andujar
Qualifier
5 Fognini
3 Chardy
–bye
Berrer (WC)
Gimeno-Traver
Bautista Agut
Kamker
Montanes
8 Klizan
7 Rosol
Bellucci
Hanescu
Tursunov
Qualifier
Davydenko
–bye
4 Paire
6 F Mayer (WC)
Qualifier
Mathieu
Monfils
Qualifier
Kern (WC)
–bye
2 Kohlschreiber
Newport — Week of July 8
1 Querrey
Smyczek
Mahut (WC)
WIlliams
Kozlov (WC)
Przysiezny
Qualifier
8 R Ram
3 Sijsling
Viola
Levine
Sugiya
Russell
Marchenko
Qualifier
7 de Schepper
6 Matosevic
Sock
Qualifier
Qualifier
Amritraj (WC)
Cipolla
Ebden
4 Hewitt
5 Roger-Vasselin
Karlovic
Kudla
Pospisil
Mannarino
Blake
Harrison
2 Isner
******** SCORES ********
SATURDAY
Wimbledon
Doubles – Final
(1) Bryan/Bryan def. (12) Dodig/Melo 3-6 6-3 6-4 6-4
©Daily tennis news wire
Topics: Bob Bryan, Bryan Brothers, Ivan Dodig, Marcelo Melo, Mike Bryan, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, Wimbledon