Tennis Tidbits

Written by: on 14th August 2013
Wimbledon Championships
Tennis Tidbits

epa03774754 Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens returns to Marion Bartoli of France during their semi-final match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 04 July 2013. EPA/GERRY PENNY  |

The USTA announced that construction plans for their national tennis center will be revealed Thursday morning at a press conference in Manhattan.

Those plans include a retractable roof for Arthur Ashe Stadium, two new stadia, relocation of some tennis courts and a viewing area of practice courts.

The announcement of the specifics of the construction will be held at 11:00 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at 80 Columbus Circle.

Winston-Salem Open tournament director Bill Oakes pulls no punches. Not only does he run the North Carolina event and also was the tournament director at Atlanta prior to that, and he also is a commentator on US Open radio. In that role, it’s easy to hear that Oakes has opinions on a number of issues and isn’t afraid to share them.

When asked to examine the highs and lows of 2012 Winston-Salem, he mentioned that he was pleased with the attendance, the field of players, the new court and the new chairs for box seat holders, and then Oakes cut to the chase.

“A phrase that I love is that ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions,’ “Oakes told The Journal “Last year, we padded every seat in the stadium, which we thought was going to make it great. And then we put chair backs on the first three rows of all the traditional bleacher seats and that turned out to make it worse. You leaned back and you leaned into the other person’s space.”

Oakes added that he gave free 2013 tickets to every fan that emailed him about their complaints about the 2012 seating.

“I felt like that was the least I could do,” he said. “We’re in the customer-service business, and people need to realize we think about these things. I keep all the emails sent to me that are negative. I actually don’t keep all the ones that are positive. I like them, but I just don’t keep them (all). I think it’s more important to keep the ones that offer constructive criticism.”

So this year, the tournament increased the space between chairs to 30.5 inches from 22 inches.

Oakes also went to Switzerland earlier this year to check out the Nussle Group, about building this year’s temporary facility. He liked what he saw so he signed a contract within 48 hours

“What I saw exceeded my expectations,” he said. “I think the people here will be very pleased. It’s in the round, with a bowl configuration and with more entrances and exits to the stadium so people can get in and out faster. I couldn’t be happier.”

The USTA announced that Brian Baker, playing in his first Grand Slam since the 2013 Australian Open, 2012 Olympian and former world No. 43 Ryan Harrison, 2010 NCAA singles champion Bradley Klahn and 2011 NCAA singles finalist Rhyne Williams have been awarded men’s singles main draw wild card entries into the 2013 US Open. Other American men receiving US Open main draw wild cards are Rajeev Ram and 2013 USTA Boys’ 18s champion Collin Altamirano. Australia’s James Duckworth and France’s Guillaume Rufin will also receive wild cards.

Andy Murray is a self-described tennis fanatic and even woke up at 3:00 a.m. one morning and watched a World TeamTennis match.

Heineken beer is expanding its presence and promotion at this year’s US Open, even selling Heineken apparel.








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