Luxilon on Tour

Luxilon players advance in US Open quallies

The four days of the qualifying rounds of the 2008 US Open have been marked by sunny skies and warm temperatures. But the heat on the court has not been solely due to the high temperatures. Qualifying often sees hotter competition than the main draw event proper that starts on Monday after a weekend dedicated to the madness of Kids Day on Saturday and Practice on Sunday.

Qualifying is the opportunity for players ranked just below the level needed for automatic entry to earn a spot in the main draw as a result of winning three consecutive matches against 60+ others who are equally determined to advance. The few successful ones will meet some of the best players in the world on one of the greatest stages of the world for the opportunity to bank some needed cash, get exposure to sponsors and earn those all-important ranking points that could elevate them to the highest ranks of the game and avoid the arm-freezing pressure of having to qualify for future events.

Careers are made and destroyed in the quallies and every competitor is sufficiently aware of the fact to make matches both exciting and memorable - as in, “I predicted he was going to be number one some day when I was there to see him wipe the floor with some other no-name in….”

Which is all by way of introduction to some of the Luxilon players who have played their hearts out during the past week. Some have gone home disappointed and will have to wait until 2009 and make the long trip to Australia for their next opportunity for Grand Slam glory. The few lucky ones will have the weekend to prepare for the challenges of the main draw ahead.

Ioana Raluca Olaru of Bucharest, Romania (Alu Power 125) used both power and precision to beat the much-fancied Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal - and save us all from further ear-piercing shrieking next week. But fortunately, Ioana is sufficiently graceful and talented to get me to the side of the court in spite of the noise from de Brito.

Ioana will play fellow Romanian Edina Gallovits in the first round of the main draw.

Paul Capdeville of Chile (Alu Power 125) withstood a strong challenge by Jesse Huta Galung of the Netherlands in the final round of qualifying to earn a first round, main draw match against Thiago Alves of Brasil. The score was 7-5 7-6(0). If he is lucky enough to win that match, he will have the dubious pleasure of playing Roger Federer (Alu Power Rough and Wilson Natural Gut) in the 2nd round (assuming that Roger can dispose of Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina in the first round).

Bjorn Phau of Germany (Alu Power 125) beat Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania in three sets - 4-6 6-4 6-2 in the final round of qualifying and will have the toughest possible match in the first round of the main draw. He will play top-seed Rafael Nadal on opening day of the event on Monday in front of a huge New York crowd in the largest tennis arena in the world. But, true pro that he is, he will not even think about making his travel plans back to Wellerswist before he sees the final score blazing from the huge electronic scoreboards that tower above Arthur Ashe stadium. And strange things do have a habit of happening on a tennis court…

Shenay Perry of the United States (Ace) will play Jie Zheng of China as a result of her tough straight-sets win over Olga Savchuk of the Ukraine 6-4 7-6(4).

She was one of only five Americans to qualify out of a field of 128 hopefuls (two women and three men) - perhaps supporting what many commentators are describing as a major decline in both the number and quality of upcoming US tennis players in spite of the large sums being invested in ‘player development’ by the USTA to maintain national pride in the sport.

Andreas Beck of Germany (Alu Power 125) beat Thierry Ascione of France to advance to the main draw. He will presumably be spending many hours this weekend practicing his return of serve - he will be meeting 6′ 9″ John Isner of the USA in the first round of the main draw..!

Roberta Vinci of Italy (Alu Power Fuoro) lived up to her name (”you win” according to the Google translater) by beating Neuza Silva of Portugal in fine form 6-4 6-0. She will play Stephanie Cohen-Aloro of France.

Robert Kendrick of the United States (Alu Power 125 and Alu Power 125 Rough) fought off Simon Stadler of Germany to earn his place in the main draw where he will play Nicholas Mahut of France.

Hana Sromova of the Czech Republic (XP) qualified for the main draw with a straight-sets win over Julia Schruff of Germany. Hana will meet fellow-qualifier Rossana de los Rios (see below) in the first round of the main draw.

In spite of being one of the oldest players in the event (she will be 33 next month), Rossana de los Rios of Paraguay (Alu Power 125) demonstrated her toughness (and the toughness of qualifying competition) by coming back from being a set down to beat Ekaterina Dzehalevich of Belarus (10 years her junior) 3-6 7-5 6-4 in a three-hour match.

Rossana is a full-time Mom as well as tennis player..! Daughter Anna and husband Gustavo are invaribly courtside to lend their support. Rossana began playing professional tennis shortly after she won the Roland Garros junior event as the top ranked girl in 1992. However, she played for only two years before leaving the game to marry Paraguy international football star Gustavo Neffa in 1994. She gave birth to daughter Anna Paula in 1997. She returned to professional tennis in 1999 and has been one of the very few successful tennis moms. Within a year, she was inside the top-100 and has hovered consistently around the 100 ranking level over the past 8 years. She is currently ranked 113 and running on all cylinders..!

Stephane Bohli of Switzerland (Alu Power 125) beat Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan in the final round of qualifying and will play Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic in the first round of the main draw.

Tomas Zib of the Czech Republic (Alu Power 125) and Robert Smeets of Australia (Alu Power 125) also qualified but we were unable to capture them in action.

Meanwhile:

Anne Keothavong, having secured direct entry into the main draw as a result of her ranking of 87, was able to relax a little with the UK coaching staff and engage in a little, “you take me and I’ll take you’ interaction. Anne shows better judgment in her choice of string (Alu Touch) than she does in cameras (which remark should earn me at least a ‘check and clean’ of my camera bodies from Canon..!)

Bobby Reynolds (Alu Power 125) and Kateryna Bondarenko (Alu Power 125) were among the players that gave kids an opportunity to get up-close-and-personal during the Arthur Ashe Kids Day program.

Roger Federer (Alu Power 125 Rough and Wilson Natural Gut) also took part in the festivities by competing in a charity event in Arthur Ashe stadium to raise money by hitting a series of targets in competition with Rafael Nadal, Lindsay Davenport and Serena Williams.

After watching Rafa compete - and in spite of being his arch-rival for the number one ranking as well as the US Open Championship - Roger, ever the gentleman, took the opportunity to give Rafa a few tips on his backhand - even if it did appear that Rafa felt that he was hitting the ball just fine and not in need of too much advice right now…

And, although it was difficult to be sure through the ultra-long lens, Rafa did seem to be suggesting that Roger could show him how to play when the two of them were out on the court playing for real…

Stay tuned for more on this epic and, of course, good-natured rivalry and other Luxilon players in the main draw of the US Open…

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 24th, 2008 at 5:55 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Luxilon players advance in US Open quallies

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