Archives 2004 - Tournament Recap

Wrap up

Highlights of the week:

Americans, well ... didn't fair too well. Kim and Yim made the 2nd round, but that's it. There are some good match highlights...

Gotta start with Magarik. Surprised to see him on Friday and great for the commmunity to see a Vestal grad out there in his freshman year. His match with Rao to open the qualifying was a good way to open. Then coming to the park on Monday and he's got a 6-2 lead in doubles in the main draw. Obviously, the 3 set matches have that something special because of that 3rd set being all or none.

Rettenmaier against Cerda was a good match on qualies Sunday.

Tursunov and Mamiit was a great match. Mamiit with alot of experience and Tursunov with alot of ... hmmm ... weapons? Mamiit hung with Tursunov's explosive shots very well as he had match points. It was close, with alot of good baseline hittin'.

Dancevic-Vahaly... Dancevic seemed to capture the crowd all week and this one may have been why because this again had alot of good rallies. Dancevic maybe is entertaining to watch because his matches seemed to consistently have good rallies. The one with Parmar was similar and the "oohh yeah" grabbed attention too.

Udomchoke-Kim was a great match of yet another 2 guys staying back on the baseline. No real big weapons, just working the point... kind of the way it happens on clay.

Okun-Healey was a good one with both players hitting the "#$@!" out of the ball and attacking. -For that matter, Healey making some ground in his singles career coming from the qualies all the way to the semis... and Okun, his first title in a long while.

While we are on players... Kratochvil, everybody agreed he looked great early in the week; Tursunov's explosive forehand; Tipsarevic's colorful outfit in his opening match; noteworthy that Kratochvil went on to qualify at Washington the next day and is to play Salzy there (Levy qualified as well)... also noteworthy that Tursunov won his 1st round main draw match and is to play Kratochvil or Salzy (our dream matchups that we were hoping for is going to happen in DC).

Sarstrand's fan club was noteworthy, tough draw for him in the 1st round (which was actually another good baseline match)

The speech by Healey and De Voest at the end of the doubles final. Good players that were prepared for that moment.

The guys with bad attitudes were not so highlightable, but noticeable. One guy complained about playing in the evening (wow!)... others just full of madness before they even get broken ... does throwing the racquets add to the entertainment? Gotta be tough to do that week in and week out

Vico getting "fan club" comments at the Ace contest

Note that Brad Sherwood got a wild card into the Bronx Challenger. Sarstrand beat him.

No rain! Really, we lucked out in a way... we were supposed to get dumped on and never did. When we did get it Friday... everybody chipped in and that is good to see

Quotes from the players and fans ... "He choked!"... "You stink!" ... "I have to win 2 points every time"... "Was that good?" (Okun asking the fans) .... "No, no, no, no ... you see this mark?" ... "He hits a little differently than other guys" .... "So much going on on this court!" .... "I don't understand him" ... "do that again and I'm quitting" ... "this is ugly" ... "Marry me Vico!" ... "That was 2 inches wide"

Probably others that we missed, that's the beauty of this event. Thanks to Jeff Dunham for helping with the match coverage. Thanks to all the volunteers for helping. Thanks to all the sponsors for providing us the opportunity for this event. Thanks to Laurie for providing us this event.

As Laurie said, we have some challenges facing us in the future. Got ideas? Actually, any feedback, let us know. Want to help, tell us. Why isn't your tennis teacher or partner or stringer or trainer involved?

Get out and play!