Results - Tuesday August 11, 2009

Grigelis and Janowicz wow capacity crowd

17 year old Laurynas Grigelis from Lithuania moved into the spot vacated by Marcos Baghdatis and took on 18 year old Jerzy Janowicz of Poland in one of the most competitive matches ever witnessed at the LG&T Tournament. It ended as darkness was setting in at 1 set all 7-6(5), 6-7(5), to be completed Wednesday afternoon.

The capacity crowd came to see great tennis and they were greatly rewarded. They saw the huge serve of the 6’6" Janowicz, the runner up in both this year’s French Open Juniors last year’s US Open Juniors tournaments. They saw Grigelis, with his 941 ATP ranking, who was entered in the main draw at the last minute as the "lucky loser" in the qualifier, go toe-to-toe with Janowicz for two amazing sets.

The LG&T Challenger is where you can "see the stars of tomorrow today". We have been lucky to have some great players come through the door here: Leander Paes, James Blake, Ivo Karlovic, to name a few. Andy Murray won here when he was 18 years old. They were here when they were young and hungry and pure, and we were lucky to host them.

It is impossible to know which of the players that are here now will appear at the US Open or Wimbledon finals in the future, but it is a good bet that some of them will. We will watch them on television, and we will think to ourselves, I saw him in our little burg of Binghamton when he was ranked 344 on the Challenger tour, and look where he is now.

We have also had some old favorites come here repeatedly to support the tournament. Cecil Mamiit made his fifth appearance here this year. His first appearance was in 1996, just after he won the NCAA Championship, when he reached the semi-finals. He’s 33 years old now and lost his first round singles match yesterday. He commented, "It was my day today." No complaints about the line calling, no excuses about being injured. He showed up and he lost with style and class, which are two big reasons he received a wild card to come here in the first place.