2008 Campbell's HoF ATP, Newport, July 7-13 (Prakash runner-up!)

[PKBasu]

Prakash Amritraj, quarter-finalist in singles last year (and son of 3-time Newport singles champion Vijay Amritraj) gets a wildcard into the Newport grass-court ATP tournament next week. The other wildcard has also gone to the son of a former 1970s pro, Taylor Dent (son of Phil). Rohan Bopanna will be in the singles qualifying rounds, and will also play doubles with Aisam Qureshi (who appears to be in the main draw of singles, having made the singles QF there last year). Here is an official preview:

http://www.tennisfame.com/tennisfame.as ... xCompID=56

The tournament has a very small singles field of just 28 players, with a 16-man qualifier field. A surprising reduction in prize money as well... . I hope this doesn't portend the imminent demise of this tournament.

[PKBasu]

Singles entry list for Newport:

1 Fish, Mardy USA 39
2 Mahut, Nicolas FRA 43
3 Santoro, Fabrice FRA 50 (holder)
4 Kunitsyn, Igor RUS 77
5 Isner, John USA 82
6 Anderson, Kevin RSA 101
7 Becker, Benjamin GER 103
8 Dancevic, Frank CAN 111
9 Spadea, Vincent USA 112
10 Navarro, Ivan ESP 120
11 Petzschner, Philipp GER 121
12 Muller, Gilles LUX 125
13 Pless, Kristian DEN 127
14 De Voest, Rik RSA 130
15 Capdeville, Paul CHI 141
16 Levine, Jesse USA 147
17 Qureshi, Aisam-Ul-Haq PAK 150
18 Ledovskikh, Mikhail RUS 160
19 Kim, Kevin USA 161
20 Sirianni, Joseph AUS 165
21 Stadler, Simon GER 168


21 (SE)
22 (Q)
23 (Q)
24 (Q)
25 (Q)
26 (WC) Amritraj, Prakash IND
27 (WC) Dent, Taylor USA
28 (WC) Donald Young USA

Alternates

1. Hippensteel, KJ USA @171
2. Evans, Brendan USA 179
3. Menendez, Adrian ESP 180
4. Bachinger, Matthias GER 188
5. Zib, Tomas CZE 201
6. Kubot, Lukasz POL 202

Interestingly, Lukas Dlouhy is one of the late drop-outs from this tournament. Does that mean that Leander will not be there this year? He is a former singles champion there of course.

[x_y_Z_a]

Taylor Dent makes a come back after a looong period of injury lay off.

[jayakris]

The tournament has a very small singles field of just 28 players, with a 16-man qualifier field. A surprising reduction in prize money as well... . I hope this doesn't portend the imminent demise of this tournament.

Actually the tournament has been like this for at least a couple of decades.   The prize money was $380K even in 1997 when I was there, watching LP play - (the first time I saw him play live!) ..  It went up slightly to $410K last year.  What was $3600 for first round and $52K for title, went up to $3800 and $64K last year.  They have kept the prize money at around the higher level this year, and the reduction of the total to $385 is mostly because of not having to pay four R1 losers and 16 Q1 losers.  I think they felt that increasing prize money by 10% last year did not help as much as reducing one round for the top seeds, who can get an extra day of rest after returning from Wimbledon.

I don't think the tournament will die.  I thought it would die a decade back, as it has had one of the worst couple of entry cuts on the whole tour for a couple of decades or more, but as they have kept it going, I guess we don't have to worry.

Jay

PS:  By the way, the ATP and WTA tours have not kept up with inflation at all.  In over 15 years, the prize moneys at most events have hardly increased 15% which is way below world inflation rates.  Playing tennis is simply much less lucrative than it used to be...  Only the grand slam moneys from ITF have gone up much significantly.   The Chennai Open was $400K in 1996 and it is still there in 2009 - it's the same everywhere else too!

[jayakris]

Bopnna's qualifying draw at Newport:

(4) BOPANNA, Rohan (IND,238) vs O'NEAL, Justin (USA,751)
(6) SITAK, Artem (RUS,324) vs (WC) PAGON, Dominic (JAM,NR)

Looks like quite a winnable draw for Bops.

Jay

[PKBasu]

Yes, Bopanna should comfortably qualify into the main draw. Sitak is the fellow Somdev beat a fortnight ago IIRC. How one wishes Somdev were in that qualifying draw as well!

Jay, what got me worried was the 28-man field (reduced from 32). Perhaps it is aimed at getting more higher-ranked players from the late rounds of Wimbledon to come to Newport -- and have to play one fewer round. But it certainly hasn't worked this year. Actually, I think it would make more sense for this tournament to be played in the second week of the French Open -- or, if that is against the rules, the following week (i.e., the week of the Surbiton Challenger). Even if it involves crossing the Atlantic for some, many higher-ranked players are likely to be interested in playing another grass tournament before Wimbledon rather than after it.

[gbelday]

I was in Newport for the last couple of days.  I drove by the center a couple of times, took a tour of "Hall of Fame", showed my son all photographs and videos of all the legends who made it in.  The club is in the heart of Newport on Bellevue Avenue (right next to all those famous Newport Mansions).  It was great to see all those grass courts (the club is sort of similar to the Forest Hills tennis center). I even got a chance to play some tennis.  I was hoping to bump into Kash or Rohan practicing at the center but no luck. 

[Rajiv]

not so impressive starts by bops at the qualies , struggled to get past a lowly ranked player after hard fought 3 sets, 7-6,6-7,6-2
anyway a win is a win , up next artem sitak who went through with an immprssive scoreline in straight sets , come on bobs finish that match and get in to the main draw.

[suresh]

Yes, an ugly win is better than a pretty loss. Sitak lost to Somdev last week but that match was on clay.

[10nis_ace]

Good to see Rohan getting through his Q1. With him getting a good feel of conditions at Newport now and the fatigue from travel and jet lag hopefully over, I'm sure he will take care of the business pretty well in the next round.

[gvhvhg]

[R1] Joseph Sirianni (AUS, 154) vs. (WC) Prakash Amritraj (IND, 350)

[jaydeep]

Happy with Bops win though he struggles ... Hoping solid performance in final qualifying round to reach main-draw.

Kash having good first round match against Sirianni ... I m hoping for his win so want to see how he perform against big server John Isner in second round ...

Aisam having tricky first round match against Benjamin Becker and if he wins first round then his second round opponent will be Fabrice Santoro.

Ind-Pak Samjhota Express r 4th seed ... Kash is playing as wild card player in doubles also with Gilles Muller, they r having tough first round match against 2nd seed pair of Scott Lipsky and David Martin.

[R1] Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK,158) vs Benjamin Becker (GER,116)

Doubles -
[R1] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Tripp Phillios (USA)/ Jim Thomas (USA)
[R1] (WC) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Gilles Muller (LUX) vs (2) Scott Lipsky (USA)/ David Martin (USA)

[PKBasu]

I think Prakash and Muller will make a formidable pair. They could go all the way to the final in Newport...

[jaydeep]

Rohan wins and qualified for main-draw with tight sets victory ...

At $385K Campbell's HoF championship, Newport, USA

[Q2] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND,238) bt (6) Artem Sitak (RUS,324) 76(7) 75

Bops had 12 aces and 12 double faults in the match, other hand Sitak served 7 double faults ... Bops had poor first serve percentage 48% but as usual high winning percentage 80% ... In the match, Bops won 94 pts to 89 pts to Sitak.

[sameerph]

Good to see Rohan come thru well to make the main draw . Tougher matches then expexted for him in  qualifying. He will have to raise his game more to get wins in main draw.

So, we will have 2 Indians in the ATP singles main draw aborad after some time.