Unusual challenge: In his match yesterday against Marcel Granollers, Roger Federer used a challenge on his own first serve–nothing unusual there. But in this case, the original call had been “in!” Fed thought it was out and stopped playing the point accordingly.
He challenged, and he was right. On his second delivery, he ended up losing the point anyway.
More Americans out: I mentioned yesterday that the way things have turned out, it hasn’t been a promoter’s dream in Delray Beach. Andy Roddick withdrew, John Isner lost in the first round, and yesterday, both Sam Querrey and James Blake were defeated. Blake, at least, fell to the popular Kei Nishikori, arguably the best young player not named Milos.
In fact, I was playing with rankings last night, and came up with something interesting. Of players who have not yet reached their 22nd birthday, this is the top 10 in the world:
37 Milos Raonic CAN 12/27/90 66 Kei Nishikori JPN 12/29/89 74 Richard Berankis LTU 6/21/90 81 Grigor Dimitrov BUL 5/16/91 120 Benoit Paire FRA 5/8/89 138 Donald Young USA 7/23/89 143 Federico del Bonis ARG 10/5/90 148 Jerzy Janowicz POL 11/13/90 150 Ryan Harrison USA 5/7/92 160 Thomas Schoorel NED 4/8/89
That’s pretty much a “who’s who” of up-and-coming young stars. What it highlights for me is just how young some of these guys still are. Sure, we all know that Raonic and Dimitrov are the wave of the future, but we’ve been following Nishikori for years. He’s still this young, and if he can stay injury-free, he has a lot of time to climb to the top.
It’s even more surprising to see Donald Young here. He’s been around forever, but he doesn’t turn 22 until July. Put that in perspective: Had he gone to college and stayed for four years, he’d be in his junior or senior year right now, probably leading Georgia to the national title.
Seedless: The top-ranked players are having a tough time in Wolfsburg this week. In the first round alone, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd seeds feel. 5th-seeded Steve Darcis lost in the second round, leaving HT.com favorite Jesse Huta Galung as the presumptive favorite.
Yesterday: The biggest upset of the day was Ryan Sweeting‘s victory over Querrey. In a minor coup, Sergey Stakhovsky defeated Ernests Gulbis in Dubai; for his efforts, he gets to face Federer in a few hours. In Acupulco, Stanislas Wawrinka had to work hard, but he eventually got past Fabio Fognini 7-5 in the third.
Today: We’re mostly in quarterfinals now, so things are starting to get interesting. After the Fed-Stakhovsky match, Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon duke it out for a spot in the semis. I’ll be watching.
In Mexico, Wawrinka next has to face Alexander Dolgopolov, the most compelling matchup of the day in that tournament. And in Delray, they are finishing up the second round. Mardy Fish has what should be an easy match against Ricardo Mello, while Juan Martin Del Potro will be challenged by Teymuraz Gabashvili.
See you tomorrow!