Mr. Chip & Charge

• Sydney is the place to be during week two of the season

  2008-01-08 15:36:00
  

  The regular readers of my blog will remember my post about Joseph Sirianni back in early December. That was written just after he had won back-to-back Challenger titles on home turf. Since then, the Australian has continued to be steaming hot. After the ten match wins in Calundra and Brisbane, Sirianni went on to reach the quarterfinals in Tasmania before winning the Australian Open Wild Card playoffs. Those results granted him a main draw Wild Card to the ATP event in Adelaide, where he went on to win three matches before losing to eventual champion Michael Llodra in the semifinals. When I wrote about him the last time, he had nearly doubled his points total in two weeks. Now, since the beginning of November, Sirianni has tripled his points total and climbed more than 200 spots in the rankings to a new career high (by far) of 146. That’s just a crazy and highly unexpected move by a guy who turned 33 yesterday.
  
  With the semifinal loss in Adelaide, Sirianni also got a special exempt into the main draw in Sydney. Yes, that’s right. Even if they feel worlds apart, the Sydney event is actually on the same tour level as the tournament in Adelaide. The lowest level on the ATP circuit. And we’re talking about a 32-draw event with a cut off ranking of 53. If there’s one tournament where the players have to work hard for the money, that’s in Sydney. The women’s draw was even tougher with a ridiculous cut off ranking of 28 and with 10 of the 13 top ranked players in the field. But at least it’s a Tier II event with 600 000 USD in prize money, compared to the 436 000 USD handed out to the men. The schedule can play into some tournaments’ favor, and the Sydney event has an ideal slot (and location) the week before the first Grand Slam when a lot of players are desperate to get some match practice under their belts. It should also be noted that the tournament is extremely well run and held at the magnificent Olympic tennis arena, where Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Venus Williams won their gold medals a little more than seven years ago. How many other tournaments of this level have a spectator capacity of five digits which actually fills up? The Australians sure love their summer of tennis, with the grand finale coming up at Melbourne Park.

Tell a friend »

Comments

Write comment

You have to be logged in to comment. If you do not have an account, click here to register. It only takes a minute and you'll be redirected back to this page.

Username:

Password:

Archive

Unibet Mobile prematch,live betting

Recommend Tennistalk

Follow us

Poll

Articles - Latest commented

• 
  4

  Federer, Ferrero clash in Rome third round
  

  brothdog, May 17, 2012 9:02 AM

• 
  3

  Federer wins Rome opener over Berlocq
  

  brothdog, May 17, 2012 8:55 AM

• 
  2

  Nadal headlines third-round action on Thursday
  

  nadline, May 17, 2012 8:37 AM

• 
  1

  Murray gets birthday warning swearing in victory
  

  ts38, May 17, 2012 3:15 AM

• 
  6

  Berdych, Almagro battle for Rome quarterfinals
  

  RickyDimon, May 17, 2012 2:50 AM

Blog - Latest commented

• 
  60
  Approach Shots: Djokovic, Nadal look to rebound on red clay
  

  deuce, May 17, 2012 9:32 AM

• 
  73
  Novak Djokovic takes up skating at the Madrid ice rink
  

  hawkeye, May 17, 2012 12:53 AM

• 
  207
  Approach shots: On-fire Federer can pass Nadal in Miami
  

  hrsikesa, May 16, 2012 4:23 PM

Tell a friend

Other tennis links

• www.tennisnews.com
• Tennisplaza
• www.itftennis.com
• www.tennis.com
• More links...