Article

  • Indianapolis Tournament Preview

    7/14/08 4:10 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - The 2008 U.S. Open Series kicks off in Indianapolis and the tournament will appropriately have a distinct U.S. flavor. James Blake is the No. 1 seed and he leads a host of Americans into the Indianapolis Tennis Championships.

    There will, of course, be no Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, or Novak Djokovic when the U.S. Open Series kicks off on Monday. Still, the field at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships is relatively strong, especially considering the draw size is just 32, the purse is $525,000, and there are three other ATP events going on around the world.

    James Blake, who lost in a third-set tiebreaker to Sam Querrey in last year's quarterfinals as the No. 2 seed, is seeded first this time around with Andy Roddick absent. The American drew a fairly tough opening-round opponent in Dudi Sela, but he should be able to move comfortably back into the quarterfinals. At that point Blake could go up against familiar foe and No. 8 seed Fabrice Santoro.

    Querrey is the second highest ranked American in the field, and he is in the bottom section of the draw so this year he could not face Blake before the final. That second half of the bracket appears to be a free-for-all; Gilles Simon is there as the tournament's second seed and he will be contending for a spot in the title match along with No. 5 seed Tommy Haas, No. 8 Thomaz Bellucci, big-serving Americans John Isner and Robert Kendrick, and 2007 Queen's Club finalist Nicolas Mahut.

    Indianapolis defending champion Dmitry Tursunov, seeded third, is a potential semifinal opponent for Blake. The Russian, however, first must navigate his way through the second quarter of the draw which includes Americans Wayne Odesnik, who reached the third round of the French Open, and in-form Robby Ginepri, who made it to the Roland Garros fourth round.

    Blake is a small favorite to win the title, followed by Tursunov, but the bottom line is this championship is completely up for grabs.

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: