2014 ATP World Tour 250/500 series

[Paulkanga2000]

John Patrick Smith is qualifying for he Atlanta open. His seeded and has a first round bye. Alex bolt is in the first round of qualifying at gstaaad and plays fredrico gil of Portugal

Edited: Bolt beat Gill 6-3 6-2 but lost to inigo Cervantes (340) 6-2 6-4

 

[pepsi]

What a scoreline for tomic. He won 7-6 6-7 7-6. Karlovic in the final.

 

[matt_897]

Supposedly it was an epic match of drama, just watched the end tiebreak and Tomic's reaction was actually good to see. Estrella Burgos is certainly a cool story.

 

[pepsi]

Matosevic actually faces estrella in the first round in Atlanta, which looking at it, is quite an unlucky draw considering Matosevic is seeded. Eb den faces Benjamin Becker and Patrick smith is in the final round of qualifying tonight.

 

[Chris_2593]

Great stuff Bernie! There was lots of fist pumps from him which was good to see. He Is up to 81 in the rankings now. If he manages to win he will be up to 69 and only a couple of spots behind Kyrgios.

 

[Roobs321]

Great week with two of my favourite players back in finals. Strangely, the last time Tomic won a tournament, Ferrer also won the same week (Syd/Auck '13).

Both finals will be real battles. Leo Mayer has been playing well lately, and Karlovic after going 0-3 already in finals this year will be desperate to come out on top. That said, the likes of Ferrer and even Tomic would normally put away that level of competition when a title is on the line.

Good fortnight (and month really) for the Australian contingent, with Gucc in his 2nd straight doubles final (this time with Groth).

Also, despite Tomic's unfortunate year to date, I think he is the first non-Hewitt Australian male to make two ATP singles finals in a calendar year since maybe the Scud in 2003. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[pepsi]

Tomic match on now on fox sports 2.

 

[Amazing Bombers]

Good to see Tomic showing a bit of heart hopefully he can keep this level of effort consistently.

 

[pepsi]

I think some of us hoped that what has happened in recent weeks would kick Tomic into gear. His first final out of Australia is a good first step and the next will be his dedication to the sport in training, his fitness program and behaviour off the court. The more Aussies in the top 100, the better for the sport in this country.

 

[Hamingja]

Tough final to read.

Bernie is not a great returner, he is going to get aced a lot guessing on Karlovic's serve, and if he has a sloppy service game at any stage it is likely set over. On the other hand when Bernie is trying I think he is generally pretty good in tiebreaks so that's where he can win it.

 

[pepsi]

Tomic won the opening set in a tb. Not a great match so far. On serve and 2 all in the 2nd set.

On Fos Sports 2 for anyone who has it.

 

[vaughany]

6-5 up in the third

 

[gcsportsfan12]

Wow, good for him not to waste that

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

Will admit I wrote him off. Fantastic work to win the tiebreaker in the third.

Up 58 places once the new rankings come out. Or so my app tells me.

I was surprised to read he was in the top 30 once.

 

[pepsi]

Great week by tomic.

His 2nd match point at 6-5 could've cost him mentally. But he overcame that and played an excellent tb.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Great effort from Bernard. Now let's hope the same effort goes into the rest of his career.

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

I thought he was older than he is, too. My bad.

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

Just read the Wiki page and Groth and Gooch won the doubles. Gooch is quite the doubles player.

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

JPS needed two tiebreaks to win a qually match for Atlanta. Hope the form can continue.

 

[vaughany]

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

Geezus ... that hat suits him way more than I could've imagined. With foggy glasses I could imagine he'd be Neg's body double.

 

[Roobs321]

So glad for Tomic, way to bounce back. He really continues to have a champion quality when he is motivated and gets matches under his belt.

Although, I do miss his smile, I hope privately he is managing the off-court dramas okay. You can tell 2013 was rather tough on him.

6 Australians in the top 100, feels good!

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

We need seven for when Hewitt has to go. Then we can start a 'new generation' in earnest.

 

[Roobs321]

I don't think that will be too much of a problem, a few likely types are waiting in the wings. That said, if we could maintain 6 I would be very happy, nice change from a couple years ago when we struggled for 2 at the best of times.

That said, Matosevic is fairly old already, and Ebden/Groth are top 100 cloggers more than anything really.

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

Duckworth, Saville and JPS are the next best. Probably not ideal.