Delray Beach Tennis Championships

[Drummond]

Tournament Name: DELRAY BEACH INTERNATIONAL TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Location: DELRAY BEACH, FLORIDA, USA
Dates: FEBRUARY 23–MARCH 1, 2009
Prize Money: US $500,000
32 DRAW (MD & QUALIFYING)
ATP Ranking Points: Winner 250

For whatever reason, I enjoy this tournament. I suppose a major reason behind that is the fact it's been shown on Fox Sports (kinda) for at least the past 3-4 years which means you get to know the event. The Semi Finals and Final will be broadcasted on Fox, on delay of course. So keeping this in mind hopefully we get some decent matches in the latter stages of the tournament.

Main Draw:

[1] Mardy Fish (USA) - Qualifier
Vince Spadea (USA) - Denis Gremelmayr (GER)
Qualifier - Mischa Zverev (GER)
Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) - [6] Florent Serra (FRA)

[3] Ernests Gulbis (LAT) - Marcos Baghdatis (CYP)
Philipp Petzschner (GER) - [SE] Dudi Sela (ISR)
Andrey Golubev (KAZ) - [WC] Evan King (USA)
Tommy Haas (GER) - [7] Jeremy Chardy (FRA)

[5] Steve Darcis (BEL) - Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP)
Qualifier - Gilles Muller (LUX)
Paul Capdeville (CHI) - Robert Kendrick (USA)
Qualifier - [4] Igor Kunitsyn (RUS)

[8] Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) - [WC] Lleyton Hewitt (AUS)
Stefan Koubek (AUT) - Bobby Reynolds (USA)
Roko Karanusic (CRO) - Christophe Rochus (BEL)
Guillermo Canas (ARG) - [2WC] Sam Querrey (USA)

~

Bolded names are already through to the next round. Gulbis v Baghdatis, insanity!!! Canas v Querrey should be good, in fact there are quite a few quality first round matches, probably better than most 2nd round matches. Hopefully Hewitt can continue his form from Memphis.

 

[matt_897]

I was hoping to watch Lleyton in a couple of livestreams but he lost to Lu in 3 sets this morning. Time to get ready for DC.

Baggy beat Gulbis, I don't Gulbis has done really anything apart from beating Djokovic at Brisbane.

 

[Drummond]

Really disappointed in Hewitt. Lu is a good player but given the form he showed in Memphis I honestly thought he would take this one. I just wanted to see him on TV again.

Gulbis, well as TP said he's proving to be just another Berdych. Immense talent but he's really not going anywhere. Ranking hasn't really improved in the past 15 months and he continues to suffer too many early exits. It was always going to be tough against Baghdatis but he could've at least won a set. He's too talented to be playing this poorly.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Lol at Hewitt losing again

 

[matt_897]

Lu lost to Koubek 6-2, 6-4. Shows how bloody bad that Hewitt loss was.

Querrey losing to C Rochus 6-4, 6-1. How can lose to a guy 3 times smaller than in that scoreline

 

[Drummond]

Lu lost to Koubek 6-2, 6-4. Shows how bloody bad that Hewitt loss was.

Well, Lu is a talented player showed at the AO he's capable of big wins but also showed he's capable of big letdowns. Same thing happened here. It wasn't so much a bad loss by Hewitt, just a real big missed oppertunity.

Querrey losing to C Rochus 6-4, 6-1. How can lose to a guy 3 times smaller than in that scoreline

I actually like Querrey and I think he's got decent potential but he plays like a small man. He's a giant but he doesn't really have a net game to speak of. It's something he must work on if he is to improve his ranking.

 

[matt_897]

Yeah, Lu can be incosistant but still a terrible loss for Lleyton. I was at that Lu-Nalbandian at AO, Lu did well but Nalby probably lost it more than Lu won it.

What I've seen of Querrey is making of a good player, he has a habit of losing matches like this at times, with that serve, he really should be able to work around that to not have scorelines like 6-4, 6-1.

 

[Drummond]

IQ'd the Semi Finals and Final, but annoyingly I found out the results. I'll still watch them anyway.

Halfway through the 1st SF, Christophe Rochus is such an ordinary player, how the heck did he manage to make it that far? Korolev is talented but I'd lose sleep if I were a fan, he just plays far too recklessly and throws away too many important points because he's got no tactics.

I like the commentators for this tournament, not as good as the MS guys but good nonetheless. They all show up the pathetic Ch.7 commentary team, as does just about everyone. Has the court always been blue? Probably. Not sure what to make of the fancy Delray Beach painting type stuff on the back of the court and on the very back of the baseline. It's interesting, I'll pay that.

 

[matt_897]

Drummond, do you get to see any of the live stream for Delray Beach. It was hilarious, the graphics were like we watching it back in the 80's (scores would pop up in big white numbers after every point) and the commentators would barely talk, and when they did it was only the obivous. I assume the TV coverage was different from that.

Anyway, Rochus has had a good run in the last few weeks, he beat Fish, the evntual winner last week and made the semis here. I agree, i don't really rate him either but getting the results at the moment. Actually never seen Korolev play.

Davis Cup this week and then we get into Indian Wells, can't wait for that.

 

[Drummond]

Drummond, do you get to see any of the live stream for Delray Beach. It was hilarious, the graphics were like we watching it back in the 80's (scores would pop up in big white numbers after every point) and the commentators would barely talk, and when they did it was only the obivous. I assume the TV coverage was different from that.

Anyway, Rochus has had a good run in the last few weeks, he beat Fish, the evntual winner last week and made the semis here. I agree, i don't really rate him either but getting the results at the moment. Actually never seen Korolev play.

Sounds hilarious! I can imagine those big white numbers, those were the days! I don’t mind commentators barely talking, and sometimes the MS guys don’t speak much, bu when you do talk you’ve got to at least make it interesting

The TV coverage was better, although at some stages it was amateur hour. They occasionally cut to this really high camera angle where you could barely see the ball, and they left it there for a whole game. Riiiight. And how about that little car thing at the back of the court to the side? Last year it was a couch, this year a car. What next year?

Davis Cup this week and then we get into Indian Wells, can't wait for that.

You don't have Fox do you? Mate, you must get it! As usual they are showing a complete Davis Cup tie, not live but not much of a delay. It's normally the USA so I assume it'll be them we see again. And of course Indian Wells will be on Fox. I'm crossing my fingers that we get the same commentary team.

 

[matt_897]

Nah, don't have Fox. Was actually hoping Ten's new sport channel picked up those '1000' events but it seems it doesn't. Livestreams these last few weeks have worked really well actually (recently got broadband) , it's been great to watch this much tennis. Should be able to find some for some Davis Cup ties. Hopefully there is one for Indian Wells