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Friday, July 29, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
NBA-Sized Players Finding Success at Atlanta Tennis Championships
NBA-Sized Players Finding Success at Atlanta Tennis Championships
It's not uncommon to see professional tennis players, or USTA 4.0 hacks bounce overheads over fence or onto adjacent court. It is rare to see a player bounce a serve over the fence, but that is exactly what ATP player Kevin Anderson was doing in the warm up before his match with Michael Russell. I tend to think Anderson was working on this by design as he stands about a foot taller than Russell. Along with the heat and recently layed surface covering the courts, the courts they are using at the Racquet Club of the South for the Atlanta Tennis Championships are giving off extremely high bounces. Advantage taller players.
It doesn't hurt that Anderson is 6'8" and is built like an NBA power forward. Anderson is part of the new breed of tennis players that look like they belong on a basketball court or playing tight end in the NFL. With John Isner being 6'9", Marinko Matesevic checking in at about 6'6", and Rajeev Ram and Gilles Muller both 6'4", there should be a slam dunk contest held to entertain the fans in between matches. All that is missing is 6'10" Ivo Karlovic who isn't playing this week.
Former world #1 Lleyton Hewitt noticed the high bounces off the court in his first round match and as he commented in his press conference, he made adjustments because of his smaller frame.
Matesevic commented to a reporter following his upset win over Igor Kunitsyn, "the balls are flying off the court." The high kicking serves are noticable to most fans and they are marveling at the play.
John Inser, a former basketball player in his youth chose tennis over hoops at the age of 15. With his soft hands and spot on hand-eye coordination, Isner could've emulated his basketball idol, Tom Gugliotta into a college basketball scholarship if he wished. In fact Isner played some hoops in a press conference earlier in the week with the former NBA player Gugliotta and he held his own.
Isner mentioned in his win over James Balke that he was glad he had 30 aces and many service winners. Blake, like many other players saw serves jumping up over his head.
The players and athletes in most sports have gotten bigger and stronger over the years, but many tennis fans never expected tennis players to become giants. Gone are the days of scappy under 6' players like McEnroe and Connors dominating the sport. It seem bigger is better now in professional tennis.
Seen on the grounds: Donald Young sticking around to watch Isner and Blake Wednesday night after he was eliminated from the tournament. Alex Bogomolov Jr. enjoying his time doing a meet and greet with USTA members at a lunchtime reception, and ATP chair umpire Mohammed Leyani posing for pictures and signing autographs for fans. Geez, I thought the fans came out to see the players.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
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