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I'm surprised a thread discussing the U.S. Open Series (basically the North American hard court tournaments leading up to and including the U.S. Open, including the Canada and Cincinnati Masters/Premier events) hasn't been created yet. The series is kicking off in DC with the Citi Open (ATP 500, WTA International event), which is conveniently played a mere 3 miles/5 kilometers from where I live. As I type this, the quarterfinals will take place later today.
Form has largely held on the men's side where 7 of the 8 top seeds, including Americans John Isner (#1 seed), Steve Johnson (#5), Jack Sock (#6), and Sam Querrey (#8) and Frenchmen Gael Monfils and Benoit Paire (#2 and #4 seeds respectively) have advanced to the quarters. By contrast, only 4 of the top 8 women's seeds have made it to the quarters; the biggest name by far among them is top seed Sam Stosur (who was trailing Caroline Wozniacki in her 2nd round match on Wednesday before Woz had to withdraw due to injury). IMO, the women's draw is wide open; though Stosur should be considered the favorite, I could see her falling short of the title. In particular, #7 seed Yanina Wickmayer has gotten off to a good start in the tournament; Wickmayer will need to defeat #4 seed Kristina Mladenovic in the only matchup of seeded women's players in the quarters just to get to the semifinals however. On the men's side, IMO Monfils should be considered the favorite, though Isner and rapidly-rising 19 year old Alexander Zverev (#7 seed) have good chances to win as well. Despite his youth, Zverev may have the biggest game of any of the remaining men's players; he hits powerful forehands and has an increasingly fast serve (though not quite as big as those possessed by Isner, #13 seed Ivo Karlovic, and possibly Monfils, who was hitting very big serves in his round of 16 match against Borna Coric).
I've attended portions of the tournament during the main draw every day but Tuesday, and I intend to be there all day today. It will be hot (greater than 95F or 35C), so hopefully there will be some clouds.
Saw some matches this morning local time on ESPN.
Monfils looking very good defeating Sam Querrey.
Zverev beat a lackluster Benoit Paire - who looked disinterested in the 1st set.
Looks like a great venue to attend Chip, and very hot as well - you can see the sweat dripping off the players at the end of points.
Monfils a deserved winner in Washington DC, his record in tour finals has not been great to date.
Now for the 1st fast hard court Masters of the summer, in Toronto.
Unfortunately a few of the big names are not competing, likely due to overload with the Rio Olympics, but should be a great tune up nonetheless.
There are quite a few not going to Rio either, disappointing including Aussies Tomic and Kyrgios, along with Berdych and Raonic - the latter 2 citing the Zeka virus risk, but I suppose they have to prioritize what tournaments they compete in.
A couple other results from this past week, the first one in the North American hard court season:
*Johanna Konta of the United Kingdom won her first-ever WTA Tournament, beating Venus Williams in the Premier (i.e. 500 level equivalent) event in Stanford.
*Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium won her 5th career title, defeating Lauren Davis (who was making her first WTA finals appearance) in the WTA International (i.e. 250 level equivalent) Citi Open women's tournament in DC. Wickmayer also won the women's doubles title in the tournament.
(Additionally, there were three ATP 250 events in Europe this week, the last events in the spring/early summer season in Europe.)
As for Gael Monfils, he made a tremendous comeback against Ivo Karlovic; Dr. Ivo was serving for the match but was broken to eventually force a second set tiebreak, and Monfils was also able to stave off a match point (albeit on his serve) against Karlovic in the tiebreak to win the 2nd set. The Frenchman then earned a break early in the 3rd set to eventually win the set, match, and championship. It was Monfils' 6th career ATP title and his first at a 500 level event or higher.
Derek41 - the Citi Open is a nice event to attend. (I'm somewhat biased considering it is played so close to where I live and I can easily get there via transit bus, which I used every day I attended the tournament.) It is located in Rock Creek Park, located on federally-owned land, so there is a bucolic atmosphere because of the many trees on and especially adjacent to the site. The site is also located adjacent to residential areas with no commercial development nearby, and that also contributes to the atmosphere. As is probably the case with all events smaller than a Grand Slam or Masters 1000 event (I personally can only speak in relation to the U.S. Open USTA National Tennis Center site in NYC, which is huge), the scale of the site is fairly small and intimate; there are only 6 courts that are used for matches during the tournament, and they are all fairly close to one another (two on the north side of the stadium and three on the south side of the stadium). The practice courts are all very close to the match courts as well. The Citi Open sponsors, particularly title sponsor Citi, really upped the hospitality this year, adding an air conditioned CitiCard tent where CitiCard holders could relax and get free snacks and non-alcoholic beverages. (I personally used the tent many times on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to get water refills and snacks and to escape the heat; it was a nice complement/alternative to the also air conditioned Emirates Garden Club lounge and restaurant provided by Emirates Airlines that is accessible for full tournament box and premium reserved seat holders.) The event has really improved over the last two years for attendees; the merchandise tent was also air conditioned, and the number of enclosed, air conditioned locations on-site available to at least some attendees tripled from 1 to 3 between 2014 and 2016 (and one of the locations is accessible for all attendees, something that wasn't true two years ago).
Wow, the 17 year old Canadian prospect Denis Shapovalov, who just won the junior title at Wimbledon a few weeks ago and made his ATP Tour debut at the Citi Open this past week (unfortunately I wasn't able to see him play; he lost a tight 3 set match to Lukas Lacko on the day I could not attend) upset Nick Kyrgios in the first round of the Canada Masters in Toronto.
Based on his current ranking (in the 300s) and the fact he's still playing juniors (i.e. his ranking has been built through playing ITF Futures and ATP Challengers part-time), Shapovalov looks like a very good prospect. As a frame of reference, he's almost exactly 1 1/2 years younger than Taylor Fritz, 2 years younger than Alexander Zverev, and 4 years younger than Kyrgios. He hasn't won a Challenger title or appeared in a Challenger final yet, but he has won 3 Futures events so far in his career.
Derek41 - the Citi Open is a nice event to attend. (I'm somewhat biased considering it is played so close to where I live and I can easily get there via transit bus, which I used every day I attended the tournament.) It is located in Rock Creek Park, located on federally-owned land, so there is a bucolic atmosphere because of the many trees on and especially adjacent to the site. The site is also located adjacent to residential areas with no commercial development nearby, and that also contributes to the atmosphere. As is probably the case with all events smaller than a Grand Slam or Masters 1000 event (I personally can only speak in relation to the U.S. Open USTA National Tennis Center site in NYC, which is huge), the scale of the site is fairly small and intimate; there are only 6 courts that are used for matches during the tournament, and they are all fairly close to one another (two on the north side of the stadium and three on the south side of the stadium). The practice courts are all very close to the match courts as well. The Citi Open sponsors, particularly title sponsor Citi, really upped the hospitality this year, adding an air conditioned CitiCard tent where CitiCard holders could relax and get free snacks and non-alcoholic beverages. (I personally used the tent many times on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to get water refills and snacks and to escape the heat; it was a nice complement/alternative to the also air conditioned Emirates Garden Club lounge and restaurant provided by Emirates Airlines that is accessible for full tournament box and premium reserved seat holders.) The event has really improved over the last two years for attendees; the merchandise tent was also air conditioned, and the number of enclosed, air conditioned locations on-site available to at least some attendees tripled from 1 to 3 between 2014 and 2016 (and one of the locations is accessible for all attendees, something that wasn't true two years ago).
Certainly sounds like an enjoyable event, and have only been to the Sydney International as far as ATP tour events go (luckily got to see Del Potro when he was still playing well and not injured), which is only a 250.
Monte Carlo has always been on my bucket list, along with the French and the USO itself - but having to travel half way around the world to get to these, any event that was an opportunity to attend would be duly taken.
Monfils looked very good against hometown hero Milos Raonic, and continues his good form from Washington DC.
Djokovic looked sluggish, but as usual finds a way to get past his pigeon Tomas Berdych.
This semi could go either way.
In the other, Wawrinka appears to be playing better right now, and despite his inconsistent levels -may peak again at some stage.
Nishikori advances to the final in Toronto, coming from behind in the 1st set to beat Wawrinka in 2 sets.
Djokovic/Monfils should be very interesting. I think Djoker wins, but I wouldn't be surprised if Monfils pulls the upset.
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US Open 2016....................
