The Atlanta Tennis Championships begin Monday and the draw was released on Saturday. As Rick Limpert noted in his article, the draw is not top-heavy but features many young rising players as well as a slew of Americans.

Quarter I

(1)Mardy Fish (USA) bye
Richard Berankis (LTU) vs Nicolas Mahut (FRA)
Michael Berrer (GER) vs Tatsuma Ito (JPN)
Ryan Sweeting (USA) vs (8)Somdev Devvarman (IND)

I think this is a pretty good draw for Fish. Richard Berankis, the talented Lithuanian, who was ranked as high as 71 this year, is coming off a long strech of not playing, but still could give Fish some trouble should he beat marathon man Nicolas Mahut. I also think the winner of the Somdev Devvarman vs Ryan Sweeting match could give Fish a little trouble. Sweeting is coming off his first career win at Wimbledon and has a clay court title from earlier this season in Houston. I like Devvarman and easily advance against Berrer or Ito. Projected Semifinalist- Fish

Quarter II

4)Xavier Malisse (BEL) bye
(q) vs Ryan Harrison (USA)
Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) vs (q)
(q) vs (5)Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)

This is certainly the most interesting quarter, but there is much uncertainty due to the number of qualifiers in this quarter. Two aging veterans and two youngsters on the rise. Assuming Harrison can get by the qualifier, which is not a given, he is known to play up or down to his opponent, I believe he can beat Malisse. Lleyton Hewitt dominated Kei Nishikori in the first round of Wimbledon only to blow a 2 set lead to Robin Soderling in the second round. However, his play surprised me and I think he is a player to watch in this tournament, hoping to get his career back on track after several bouts with injuries. Grigor Dimitrov is a very dangerous player, once nicknamed, "baby Fed," but I think Hewitt can defeat him and set up a battle with American Ryan Harrison. If Dimitrov wins, however, a Dimitrov-Harrison match is very appealing. Projected Semifinalist- Hewitt

Quarter III

(6)Igor Kunitsyn (RUS) vs (q)
Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) vs Matthias Bachinger (GER)
James Blake (USA) vs Ernests Gulbis (LAT)
(3)John Isner (USA) bye

I don't really believe the top half of this quarter will pose much of a threat to the bottom of this quarter, so lets start with the bottom. James Blake vs Ernests Gulbis. Gulbis is known for his lack of mental toughness, but he is very talented. Blake is working his way back, and is up to 89 in the world. Both players lost tough matches in the first round of Wimbledon. I like/hope Blake can win and set up a duel with Isner. I like Isner in the quarter easily, and he is coming off of a tournament win in Newport last week. Projected Semifinalist- Isner

Quarter IV

7)Alex Bogomolov Jr. (USA) vs Gilles Muller (LUX)
(WC)Tommy Haas (GER) vs (WC)Robby Ginepri (USA)
(WC)Donald Young (USA) vs Michael Russell (USA)
(2)Kevin Anderson (RSA) bye

Gilles Muller, a journeymen  Lëtzebuerger with an amazing ace to double fault ratio could make some noise in the quarter. I think he can beat the tempermental Bogomolov Jr and then he will face the winner of Tommy Haas and Robby Ginepri, two former top 20 players ranked outside of 300 because of injuries. I 'll take Ginepri to beat Haas, partially because I'm American and the tournament is in Ginepri's home state of Georgia. But I like Muller to win the next match. He put together an impressive performance in a 3rd round loss to Nadal at Wimbledon this year. Donald Young, another Georgia boy, will take on Michael Russell, a tough guy competitor. I think Young will take it, but you know it won't happen without a fight from Russell. WIth all that being said, I like the hard serving South African to advance to the semis. Projected Semifinalist- Anderson

Those projections would set up Fish vs Hewitt and Isner vs Anderson. I would like world number 8 Fish to advance and the second match would be a rematch of last year's semifinal where Isner won in 3 sets. Isner is 6'9''. Anderson is 6'8". I'll say the extra inch makes the difference.

In a rematch of last year's final, I'll say the result is the opposite with Isner being crowned the 2011 Atlanta Tennis Championships Champion.

Should be a great tournament!

Some of you may be familiar with the game, others may not, but it is actually a pretty fun game. For the US Open Series, there are 6 mens tournaments. YOu pick a bracket for each of the tournament, round by round, before each tournament starts. After you make your picks, you email them to drawchallenge@yahoo.com . Here is what a typical entry from last year looks like.

1st round

Kevin Anderson
Robby Ginepri
Ryan Sweeting
Janko Tipsarevic
Mardy Fish
James Blake
Xavier Malisse
Ernests Gulbis
Karol Beck
Temyuraz Gabashvili
Qualifier
Horacio Zeballos

2nd round
Andy Murray
Ernests Gulbis
Feliciano Lopez
Mardy Fish
Janko Tipsarevic
Marcos Baghdatis
Robby Ginepri
Sam Querrey

Quarterfinals

Sam Querrey
Marcos Baghdatis
Feliciano Lopez
Andy Murray

Semifinal

Marcos Baghdatis
Andy Murray

 Final Andy Murray



We keep all picks, results, and updates at drawchallenge.webs.com . It is a fun game, but we need at least 2 or 3 more people to play. Right now, we have 3 and last year we had 5-6. (4 of them being from The Daily Forehand.) If you would like to play, please email drawchallenge@yahoo.com so I can have your email address and will be able to know if you are playing. We need at least 2-3 people. Please respond as quickly as you can. Thanks. We also keep track of the overall standings for each tournament to determine a US Open Series Champion. Last year's winner was Big Al.

                                                    Match of the Day... and Tournament So Far

Rafael Nadal survives a five set thriller at Court Philippe Chatrier against American big guy John Isner. The final score was 6-4 6-7 6-7 6-2 6-4. Nadal got off to the start he needed by winning the first set with a single break. He lead the second set by a break also, but a key Isner breakback was vital in getting the set into a tiebreaker. In teibreakers, Isner took over as he won both the second and third set tiebreaks 7-2. Nadal handily won the fourth set, and an early break in the fifth set gave the victory to world #1 ranked Raphael Nadal. Said Nadal, “Tough, tough moments for me. I played too nervous, in my opinion.”

                                                   Sam Wins One for the Americans

Last year, heading into Roland Garros, Sam Querrey was playing well, having won a tournament on clay in the previous weeks. The result: A straight sets loss to Robby Ginepri in the first round. Now Sam had been struggling and faced a difficult opponent in Philip Kohlschrieber. A perennial seed, Kohlschrieber won the first set and it looked like Querrey may be headed down the road of a first round loss. But he turned it around, dominating the second set 6-1. He won the third set 6-2 and the fourth set 6-4. Querrey converted 5 more aces than the German, and only gave up one break of service. It was Querrey's first ever win at Roland Garros.

                                                    Soderling, Murray Advance

Andy Murray looked impressive in a straight set win over unheralded Frenchman Eric Prodon. Soderling had a little more trouble however, as he needed 4 sets to dispatch 19 year old American Ryan Harrison. Harrison stole the second set in a tiebreak and gave Soderling, two time runner up, everything he could handle. All in all, a promising day for the future of American tennis.

                                                    Almagro Loses

That's all I have to say about that. My final four sleeper Almagro lets me down again in a 5 set loss to Lukasz Kubot in a match where the Spaniard blew a 2 set lead. Au revoir Nicolas.

                                                                  Best Bet Tomorrow

There are top players in action tomorrow, including some Frenchmen, but I think this may be one of the more competative ones. I like Nishikori, who reached a clay final in Houston, to reach the round of 32 and fulfil project-45, a goal set by Nishikori and his crew to get his ranking up to 45, which would make him the highest ever ranked Japanese player.

So there are 32 seeds, 128 overall players fighting for a mere 16 spots in the main draw at Roland Garros. Win 3 matches and you are in. Here's a brief rundown.

Number 1 seed Alex Bogomolov is an American who has reached a career high ranking of 84. He has not played in the main draw of the French Open since 2004, where he lost in the first round. 26) Steve Darcis could pose a threat in what would be Bogomolov's final qualifying match. However, his toughest test could come in the second round, where he will face the winner of Ivo Klec and Rik de Voest. de Voest is 30 and will look to make the main draw for the first time at Roland Garros. He reached the 3rd round of doubles there as recently as 2009.

Number 2 seed Horacio Zeballos is an interesting case. He came on strong a year or so ago but has struggled lately. He is 5-5 on the year, and he reached the second round of the main draw at Roland Garros last year. His toughest tests figures to come from 23 seed Simone Bolelli, of Italy. He has won a main draw match at the French 3 of the last 4 years. Bolelli could win a match in the main draw this year also.

Number 4 seed Ilya Marchenko could be on a collision course with 31 Stephane Robert. Marchenko has struglled this year at 4-8, but has plenty of talent. Robert will be trying to add to the contingent of French men in the main draw.

American Ryan Harrison is seeded 18 and the only seed he would have to defeat is Number 6 Jaroslav Pospisil, ranked 104 in the world. Hopefully Ryan can advance after a disappointing Aussie Open following a nice run at the US Open.

Alejandro Falla, who had a 2 set lead on Roger Federer at Wimbledon last year, is a 19 seed. Would not be surprised to see him in the main draw come the weekend.

American Bobby Reynolds, seeded 9th, will look to advance to the main draw in Paris for the first time since 2009. He will face German Bjorn Phau in his opening match.

Tatsumo Ita, seeded 10th, from Japan will face some challenges in trying to advance to the main draw. Marsel Ilhan, seeded 21st from Turkey will likely be his toughest match if the two meet.

Lukasz Kubot, seeded 11th, is a player I like a lot. 27th seeded Simon Greulwill providehim with some challenges, but I expect Kubot to advance.

Marco Chiudinelli, is unseeded, but in 2010, he reached the second round of the main draw in 3 of 4 majors.  Marc Gicquel, the 24th seeded Frenchman will also look to advance in that section.

Probably the most competitive section contains Lukas Lacko, Frank Dancevic, Eduardo Schwank, American Jesse Witten, and Gilles Muller. Anybody could probably come from that group and provide some competition to their first round opponent in the main draw.

Well that's about it. Main draw Roland-Garros less than  a week away. But until then, there is still tennis to be played. Should be interesting.

               #5 Andy Murray defeated #7 David Ferrer on Friday night to advance to his second consecutive Australian Open Final with a 4-6, 7-6, 6-1, 7-6 victory. After a shaky start, Murray took control in the tiebreaks giving up a combined four points in two tiebreaks. Now, Murray will attempt to be the first British male to win a grand slam singles title since Fred Perry did in 1936. It was a match of long, physical rallies and break points but in the end Murray prevailed. It didn't look like that early.

              The first set went to David Ferrer 6-4. Even and on serve at 3-all Murray converted on the match's first break point to take the 4-3 lead. However, on Murray's next service game, at 15-40, a Ferrer dropshot and subsequent volley put the set back at an even 4-all. At 15-30 in Ferrer's next service game, Murray won a 41- shot rally to give himself a pair of break points. However, four consecutive brilliantly constructed points led to Ferrer taking a 5-4 lead and forcing Murray to serve to stay in the set. A backhand error by the Brit in the next game gave Ferrer the first set 6-4. It was a sloppy set for Murray, who comitted 16 errors to Ferrer's 6. Both players hit 10 winners. At this point, it looked like Murray was physically tired from long rallies and points. Said Andy after the match, "Both of us did a lot of running.''

               The second set lasted 73 minutes and was a grueling set for both players. Murray broke to start the set, but was immediately broken back by Ferrer. At 2-3 with Murray serving, he faced a 15-40 deficit. However, the serve kept him in it. Back to back huge serves saved the break points and he went on to win the game and even it up at 3-all. It seemed on every break point, Murray, who only had 9 aces, would come up with a huge serve. In all, David Ferrer only converted on 5 of 18 break points. It was a huge hold for Murray. After a couple routine service games, Ferrer had a set point on Murray's serve. Of course, another unreturned serve and Murray won the game and immediately broke Ferrer to take a 6-5 lead. A missed Murray backhand on his serve gave Ferrer the break right back and the two headed to a tiebreak. This is where Andy Murray took over. Andy took a 6-0 lead before Ferrer managed 2 points and the match was dead even after 2 hours of physical, beautiful play.

                There was a guest appearance in the first point of the 3rd set. About 20 seagulls came into the stadium, if only for a few moments. It was as if they could sense that this was a good one so far. At 1-1, Murray once again used his serve to erase two break points. This gave him a 2-1 lead. He would go on to break Ferrer two times that set en route to a 6-1 set victory.

                This one was over, it seemed, when Ferrer was broken at love to start the set, and down 0-30 in the 3rd game, down 0-2. But Ferrer was not finished as he rallied in that game and then broke Murray at love. Both players held and after a big hold to get it to 5-4, Ferrer let out a huge "VAMOS." Both players held the next three games and we were headed to our 2nd tiebreaker. It was all Murray as he won 7-2 to finish the match with a 4-6, 7-6, 6-1, 7-6 hard fought victory. The match lasted 3 hours and 46 minutes. With the loss in the fourth set tiebreaker, Ferrer has now lost 11 consecutive Australian Open tiebreakers. Congrats to Andy and the final should be a good one to watch.  

                         What do you get when a seemingly unmotivated player and the player with the most career men's grand slam titles play each other? A Swiss practice session. That is what Roger Federer made it look like as he easily defeated 19th seeded Stan Wawrinka 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 to advance to his 8th consecutive Australian Open semi final. On a calm 75 degree day, the match was also calm for Federer, who only faced 1 break point. Wawrinka seemed like he was content with being a quarterfinalist. He had been 9-0 on the year with wins over Thomas Berdych, Gael Monfils, and Andy Roddick. It is understandable to lose to Federer, but the way he did it was dissapointing for many of us who thought it would be a pretty good match.  It was a very unspirited effort.

                       It started out great early for Federer, who took the first set 6-1. Wawrinka won only 6 points on Roger's serve, while Roger took 13 of Wawrinka's 24 service points. Federer took both of the break points afforded to him in the easy set. It looked as if Wawrinka was ready to compete in the second set, serving more consistently and the set was tied 3-all with Stan serving. However, a poor volley on a break point gave Federer an easy passing shot to take the 4-3 lead. At that point, it was all but over. Federer won his next service game to take a 5-3 lead and the 9th game was absolute toying by Roger. The game, which lasted nearly ten minutes, was marked by Federer drop shots and tweeners. In the end, he broke Wawrinka again and took the set 6-3. The final set was only a formality as Federer broke early en route to a 6-3 win. It was a dissapointing end to a good tournament for Stan the Man. 

                      With the victory, Federer will play either Thomas Berdych or Novak Djokovic, the two players who bounced Federer from the last two 'slams. Federer converted on 5 of 7 break point chances and saved his only point. The match took less than 2 hours and was a swift beatdown in the battle of the Swiss.

The Daily Forehand needs 3 more players to be considered a complete team. Show your knowledge of the Aussie Open and enter on the team of Daily Forehand. It is a great competition and your are sure to enjoy it... or go crazy. I don't think we have had a complete team in a few slams so join up!

Here is the website that the competiton is run through

http://www.freewebs.com/britishtennis/Competitions.html

-as seen on drawchallenge.webs.com
 

Should be a great tournament. 9 of the top 10 are here and the rest of the field is great.

Nadal's Quarter- Rafael Nadal could have a tricky quarter including a potential 2nd round matchup vs world 23 Stanislas Wawrinka. Rafael Nadal has won all 5 meetings between the 2, so I would expect Nadal to get throught that. Beyond that, a round of 16 matchup looms vs Sam Querrey, the 16th seeded American. 2 weeks ago, he captured the title in LA, with a win over Andy Murray. He has 4 titles on the year, but has yet to prove himself at the Masters 1000 tournaments. A win over Nadal would be huge for him. He is 1-4 this season in Masters 1000 events. Also in the quarter is 2003 champion Andy Roddick, who has struggled as of late. He lost to Mardy Fish in Atlanta and was taken out by Gilles Simon in Washington DC. He has questioned his motivation and even threw out the retirement word. However, in 2006, Roddick struggled before the Cincinatti masters in the smaller tournaments and then made a run and won it and got to the finals at the US Open. I am a Roddick fan, so this may be biased but I see Roddick making a gutsy run through this quarter. He could face stiff competition from 11) Marin Cilic or Janko Tipsarevic. Both players have beaten Roddick in the past in majors.  But being a homer, I'll take  hope for Roddick.                        

1st round matchups to watch- Cilic vs Troicki and Tipsarevic vs Kohlschrieber

Murray's Quarter- This draw has the best first round matchups in my opinion. Feliciano Lopez vs Thiemo de Bakkar is a great matchup of good servers. The winner will face the winner of another highly anticipated matchup between 15) Gael Monfils and Fernando Gonzalez, who has been sidelined since Roland Garros. 10) David Ferrer will face a very tough first round opponent in David Nalbandian, the resurgent former star who is in the finals in DC.  I like Murray to advance in his half of the quarter and 5)Robin Soderling will have a tough second round matchup vs the talented Ernest Gulbis or Thomaz Bellucci. I like Soderling to get through and then set up a matchup vs Andy Murray, who lost in the finals in LA two weeks ago. The two have split their previous 4 meetings, but I like Soderling, who lost in the finals in Bataad about a month ago.

Federer quarter- Roger Federer has a relatvely easy half of the quarter. I believe 14) Nicholas Almagro, who has won 2 clay tournaments since Wimbledon will be his toughest opponent there, but he should advance. The top half of the quarter includes a 12) Mikhail Youzhny vs Gilles Simon matchup. 7) Tomas Berdych could get an interesting second round match vs Richard Gasquet, the talented Frenchman. Gasquet retired in the first round in DC and Berdych was less than impressive with a quarterfinal loss to Xavier Malisse. I really like Gasquet to get by Berdych. All in all, I think this may be the easiest quarter for a top player and I expect Federer to make his way into the semifinals.

Djokovic quarter- He has a very difficult quarter. In his half 13) Jurgen Melzer, who is playing the best tennis of his life, looms in the round of 16. But the other half of the quarter is where all the action will take place. A first round matchup between Jermey Chardy and Marcos Baghdatis starts things off. I like Chardy, a good server who plays inconnsistently. Baghdatis, who is playing in the final in DC may be fatigued. 9) Fernando Verdasco and 6) Nikolay Davydenko are in the quarter. Both players have struggled recently, but they are both very dangerous players. Djokovic should advance though.

I like Roddick to beat Djokovic in the final. It is very wishful thinking, but I think Roddick will be entirely focused and needs to make a run before the Open.

Good luck Andy!!!