These are called, for a reason that escapes me, the dog days of summer. I know the term from America’s own summer game, baseball. While the rest of the world heads for the beach, or the mountains, or just deeper into the air conditioning, major league baseball players are often forced to embark on a brutal 20-games-in-20-days stretch in the August heat—those are the dog days. I guess we need something to watch with our Coronas.
The same is true in tennis, where the tours—including the Corona-sponsored ATP tour—continue to grind their way across a very hot United States on their way to a presumably even hotter Flushing Meadows at the end of the month. The big dogs—Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic—have arrived on this continent and are beginning their hard-court preparations in Montreal. Meanwhile, their smaller colleagues have already moved on from toasty Los Angeles to lovely Washington, D.C., the city better known as a swamp. Was it a coincidence that the debt ceiling was scheduled to kick in on August 2, the last date that any sane human being would willingly put himself in the nation’s capital? That just happens to be the day when the men’s tour arrives.
Here’s a look ahead, at the last of the small dog days.
Legg Mason Tennis Classic, Washington, D.C.; $1,166,400; DecoTurf; 500 ranking points (draw is here)
The summer slog has claimed a significant casualty. Mardy Fish, winner in Atlanta, runner-up in L.A., and a man scheduled to play every week until the U.S. Open, has taken the highly intelligent step of pulling out of D.C. He looked weary, and his ankle looked shaky, on Sunday, and he wasn’t even halfway home this month.
Unfortunately, one man’s highly intelligent move is another’s marketing headache. With Fish gone and Andy Roddick absent, Donald Dell and the other tournament organizers are left with a form of tennis double jeopardy for a U.S. promoter: They have a heavily European-ized draw, that doesn’t include the Top 4 Europeans. Not that we hardcore tennis types should be complaining. While it won’t tell us anything of import about the immediate future, or provide us with a leading man for the U.S. Open, D.C., with 500 points available and a 64 draw, is still the strongest of the U.S. hard-court series events thus far, and, with the possible exception of Hamburg, the strongest since Wimbledon. There are good players and recognizable names here—Monfils, Melzer, Verdasco, Baghdatis, Nalbandian—as well as a few marketable Yanks, in Isner, Harrison, and James Blake, who may or may not be eliminated by the time you read this. There’s also Donald Young, who may or may not be marketable.
How do you like Gael Monfils as a top seed? That name is a weird sight at the top of the draw. Weird as in weirdly unimposing; the freaky Frenchman is about as far from a sure thing for a No. 1 seed as it is possible to be. But his name is not nearly as weird as the one we see on the very last line of this draw sheet: Wayne Odesnik. The Unwelcome One made it in as a lucky loser after Fish withdrew. Does Odesnik count as a marketable American? I confess that I would like to see him play, especially against a fellow angry American, such as Ryan Harrison, who called him out earlier this season. But there aren’t any figures of rage near Odesnik. He starts with Radek Stepanek.
Other players of interest: Viktor Troicki, who, to my surprise, is the third seed; Nalbandian, who has played well here in the past and faces Blake today; Isner: the big guy has been hinting at a resurgence since Roland Garros, but can he take the heat?; Xavier Malisse, who, despite rarely appearing to enjoy the sport, continues to hang around, and play winning tennis, more than a decade after his debut; and Harrison, who will look to keep his own surge going, possibly against Troicki in the second round.
Early-round matches to watch: Blake-Nalbandian, Young-Melzer, Haas-Gonzalez, in the Battle of 2004, and Anderson-Guccione, in the Battle of the Treetops.
Look for a free-for-all type of event, a final week of mostly meaningless fun before the top tier arrives and gets us back to business.
Mercury Insurance Open presented by Tri-City Medical Center, Carlsbad, Calif.; DecoTurf; $721,000; WTA Premier (draw is here)
Presented by a medical center: I’m not sure that’s a good sign. Hopefully none of the players or fans will need to be carted there during the tournament. The good news, though, is that women’s tennis is back in the San Diego area, where is has thrived since the days of Little Mo Connolly and her famous coach, Teach Tennant (yes, Carlsbad is well north of San Diego proper, but I like the Connolly reference). The bad news is that the tournament has suffered from withdrawals, either by women who are injured or those trying to manage their schedules and get them to Flushing in one piece.
We’re left with a sizable premier event—64 players and $700 K in prize money—without the marquee names you would expect to fill it. Zvonareva is the first seed, Petkovic second, Radwanska third. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Radwanska has a habit of losing just when the TV cameras arrive late in the week; maybe more fans than usual will get to see her attractive game.
Other names of note: Shuai Peng, who at 25 is looking to make this season her best yet; Ana Ivanovic, who is now working with Nigel Sears, so we’ll see how that develops; Dominika Cibulkova, an energetic scrapper who, like Radwanska, could win some fans with more TV time; Julia Goerges; Daniela Hantuchova; and Kimiko Date-Krumm.
In place of top talent, we find a few intriguing young Americans. Christina McHale served up a double bagel in her first match; Alexa Glatch will play Petkovic next; Sloane Stephens has a wild card (and might be gone by the time you read this); Vania King won her first round; and Coco Vandeweghe, who beat Sorana Cirstea, will now face Cibulkova. One American who is already toast is Melanie Oudin, who lost, in depressing fashion, 0 and 1, to Elena Baltacha. Oudin may never have had Top 10 or Next Great American talent, but she’s better than this. Her grand opening at the Open two years ago may have been a curse in disguise. You have to think that it disrupted her natural development and attracted too bright a spotlight too early.
Enjoy D.C. and San Diego for what they are. They’re dog days for the players, but they’re a last week of vacation for fans before things get important again.