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Wild Cards (results in post #74)

9K views 73 replies 26 participants last post by  smucav 
#1 · (Edited)
Main Draw
1 Britton, Devin USA (2009 NCAA champion)
2 Buchanan, Chase USA (2009 Kalamazoo champion)
3 Dent, Taylor USA
4 Evans, Brendan USA
5 Levine, Jesse USA
6 Sweeting, Ryan USA (replaces Ram)
7 Llodra, Michael FRA (FFT)
8 Guccione, Chris AUS (TA)

Qualifying
1 Domijan, Alexander USA
2 Harrison, Ryan USA
3 Lipman, Ryan USA (2009 Kalamazoo finalist)
4 Smyczek, Tim USA
5 Strode, Blake USA
6 Venus, Michael USA
7 Cox, Jordan USA (replaces Jenkins)
8 McClune, Michael USA (replaces Dimitrov)
9 Sandgren, Tennys USA (replaces Cook)

Doubles
1 GINEPRI, Robby USA/JENKINS, Scoville USA
2 MARTIN, David USA/YOUNG, Donald USA
3 HARRISON, Ryan USA/VAN’T HOF, Kaes USA
4 ODESNIK, Wayne USA/SHABAZ, Michael USA
5 LEVINE, Jesse USA/SWEETING, Ryan USA
6 EVANS, Brendan USA/KUZNETSOV, Alex USA
7 Nguyen, Daniel USA/Sundling, J.T. USA (2009 Kalamazoo champions)
 
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#2 ·
Re: Wild Cards

WC for Dent and Levine for sure. Also some youngster (Harrison, Britton or Cox)
Other contenders: Ram, Spadea, Russel, Reynolds, Young, Yani, Warburg, Evans, Kuznetsov, Sweeting, Delic, Jenkins, Bogomolov, De Heart.
What expectations?
 
#3 ·
Re: Wild Cards

Rajeev should really be getting one, but might well sneak into the MD directly. Kuznetsov is a good contender considering his form. Many good players are vying for a spot this year though.
 
#4 ·
Re: Wild Cards

Yani prolly. Warburg isnt looking good:(
 
#8 ·
Re: Wild Cards

I expect Ram to get one if he doesn't make the cutoff. Britton, Harrison, Levine and the Kalamazoo champ (likely Domijan or Cox) will get wild cards. The other two (or one, depending on Ram) will be between Evans, Sweeting, Kuznetsov, and Dent. How they perform in the next couple weeks could decide it. I think Evans is the most likely of the four too get one.
 
#10 ·
Re: Wild Cards

Stephen Bass will get a qualifying wild card... I am going with him to the U.S. Open!
 
#11 ·
Re: Wild Cards

Here's who I hope gets the remaining 5:

Levine
Evans
Sweeting
Kuznetsov
Harrison

Competition for a WC this year is extremely tight. At this point, I think the only guaranteed recipient is Levine. I also think Evans will probably get one because of his ranking. He's won two challengers this year, reached the final of another, got to the quarters of Newport, and is at his career high ranking of 130. He's steadily improved his ranking from last year. All of this is enough for a WC in my opinion. He always seems to be under the radar, though.

Sweeting has a really good shot in my opinion. He's at his career-high ranking of 155 (which will be better next week), has had good challenger results, and just played Querrey very closely in Indianapolis. He's still way too inconsistent but it looks like that's improved somewhat. I'd be bummed if he didn't get one.

I would also give one to Kuznetsov. He seems a lot like Sweeting since he's so inconsistent. His ranking is a little lower, but it's improved a lot in the past few months with a number of good challenger results. One more and I bet he's a lock. As of now I think it's a toss-up, although I hope he gets one.

I'd give the fifth one to Harrison, especially if he gets another good result soon. He's just got so much potential, has a couple wins in challengers, and dominated a futures tournament. You know he'll fight hard against whoever he draws.

I'm assuming Ram will get in directly. I love Dent and feel for him because of his tough history. However, he's been back for almost a year and still isn't ranked as highly as Levine, Evans, or Sweeting. I would be ok with him getting one instead of Harrison, especially if Ryan doesn't get any other good results this summer, but I prefer to give WCs to young players.

As of now, I feel that there are better candidates than Britton and especially Cox. If they can put together a nice run in a challenger or win an ATP match then sure, but neither has had particularly impressive pro results yet. I think they'll be fine, but there's a lot of quality WC candidates this year and they'll get plenty of appropriate-level competition in qualies. Britton isn't guaranteed one because he was NCAA champion (this is a misconception, including by him). I'm all for it if he gets a good win or two in the next few weeks, though. Same goes for Domijan if he can do well in Washington.

Don't count Young out either if he gets out of his megaslump with some solid wins soon (like beating Hewitt in DC). He's still young and we know from two years ago that he can play well, so I'm not giving up on him (but he needs to grow up). However, if he doesn't do anything impressive soon I'd be really disappointed if he gets one. There are so many people playing better right now, not to mention being a lot less snotty.
 
#12 ·
Re: Wild Cards

Chip, I disagree about Britton. He's a stone-cold lock. NCAA champ, Junior U.S. Open runner-up, Wimbledon semifinalist, Roehampton champ, respectable performances against Ram and Bogomolov ... he's in. The fact that he just served as a Davis Cup practice partner also bodes well for him. You can carve it in stone. And I don't think he's misinformed about whether the NCAA winner automatically gets a wild card. He just knows that it makes him a virtual lock.

Giving a wild card to Young would be almost indefensible at this point. If he wins a few ATP matches between now and the Open, it's possible, but that would be a minor miracle.
 
#13 ·
Re: Wild Cards

Giving a wild card to Young would be almost indefensible at this point. If he wins a few ATP matches between now and the Open, it's possible, but that would be a minor miracle.
Agreed. My point is that if he can pull off some good wins then he's back in the running.

Chip, I disagree about Britton. He's a stone-cold lock. NCAA champ, Junior U.S. Open runner-up, Wimbledon semifinalist, Roehampton champ, respectable performances against Ram and Bogomolov ... he's in. The fact that he just served as a Davis Cup practice partner also bodes well for him. You can carve it in stone. And I don't think he's misinformed about whether the NCAA winner automatically gets a wild card. He just knows that it makes him a virtual lock.
You're probably right that he will get one. I wasn't arguing with that, just stating that at this point there are, in my opinion, better candidates who have performed better at the pro level. I think he's great and hope that he lives up to his potential. However, I think Levine, Evans, Sweeting, and even Kuznetsov are more deserving based on their pro results. The competition in qualies is more appropriate for his level right now.

Here's who I think will get one (as supposed to who I think should get one in my other post):

Levine
Evans
Sweeting
Harrison
Britton

As for NCAA champs getting a lock, well we don't have much to go off of recently since an American hasn't actually won it since 2003 (Delic, who did get a WC). Non-American champions haven't received one, but that's not much of a surprise. The other top American college players who are straight out of college who have received WCs had already put up good pro results. In 2007, Isner reached the Washington final and Levine had won two MD matches at Delray. Both received WCs. Sweeting received one in 2006, but he had won an ATP-level match and a futures tournament. Britton hasn't won either an ATP or Challenger level match, and has only ever won 2 matches at the futures level. I also don't think the competition for WCs was as strong in these years as it was this year. I don't think the NCAA title by itself would get him one based on his results so far. Combined with his junior results, however, I think you're right that he will get one.

On a side note, Harrison has withdrawn from Kalamzoo and injury wasn't cited as the reason. Perhaps he is anticipating a MD WC or has already been told by the USTA that he'll get one. Of course, he could just not be very interested in playing much junior tennis.
 
#17 ·
Re: Wild Cards

Kalamazoo (USTA Boys' 18 & 16 National Tennis Championships) draws: August 7-16, 2009
http://ustaboys.com/draws.html

http://www.playerdevelopment.usta.com/content/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=110787&itype=7419
USTA Hard Court National Championships: Wild Card Awarded

Boys’ 18’s Singles Champion: Singles Main Draw US Open & Singles Main Draw US Open Juniors*

Boys’ 18’s Doubles Champions: Doubles Main Draw US Open & Doubles Main Draw US Open Juniors*

Boys’ 18’s Singles Finalist: Singles Qualifying US Open

Boys’ 16’s Singles Champion: Singles Main Draw US Open Juniors

Players must play with the same doubles partner to receive the doubles Wild Cards. Players are expected to play the US Open Juniors if they receive a Wild Card into the US Open.

* Players must be age eligible by ITF Rules to receive the Wild Card allocated to this event.
 
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#19 ·
Re: Wild Cards

Is it impossible for a non-American (and apart from the players who come from countries with another slam) to get a WC here ?

As Baghdatis is not in the direct entry-list.

Moreover some say that he has asked a WC for New Haven, which would mean he could not take part in the USO qualies.

I know Britton and Harrison are greatly promising players (in many years :lol: ), but yet, does Marcos have any chance ?
 
#21 ·
Re: Wild Cards

What do you guys think are Baggys chances at a WC?
 
#22 ·
Re: Wild Cards

Patrick McEnroe (in Washington):

Marcos Baghdatis: no chance
Ryan Harrison: qualifying wild card
Blake Strode: consideration for qualifying wild card
remaining wild cards: most are decided, only significant results in the next few weeks would change his mind

Darren Cahill (in Washington):

TA wild card will likely go to Carsten Ball; only other player under consideration by TA is Chris Guccione
 
#23 ·
Re: Wild Cards

Patrick McEnroe (in Washington):

Marcos Baghdatis: no chance
Ryan Harrison: qualifying wild card
Blake Strode: consideration for qualifying wild card
remaining wild cards: most are decided, only significant results in the next few weeks would change his mind

Darren Cahill (in Washington):

TA wild card will likely go to Carsten Ball; only other player under consideration by TA is Chris Guccione
Is that McEnroe's opinions or what has been decided on?
 
#24 ·
Re: Wild Cards

Hopefully just his opinion..

Marcos :sad:
 
#38 ·
Re: Wild Cards

Evans made the quarters of Newport beating a top 50 player (Becker) and Ginepri. Both those guys have won titles this year. He's won two challengers this year and made the final of another. His ranking is just as high as anyone else in contention (Levine and he have been trading spots recently). Yes, he is inconsistent from day-to-day, but he has steadily improved his ranking 45 spots since the start of the year (173 to 128). Fish, Blake, Ginepri, and any number of top 100 players are inconsistent from day-to-day, too. If he doesn't deserve a WC despite all of his successes then what does he need to do? If he had any more accomplishments he would've been ranked high enough to get in directly.

I would be shocked (and unhappy) if Russell gets one. He's a good guy and has been playing well lately, but he's just too old at this point. Ditto Dent but to a lesser extent, and he's not even ranked as high. Too many strong young candidates this year to give these guys WC's this year.
 
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