[SapELee]

Memphis Qualifying draw:

(1) Michael Russell (USA) vs (wc) Christian Harrison (USA)
Donald Young (USA) vs (8) Denis Kudla (USA)

(2) Tim Smyczek (USA) vs Rhyne Williams (USA)
Daniel Nunoz-De La Nava (ESP) vs (6) Vasek Pospisil (CAN)

(3) Philipp Petzchner (GER) vs Ivo Karlovic (CRO)
(wc) Sekou Bangoura (USA) vs (5) Alex Bogomolov Jr. (RUS)

(4) Matthew Ebden (AUS) vs (wc) Connor Glennon (GBR)
Andrey Golubev (KAZ) vs (7) Illya Marchenko (UKR)


An American qualifier guaranteed in the first section.
Tim vs Rhyne, 5th meeting since November
Donald vs Denis for the 2nd straight week

[SapELee]

Memphis Maindraw

Marin Cilic [1] - Ivan Dodig
Jurgen Melzer - Igor Sijsling
Xavier Malisse - Qualifier
Kei Nishikori [5] - Qualifier

Sam Querrey [4] - Alejandro Falla
Marinko Matosevic - Go Soeda
Steve Johnson [WC] - Qualifier
Alexandr Dolgopolov [7] - Bjorn Phau

Fernando Verdasco [8] - Qualifier
Ryan Harrison - Lukasz Kubot
Lleyton Hewitt - Yen-Hsun Lu
John Isner [3] - Denis Istomin

Tommy Haas [6] - Evgeny Donskoy
Feliciano Lopez - Benjamin Becker
James Blake [WC] - Florian Mayer
Milos Raonic [2] - Jack Sock [WC]

http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/402/mds.pdf

[SapELee]

And the 6'-2 frame and backwards baseball cap

My thoughts and observations:

Jack Sock
Has the most power and is pretty much a straight-up ball-basher with the occasional serve and volley play. Very one dimensional compared to the other two. Backhand, movement, and shot selection need a lot of work. Very raw, but is still young.

Steve Johnson
Craftier than Sock and is the most athletic of the threesome. Has great defense and moves well. Is good at turning defense into offense with explosive plays. Like Sock, backhand is a mess but is able to hide it successfully at times with slicing/chipping.

Rhyne Williams
Has a nice balance game (though IMO, plays better when goes for broke). Like the other two, his backhand is the weaker side but it is quite surprisingly decent. Unlike Sock and Johnson, Williams can consistently use it to rally and has a good success rate with the passes (especially cross-court). I noticed that he used his backhand more than in the past (instead of usually running around it).

Rhyne has improved a lot since the off-season, noticeably in the movement, defense, and serve department. On the other hand, I see no improvements from Jack and Steve

IMO, Sock has the most potential because of his easy power, Williams the most talented, and Johnson the best competitor. But of course, potential and talent don't always translate to success.

For fun, who do you think will have the best career?

[SapELee]

Ah, what a great day...scoreboard and snowfall watching. #rarecombination

Just noticed that both Smyczek-Williams and Keys-Burdette are rematches of the AOWCP finals.

[SapELee]

Memphis Qualifying

(1) Michael Russell (USA) d. (wc) Christian Harrison (USA) 75 64
Donald Young (USA) d. (8) Denis Kudla (USA) 62 61
(2) Tim Smyczek (USA) vs Rhyne Williams (USA)
(5) Alex Bogomolov Jr. (RUS) d. (wc) Sekou Bangoura (USA) 75 61

[SapELee]

Rhyne Williams (USA) d. (2) Tim Smyczek (USA) 26 61 62

FQR

(1) Michael Russell (USA) vs Donald Young (USA)
Rhyne Williams (USA) vs Daniel Nunoz-De La Nava (ESP)

[SapELee]

FQR

Donald Young (USA) d. (1) Michael Russell (USA) 46 63 76(7)
Rhyne Williams (USA) d. Daniel Nunoz-De La Nava (ESP) 76(4) 64

Placements:

Young vs Malisse
Williams vs Johnson
Russell (LL) vs Bogomolov Jr.

http://www.memphistennis.com/userfil.../ATP_MDS-2.pdf

[SapELee]

Wanna see Rhyne and Steve play Wonder who Smoke is rooting for

[SapELee]

Rhyne takes the 1st set 76(4), no breaks of serve, impressive 16/16 (100%) first serve points won and no break points faced by Rhyne. Great serving stats for Steve as well.

[SapELee]

Rhyne converts on his first MP (BP) for the win 76(4) 64. Congrats to Rhyne on his first ATP level win, he is now 3-0 indoor against Steve. Guess he is a better indoor player.

[SapELee]

Rick Limpert ‏@RickRoswell

@RomiCvitkovic high quality tennis. Separated by a couple points

Glad to hear that it was high quality

[cobalt60]

Thanks for this thread- a way for me to learn about any up and comers. Although I don't think there are any standouts in this crowd.

[SapELee]

Originally Posted by cobalt60

Thanks for this thread- a way for me to learn about any up and comers. Although I don't think there are any standouts in this crowd.

Well, there's always the 1998 juniors to look forward to They look promising so far

[AaronY]

What about Ryan Harrison and Denis Kudla? I'm really excited about the future of USA tennis. Hard to say who will have the best career....they should be pushing each other for years to come. Agree that Sock has the biggest game and a huge upside, but also like Kudla's all out style (reminds me of a young Hewitt) - plus he has the best backhand out of the group. Johnson is a fierce competitor and knows how to win and has excellent footwork. Williams has a nice all around game and right now is playing the best and gaining tremendous confidence. Hope that Harrison can break out and have a good year, and get past this slow start. It's going to be fun to watch!

[SapELee]

Originally Posted by AaronY

What about Ryan Harrison and Denis Kudla? I'm really excited about the future of USA tennis. Hard to say who will have the best career....they should be pushing each other for years to come. Agree that Sock has the biggest game and a huge upside, but also like Kudla's all out style (reminds me of a young Hewitt) - plus he has the best backhand out of the group. Johnson is a fierce competitor and knows how to win and has excellent footwork. Williams has a nice all around game and right now is playing the best and gaining tremendous confidence. Hope that Harrison can break out and have a good year, and get past this slow start. It's going to be fun to watch!

1st post, welcome to MTF

My thoughts on Ryan: a player who does everything well, but is missing an offensive weapon. His biggest assets are his serve, netgame, defense, and competitive nature. IMO, his groundstrokes are weak (loopy and prone to land short, and thus easy for his opponents to attack). I think Ryan needs to focus on his transition game (go to the net as much as possible b/c he won't win too many baseline rallies against good ballstrikers).

As for Denis, he is a pure ballstriker (great backhand and good forehand). Has good command of his flat groundstrokes. Has great return game and a good serve for his size. And due to the lack of size, Denis needs to be more consistent and play smart tennis (minimize his errors). He is fun to watch when playing well.

Sock, Johnson, and Williams are great offensive players with good size. But as I mentioned earlier, Sock and Johnson have great serve and forehand but no backhand I think Williams has the physical tools to be a good player, but he is mentally weak and lacks competitive spirit
Oh well, I guess we have to wait for the 1998 juniors
But on a serious note, I hope they can push each other to do better. They are young and have time to improve.

Edit: on the bright side, the girls are doing well