The U.S. Open is all about the best players in tennis. Who might you see at the 2010 U.S. Open? You might see Gilles Simon a French Professional player. He is the second best player in France rated on the chart at number ten while his fellow country man is rated number nine. While some athletes have some type of background in sports his family was not one of them. His father was a doctor and his mother worked for an insurance company. He started playing tennis at the age of six. Backed by his parents he started to enter junior tournaments in his home country. He is an average player with tremendous potential. While he has played at the U.S. Open for the last four years he has yet to move past the third round.
During his early career he won multiple tournaments in single match play. Well his career is still relatively young and fresh he has yet to win any of the major open matches. He has also never won any of the majors that he has attended. He has though competed and won tournaments and has continually rose in the ranking in the Association of Tennis Professionals. He has continued to work on his game and to becoming one of the top players in today’s game.
With that being said he is one of only four people to beat the top three ranked players who are considered to be the tennis superstars winning most events hands down. He is not known as being a very offensive player on the court but more defensive minded. His two handed backstroke is considered to be his best stroke. While his forehand has seen scrutiny from people in the tennis community. His forehand stroke is technically challenging for him and gives the ball an awkward angle. And has been compared to one of tennis all time greats Andre Agassi. Though he has worked on his offense considerably displaying a new offensive force previously unseen from Simon.
With continued success in the season he is a strong competitor for the next U.S. Open in 2010. With hopes he may be able to move up a few more ranks and possibly win a grand slam event. As long as he continues to work on his offense and becomes a more aggressive player. With as many times as he has seen the court at grand slam events time should prove that he is ready for a win. Possibly the next U.S. Open. See Tickets at http://usopentickets.org
Previously, we discussed here some changes that could make the big tennis tournaments such as the U.S. Open, Wimbledon and the others, more compelling, especially for newcomers who have avoided the sport. Here are a few more changes that should be made.
1) For all of the non-major doubles tournaments, there should be a 25 percent increase in the field size. A doubles tournament usually has half as many rounds as a singles, but since the teams have two players, the tournament has just as many players. Thus, by increasing the field size by a fourth, you can accommodate the extra singles players without impacting the doubles participants much.
2) Anyone who plays while injured and then withdraws during the first round should forfeit his or her prize money. There have been too many instances lately of in-match withdrawals from those who should never have played in the first place because of their injuries. This denied someone else in a healthier condition a spot on the field. This doesn’t mean that those who are injured during the match should be punished—but those who know they are not up to snuff before the match should not be encouraged to play.
3) The champion from each of the major tournament should automatically be invited back the next year. You might think this always happens, but there are a few rare instances when it does not. For instance, in 2005, Wayne Arthurs won a single ATP title over Mario Ancic. A year later, his ranking had fallen to where he was almost guaranteed to automatically get in—but not quite. And instead of allowing Arthurs a wild card to get into the tournament as defending champion, he had to go through qualifying and was defeated. But a player who is good enough to win the tournament last year should automatically qualify for the next year. It just makes sense. After all, wouldn’t the other players in the tournament want to have their chance at challenging the reigning champ?
4) And finally, mo longer should there be any wild cards granted to players who are outside of the top 200 to grand slams just to pad participation in round one. This just encourages bad match-ups.
So these are our suggestions for improving all of the major tennis tournaments, including the U.S. Open. But none of these changes mean much if you’re not there to see them. To see next year’s U.S. Open in person, remember that the best tickets at the best prices can be purchased here: http://usopentickets.org
Another U.S. Open has come and gone and now the tennis world prepares for the 2010 edition. This is a good time to reflect—on what things are good about tennis and where the sport could be improved. Here are three changes that could make this excellent sport a great one.
1) The three main governing bodies should merge. While the ATP, ITF and WTA have begun working more closely together, a better solution would be a complete merger. This would be more efficient and ensure that there’s less confusion in the sport because there will be just one ruling authority. Let there be no mistake: Most of the confusion about the rules in tennis comes from the fact that there is more than one governing authority.
2) There should be a ranking bonus for those tennis players who play doubles. By creating an incentive for them to play both, they will likely be more willing to accept the extra toll on their bodies. Anyone who plays in both should get a 20 percent increase in ratings points inthat tournament in both doubles and singles.
3) It would be nice of all grand slam finals, with the exception of juniors, were sets of best-of-five. This would not be unprecedented, since the WTA Tour Championship final, from 1983 to 1998, were best-of-five. And anyone who saw those games know that many of the finals from those years were quite competitive and entertaining. As of now, the only major tournament with gentlemen’s doubles that go best-of-give is Wimbledon, but in an ideal world, all of the tournaments should do so—at least during the finals.
4) There are coaches in school tennis, why not in professional tennis? Coaching from the coaches’ boxes should be a no-brainer. Some people have suggested this might slow down the game, but there are ways of handling this to keep it from happening.
5) The ATP, ITF and WTA all proscribe 20 seconds to serve between points, but this is rarely enforced. Enforcing this 20 second service rule would do much to speed up tennis. In fact, it might even be a good idea to have a clock installed that is stared by the chair umpire after each point, and which beeps after 20 seconds. If the clock beeps, the player is then charged with a fault.
All of these suggestions are easily implemented and could make next year’s U.S. Open, as well as the other big tennis event,, more accessible to newcomers to the game. See http://usopentickets.org for more on U.S. Open Tennis