frank dancevic Archives - World Tennis Magazine

By Mike McIntyre

The first Grand Slam of the year is now behind us and the rest of the ATP World Tour regular schedule is now ready to resume across the globe. Hard court tournaments in Croatia and South Africa as well as a clay court tourney in Chile are ready to begin on the final Monday in January. Here’s a quick preview of who we can expect to see in action this week on the men’s side.

SA Tennis Open, Johannesburg, South Africa

Feliciano Lopez won the event in his initial visit to Johannesburg a year ago and returns as the top seed in 2011. The tournament is only two years old and has a sparse field due in-part to the fact it follows the first major of the tennis season.

Lopez opens against Canadian Frank Dancevic in what could offer us an upset. Dancevic was approaching the top-fifty in the game a few years ago and had his progress derailed by injuries. No longer Canada’s top singles guy with the recent emergence of Milos Raonic, he will be eager to prove he still holds the capability of being “the man” north of the border. Raonic for his part is the number-one seeded player in the qualifying draw and will face veteran Harel Levy for a spot in the main draw. It will be interesting to track the progress of one of the game’s promising new players.

The only other names of real recognition in the top-half of the draw are of German veteran Rainer Schuettler who is past his tennis prime and big-serving South African Kevin Anderson.

In the bottom half, Yen-Hsun Lu is the second seed, but third seeded Janko Tipsarevic may in fact be the strongest player in the tournament. The Serb reached the semi-finals in his opening tournament action of 2011 in Chennai.

Don’t be surprised if a qualifier has a strong run in Johannesburg due to the extra match-play heading into the main event coupled with the relatively weak draw.

PBZ Zagreb Indoors, Zagreb, Croatia

Just as in Chennai, Marin Cilic comes in as the two-time defending champion. Don’t be surprised if the number one seed fails to make it three in-a-row here either. Cilic has been on a downward spiral ever since the mid-way point of the 2010 season.

Frenchman Richard Gasquet is also in the top-half of the draw but has been playing uninspiring tennis for quite some time now. It has been over a year since Gasquet reached the finals of a hard-court tournament.

Richard Gasquet of France returns agains — Richard Gasquet

Veteran Florian Mayer may in fact have the strongest chance of coming out of this section of the draw as he has posted some good results in the early-goings of this year. He reached the quarter-finals in Brisbane and the semis in Sydney to start the season.

The bottom half has Croatians such as Ivan Ljubicic and Ivo Karlovic who are capable of solid results on an indoor hard-court and especially with the home crowd behind them. Ljubicic is the second seed and won this event in 2006 when it first started.

This tournament offers a few players who have struggled with their games the chance to get things back on track as the season picks up speed.

Movistar Open, Santiago, Chile

Good news for the tour’s dirt-ballers as play resumes on red clay in Santiago, Chile this week. Tomas Bellucci of Brazil is the defending champion.

Juan Monaco and David Nalbandian will also be in the draw and present formidable threats. Monaco is one of the tour’s top ten clay-court specialists while Nalbandian is still a force on any surface on the circuit.

While we won’t be enjoying a final at any of these three tournaments that can rival the big-name status of Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, there are sure to be some great matches and promising results from other talented tennis players we do not normally focus on. Enjoy the post-Slam tennis everyone!

By Randy Walker

NEWPORT, R.I. — One thing you can say about Newport, R.I. is that the fish is very good.

Cod, Salmon, Grouper and … Mardy.

Mardy Fish, America’s No 5 ranked player and the No. 5 seed at the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Championships advanced into the semifinals Friday with a 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Canada’s Frank Dancevic.

Fish, the silver medalist in singles at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, will face Richard Bloomfield of Great Britain Saturday. The other semifinal will feature Olivier Rochus of Belgium against Brian Dabul of Argentina.

Fish was the top seed in Newport last year, but received a last minute call up to the U.S. Davis Cup team that was competing in Croatia and withdrew from the Hall of Fame Championships to answer his nation’s call of duty.

In seven previous appearances in Newport, Fish had reached the quarterfinals three times (2000, 2002, 2006), but was not able to break through into the final four.

“I have always played well here,” Fish said of Newport. “I just have not been able to win three (matches) in a row here.”

Bloomfield may be the biggest surprise of the week, reaching his first career ATP semifinal with a 5-7, 7-6 (3), 7-5 win over heralded 18-year-old American Ryan Harrison. Bloomfield is the No. 12 ranked player in talent-deprived Britain sitting at a ranking of No. 552. If he wins the tournament this weekend, Bloomfield would become the lowest ranked player to ever win an ATP World Tour singles title. He is ranked two spots worse than Lleyton Hewitt, who was ranked No. 550 when he won the singles title in Adelaide, Australia in 1998 as a 16-year-old.

Entering this week, Bloomfield had won only one career ATP World Tour level match – a 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 first-round win at Wimbledon in 2006 over Carlos Berlocq of Argentina – a victory that attracted world-wide attention due to the suspicious betting patterns during the match. Due to irregular betting patterns, suspicious amounts of money was bet on Bloomfield, alleging that perhaps Berlocq could have been injured or was paid to “tank” the match to allow for profiteering among gamblers. Coincidentally, Bloomfield’s first-round win here in Newport over Christophe Rochus also attracted similar unwanted gambling attention.

Online gambling exchange Betfair told The Associated Press on Friday that Bloomfield’s 7-6 (1), 6-3 win over Rochus Tuesday attracted an unusual $1.5 million in wagers and was the subject of dramatic price movement.

Bloomfield was rated even money against his Rochus, ranked No. 160. In the hours before the match, the odds on Bloomfield winning were shortened to 1-4. After he won the first set, the odds shorted to 1-8.

“If people are willing to risk 4 pounds to win one, that is indicative of a substantial gamble,” Betfair spokesman Tony Calvin said to the Associated Press.

Notification of the irregular betting pattern was reported to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), an independent body created by the sport’s governing bodies to lead the fight against corruption.

It is standard procedure for the betting industry to share irregular activity on its markets with the TIU.

“It is not operational policy of the TIU to make any comment about an investigation that it may or may not be involved in,” TIU spokesman Mark Harrison told the AP

Randy Walker is a communications and marketing specialist, writer, tennis historian and the managing partner of New Chapter Media – www.NewChapterMedia.com. He was a 12-year veteran of the U.S. Tennis Association’s marketing and communications division where he worked as the press officer for 22 U.S. Davis Cup ties, three Olympic tennis teams and was an integral part of USTA media services team for 14 US Opens. He is the author of the book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY (www.TennisHistoryBook.com).