I spent most of my weekend at the Nordstrom Tennis center at UW, while I didnt get to watch all the games= I did watch some exciting ones. The Ohio vs Georgia doubles action last night was amazing and was probably the highlight in terms of adrenaline packed action. Ohio won the first doubles game, and the #1 and #2 doubles games were oscillating back and forth between match points, breakpoints etc at 7-7. It was amazing to monitor 2 courts at a time waiting for Ohio to win it and get a point on the board. Imagine what the players must ve been thinking since they were playing on adjacent courts.
Also watched 2 games played by Somdev (the #1 ranked player in the country), one against UCLA (Srugo) and another against Ole Miss (Tveit). In both games he lost the 1st set but came back to win the match in 3 sets He doesnt have any standout weapons and an ok serve... he does play a very strategic game - hes got great court coverage and waits for the opponent to go for too much or fall apart mentally. Srugo missed a crucial sitter of a volley when he was serving for the match (and quarter finals) while Tveit was up a break in the 2nd and was on course to winning, but almost couldnt believe he was about to beat the #1 player - he fell apart then and lost it.
Also chatted briefly with Somdev who mentioned that he got back on Monday from India having played Istomin in India's Davis cup win against Uzbekistan. Somdev lost in straight sets but was clearly a bit jet lagged
Other highlights from the weekend
- This German guy Matthias from Ole Miss who is 6 7" and has a huge serve. His groundies arent that great, but volleys are decent. I think he's ranked #5 in the country (not sure). Could he be another Isner?
- The #3 guy in the country, Dominic Inglot, who is 6 4" and from England. He has a huge serve along with a great serve and volley. His volleys were sweet and he had great touch, especially on his one handed backhand. He beat Matthais in their semi final match
- All players have great form and are superb athletes. I know that sounds a bit cliche, but thats the truth. The reflexes on the doubles games were simply amazing. I even saw one guy do something like this, i.e hit a smash of a smash.
- Most of the players on the top teams are foreign. Its interesting that teams like Stanford which primarily recruit from the US as a policy arent doing so well recently while the top teams have crammed their rosters with talent from around the world.
- The future of Indian tennis looks good. Somdev (#1 in the country) and Sanam Singh (played and won #6 singles for Virginia) both play for Virgina. There is a 6 4" Indian guy called Saketh on the Alabama team and Jeevan is anotehr great player for UW who plays #2 singles. Most of the Indian talent seems to come from Chennai in the South
- It was interesting to see Holden Seguso in action for UCLA. The name sounded familiar and when I google him I found out that his dad is one of the great doubles players - Robert Seguso (partnered with Ken Flach). He married a Canadian tennis player Carling Bassett (grad daughter of John Carling of the beer fame). Talk about tennis genes and legacies!
Anyway, I know Mike, Ken, Radha and others were there with me... please leave comments on your experiences/take ways.
Personally I hope to use some of the stuff I saw for some O Quoa action!
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