SAP Open recap.

[nuraman00]

Pics:

http://imgur.com/a/IzC1E#27


I went to the SAP Open, which is a tennis tournament in San Jose. This is the last year for the event in San Jose, it's moving to Memphis next year, and the current Memphis event is moving to Rio de Janero.

I went to the exhibition match of:

Stephanie Graf
Andy Roddick

vs.

Lindsey Davenport
Justin Gimelstob


* Roddick and Gimelstob were miked up. Roddick and Gimelstob had a lot of jokes for each other.

After the first point or two:

Roddick: Hey Justin, what's that thing on your elbow?
Gimelstob: It's an elbow condom. I'm practicing safe sex.
Roddick: I had put the O/U on you for making inappropriate comments at 3 points, and you went with the under.


Here were some other exchanges:

Gimelstob accidentally missed his serve so bad, that it went in the wrong service court, right at Roddick.

Roddick: If you had been able to serve 110mph, that might have gotten me.

* There were many rally exchanges just between Gimelstob and Roddick. During one such point, Graf just walked off the court, and sat on the sideline bench.

While I did think Gimelstob and Roddick were just doing this for entertainment, I did think Graf and Davenport were left out a little too much, of the rallies.

* During another rally, primarily between Davenport and Graf, Roddick pretended his racket was a stool, and he pretended to sit on it.

* During another point, Gimelstob dove on the court for two shots, within the same point. He made both diving shots.

* During another point, Gimelstob asked Graf about her backhand slice, and how she did it. Gimelstob and Graf then preceded to have a 15-20 shot rally, just between them, of nothing but backhand slices. Fun to watch.

Gimelstob: "Oh, so you go under it, like a shovel . . ."

* Gimelstob, to Roddick, after Roddick missed a return: "Graf is thinking that my husband would have made that shot."


* After losing one point, Gimelstob threw his racquet non-nonchalantly. The face of the racquet bounced off a ball kid's head. Gimelstob went over and hugged him and tried to apologize. The kid was all right.

Then, during the next changeover, Gimelstob had the kid sub in for Graf (Gimelstob's opponent). They let the kid play for 2 points. During the 2nd point, he had an overhead opportunity, and he smashed it right at Gimelstob and won the point. The crowd cheered.

I took a pic of the kid playing, he's in the black shirt.

* Roddick, during a Gimelstob service game: "Do not serve like him. You'll pull something."

* Graf had a service game where she kept getting net calls. So both Roddick and Gimelstob went to the net, and pushed it down to lower it, so she could get it over the net without hitting it. Funny stuff.

* Gimelstob and Davenport were up 5-3 in the 2nd set. Gimelstob said, during the next service game, after every point:

"Cmon Lindsey, this might be the only time I can win a set off of Andy Roddick".
"Cmon Graf, this might be the only time I can win a set off of Andy Roddick".
"Cmon Andy, this might be the only time I can win a set off of you".

Gimelstob and Davenport ended up losing the 2nd set, 7-5. They lost both sets.



Amy Gutierrez, of CSN, was the post-match broadcaster.

Overall, this was a fun match, lots of entertaining moments and exchanges. They did everything they could to talk to the audience and make it entertaining.

There was also a non-exhibition doubles match after that, but I only stayed for a few minutes for that one.

[nuraman00]

I watched the Raonic vs. Haas final on TV.

* IowaSacKing93, I think you asked if anyone had ever had 3 or 4 aces in a game? And I recalled Todd Martin did it once (that I saw)?

Raonic did it in the 2nd game of the match. 4 aces.

Then in the 3rd game, he hit 2 or 3 return winners, and broke easily.

He won in straight sets.

He's now won 3 straight SAP Opens. He's never lost there. He's never even lost a set there.

As I mentioned, this tournament is moving to Memphis next year. It had been in the northern CA in some form for 125 years.

[nuraman00]

Watch the first 40 seconds, it's an example of the type of "entertaining" point they played, during the exhibition.

[nuraman00]

Interesting, I'm reading a recap on an external site, and I didn't quite get what was happening when it did, but now it makes more sense:

++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.racquetrequired.com/?p=25...here-were-none

And, not to be outdone, Justin came back at Andy with a little backside discussion, telling Andy that Steffi was having trouble with her first serve because it was hard to serve while looking at Andy’s butt. So of course, Andy wiggled said butt at Steffi, who got the giggles and then DF’d, to the crowd’s delight.

[IowaSacKing93]

It seems that the Gimelstop fellow is quite obnoxious. I don't think I would find him funny.

So were they playing for charity, or just for fun? I'm assuming they raised money off that match, so I'm just wondering where the proceeds went (I guess it could just go to the players, but there might be a chance that charity is involved).

It's kind of odd that Roddick retired relatively recently, and is now playing. Or maybe it's common in tennis? I wouldn't expect him to be active in the tennis community. Maybe spend some time with himself/his family, maybe try to figure out what the next step in life is etc... but again, it's just a silly exhibition match. It's not that big of a deal ultimately.

I guess in tennis you see a lot of exhibition matches, whether it's men vs women, retiree vs retiree etc.. Even if you're 50/60 years old, you can still go out and play a game, at half-effort, and the end product is still something that's worth seeing (If you're a tennis fan).

[IowaSacKing93]

I watched the Raonic vs. Haas final on TV.

* IowaSacKing93, I think you asked if anyone had ever had 3 or 4 aces in a game? And I recalled Todd Martin did it once (that I saw)?

Raonic did it in the 2nd game of the match. 4 aces.

Then in the 3rd game, he hit 2 or 3 return winners, and broke easily.

He won in straight sets.

He's now won 3 straight SAP Opens. He's never lost there. He's never even lost a set there.

As I mentioned, this tournament is moving to Memphis next year. It had been in the northern CA in some form for 125 years.

That's cool about Raonic. Didn't know he was so unstoppable in a particular tournament. Has he ever upset a bigger name in the final or SF, of the SAP Open?

Any idea why the tournament is moving to Memphis, and then to Rio? I can see the move to Rio being an effort to 'globalize' the sport even more. Rio is a big market, probably without a major tennis event, and I would assume that would create a good amount of demand for this event. Possibly a bigger, grander venue too?

But I don't get the move to Memphis?

Does the event in San Jose sell out, or is it a packed house when you have gone? How large is the venue?

[IowaSacKing93]

So other than the Roddick exhibition match, how many other matches did you watch? Or how many days did you go?

[nuraman00]

That's cool about Raonic. Didn't know he was so unstoppable in a particular tournament. Has he ever upset a bigger name in the final or SF, of the SAP Open?

Any idea why the tournament is moving to Memphis, and then to Rio? I can see the move to Rio being an effort to 'globalize' the sport even more. Rio is a big market, probably without a major tennis event, and I would assume that would create a good amount of demand for this event. Possibly a bigger, grander venue too?

But I don't get the move to Memphis?

Does the event in San Jose sell out, or is it a packed house when you have gone? How large is the venue?

The San Jose event takes place at the Shark Tank (HP Pavilion). So it's pretty large.

Ok, I just checked wiki, here's the capacity for tennis: Tennis: 11,386

I'm not sure why it's moving to Memphis either. Or, why doesn't Memphis just keep their current tournament, and have the San Jose one move to Rio de Janero? It's kind of like conference re-alignment in NCAA. Not sure what the reasoning is on everything.

I think this event used to be worth more rankings points, which is why McEnroe, Agassi, Sampras would play. The former owner of the tournament, Barry MacKay, sold it in 1995, and it was downgraded to a 250 event. The lesser rankings points awarded to the winner, the less likely it will attract the top players. Agassi, Sampras, and Roddick still came, but they were usually clearly the best players (even if they didn't win). I think not as many of the top seeds would come other than them. So once they retired, Roddick was probably the biggest draw, and he was declining anyways.

Someone like Raonic is still too unproven at majors to be a big draw. Verdasco was someone else who would consistently come here.

This tourney probably needed a guarantee from a top 6 player every year to stay viable.

I'm not sure how it's going to be better in Mempis, isn't it going to be the same problem? Maybe the operating costs are smaller. And Mempis fans are going to get screwed, since this event is worth less than the one that's leaving Memphis (500 (Memphis Open)-->250 (SAP Open)), so it's not going to draw as many of the top players.

What I found weird was that while the tournament directors; the CEO of Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment; etc. all got up on stage this weekend and expressed remorse that it was leaving, wasn't it also their decision to have it move? I mean, how can they face the public and say they're really sorry to see it go, if they were the ones responsible for it moving? I'm not sure who has the final say, whether it's the Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment or the tournament director. Probably the latter. Or maybe they're the managing company, and there's another owner.


I've only gone to exhibition events, never to a real match at the SAP open, so I don't know what attendance was like. The prior to exhibitions I went to involved Sapmras vs. Verdasco; and Sampras vs. Monfils.

I would have liked to go to one of the real matches too, but I can only afford to go to one, and these exhibitions seemed better / more memorable. I would have liked to see some of the Finals or SF in past years, something like Murray vs. Karlovic in 2007, or Verdasco vs. Roddick in 2010. Or Blake vs. Fish SF in 2009. But it probably either came at a busy time, or I couldn't afford to go to one, or I just preferred the exhibition. I would have liked to see Haas vs. Raonic, just because I like Haas, and Raonic seems like a good up and comer.


Let me see who the biggest names Ranoic has beaten, in the past 3 years:

* In 2011, he was unseeded. He had a walkover over # 2 seed Monfils in the SF, then beat Verdasco (#1 seed) in 2 tiebreakers in the Finals.

* In 2012, he was the # 3 seed, but beat a bunch of nobodies. Kevin Andersen is probably the best player he's beaten, and his career high is #28 in March 2012.

* In 2013: He was the # 1 seed, Haas was the best player he's beaten. Haas beat Isner in the SF, so Raonic could have faced Isner in the Finals. Verdasco also lost to a qualifier T Smyczek in the 1st round, and Karlovic lost to a wildcard player in the 1st round, Steve Johnson (who's considered a really young American up and comer).

[nuraman00]

So other than the Roddick exhibition match, how many other matches did you watch? Or how many days did you go?

I've only gone to 1 event per year, in 2010, 2011, 2013. Exhibition each time. (Sampras vs. Verdasco; Sampras vs. Monfils; Roddick + Graf vs. Davenport vs. Gimelstob)

I might have watched an interesting SF or Finals on TV, but I think this coincides with AS weeked in the NBA some of those years, so there's only so much time available. Or there might be a good NBA game I want to watch on the weekend instead.

All of these exhibitions have had a real match afterward, but they're just not as exciting to me, partially because the players aren't as good or notable.

I think they had Hewitt vs. Bjorn Phau after the Sampras vs. Verdasco one, but I don't really like watching Hewitt. And Phau is a random player, that might have been the only time I've seen him.

I try to get tickets behind one of the baselines, so I don't have to turn my head during every point, haha. So tickets for that are like getting good seats to a NBA or MLB game, $100+.

So there's only so much time and money available.

I have gone to the WTA event at Stanford from 2008 - 2011. That one always brings out the top WTA players. I've seen the Venus, Serena, Sharapova, Bartoli, Azarenka. Because the SAP open is ending, the WTA event at Stanford is now going to have an exhibition Men's event. That's smart, getting even more fans that way. The Stanford event has always been packed. Plus the weather is better, in July. Nice and sunny, good time to be outdoors.

I don't know if I'll go to that this year, I'd probably rather save up for MLB playoffs tickets or something. But I might watch a good SF or Finals on TV.

[nuraman00]

It seems that the Gimelstop fellow is quite obnoxious. I don't think I would find him funny.

So were they playing for charity, or just for fun? I'm assuming they raised money off that match, so I'm just wondering where the proceeds went (I guess it could just go to the players, but there might be a chance that charity is involved).

It's kind of odd that Roddick retired relatively recently, and is now playing. Or maybe it's common in tennis? I wouldn't expect him to be active in the tennis community. Maybe spend some time with himself/his family, maybe try to figure out what the next step in life is etc... but again, it's just a silly exhibition match. It's not that big of a deal ultimately.

I guess in tennis you see a lot of exhibition matches, whether it's men vs women, retiree vs retiree etc.. Even if you're 50/60 years old, you can still go out and play a game, at half-effort, and the end product is still something that's worth seeing (If you're a tennis fan).

I thought they might have been playing for charity, but just now I tried searching the internet, and I can't find the name of what charity they might be playing for, LOL. So I don't know anymore.

Yeah, tennis players can retire, but still play 3-4 exhibitions a year. Except for Graf, she rarely does these. She said so herself at the event. She's busy with the kids and other things. She probably does one of these a year, and she says she doesn't practice anymore nor try.

Yeah, these 1/2 efforts are still entertaining, to me at least.

After the exhibition, when they had the real doubles match, those guys were definitely playing harder. If, during the exhibition, the serves were maybe 110 mph max (just guessing, I didn't watch the radar gun), the doubles players were playing like normal. But the exhibition players just wanted to keep balls alive and put on a good show. There were a few lobs, that Roddick probably could have let go and won the point, but he decided to do an overhead, just to keep the ball in play and extend the point.


Roddick said he's glad he retired, he hated the travel. Also, to him, since he just fell out of the top 10, it wasn't worth it to him.

For someone like Tommy Haas, on the other hand, who missed a lot of time earlier in his career due to injury, he just enjoys playing, and he's still a top 30 player (18th right now). And having a result like getting to the Finals of the SAP Open, is probably just as rewarding, for a 34 year old.


I don't like Gimelstob as a broadcaster as much. He makes some weird comments, like calling Feliciano Lopez a "metrosexual".

http://sports.yahoo.com/tennis/blog/...urn=ten,wp1782

Or he called Kournikova a "douche", and said he wouldn't sleep with her, but he'd want his brother to nail her.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcspo...kournikov.html

"Definitely not," he said. "I have no attraction to her, because she's such a douche....I really have no interest in her. I wouldn't mind having my younger brother, who's kind of a stud, nail her and then reap the benefits of that."

Or this:

Gimelstob also called Nicole Vaidisova, one of the top players on tour, "a well-developed young lady," and declared that "female tennis players lack the social skills, they don't go to high school, they don't go to parties."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/mo...#ixzz2LHtJeHDf

[IowaSacKing93]

Thanks for sharing. In terms of price, is there a difference between an exhibition match and an actual tournament match?

Can't people just pay a gate price, and then just stay there the whole day, if they wanted to? (Never been to a pro tennis match, so I'm quite ignorant to these types of things).

And good comparison to NCAA conference re-alignment. It doesn't make much sense in many cases (Geographically speaking anyway) but if the money is there (Meaning some kind of agreement/contract is in place) then that's all it really takes for a team (or in this case, an event) to move from conference or city.

[IowaSacKing93]

I thought they might have been playing for charity, but just now I tried searching the internet, and I can't find the name of what charity they might be playing for, LOL. So I don't know anymore.

Yeah, tennis players can retire, but still play 3-4 exhibitions a year. Except for Graf, she rarely does these. She said so herself at the event. She's busy with the kids and other things. She probably does one of these a year, and she says she doesn't practice anymore nor try.

Yeah, these 1/2 efforts are still entertaining, to me at least.

After the exhibition, when they had the real doubles match, those guys were definitely playing harder. If, during the exhibition, the serves were maybe 110 mph max (just guessing, I didn't watch the radar gun), the doubles players were playing like normal. But the exhibition players just wanted to keep balls alive and put on a good show. There were a few lobs, that Roddick probably could have let go and won the point, but he decided to do an overhead, just to keep the ball in play and extend the point.


Roddick said he's glad he retired, he hated the travel. Also, to him, since he just fell out of the top 10, it wasn't worth it to him.

For someone like Tommy Haas, on the other hand, who missed a lot of time earlier in his career due to injury, he just enjoys playing, and he's still a top 30 player (18th right now). And having a result like getting to the Finals of the SAP Open, is probably just as rewarding, for a 34 year old.


I don't like Gimelstob as a broadcaster as much. He makes some weird comments, like calling Feliciano Lopez a "metrosexual".

http://sports.yahoo.com/tennis/blog/...urn=ten,wp1782

Or he called Kournikova a "douche", and said he wouldn't sleep with her, but he'd want his brother to nail her.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcspo...kournikov.html




Or this:


[/COLOR][/LEFT]

I'm surprised he didn't get fined or receive negative media attention after those comments. He seems full of himself and cocky.

Never heard of the name though, he must be a small-media tennis commentator (Tennis Channel or something? Maybe he and Dick Enberg work togeter on Tennis Channel, and when Enberg gets annoyed by him..he just cuts him off Lol!)

[nuraman00]

Thanks for sharing. In terms of price, is there a difference between an exhibition match and an actual tournament match?

No, I don't think so.

Can't people just pay a gate price, and then just stay there the whole day, if they wanted to? (Never been to a pro tennis match, so I'm quite ignorant to these types of things).

Also, tennis tournaments normally have sessions, a day session, and a night session. So if you get a day session, you stay there until the night session starts.

It's not just the majors that have this, but smaller tournaments too.

A session usually has 2-3 matches scheduled.

For the majors, I think they have two different kinds of passes. One is where you get a ticket to one of the big show courts. The other is a "grounds pass", which allows you to walk around to all of the other courts. At least that's how I think they work.

I'm going to call in or text a radio station, and ask them who owns the SAP Open, and why they think it moved.

[nuraman00]

I'm surprised he didn't get fined or receive negative media attention after those comments. He seems full of himself and cocky.

Never heard of the name though, he must be a small-media tennis commentator (Tennis Channel or something? Maybe he and Dick Enberg work togeter on Tennis Channel, and when Enberg gets annoyed by him..he just cuts him off Lol!)

LOL.

Yeah, Gimelstob works for Tennis Channel.

There were articles written about his comments, which is how I could quickly search for them and find them. I knew he had said some controversial stuff. I guess he kept his job because he "apologized", but you can't call Kournikova a douche and apologize. He meant what he said, and you can't take that back. He shouldn't go public with those comments though, especially since he's a broadcaster. He needs to keep that private, if he doesn't like her.

[ctbaz]

Speaking of Rio....I just got my tickets for the confederations cup this summer. Should be a blast!

[nuraman00]

Speaking of Rio....I just got my tickets for the confederations cup this summer. Should be a blast!

Wow, nice vacation. Have you been there before?

[ctbaz]

Wow, nice vacation. Have you been there before?

Yah..I lived in Brasil for a couple of years. Trying to buy a house down there to have for vacation.

[IowaSacKing93]

No, I don't think so.



Also, tennis tournaments normally have sessions, a day session, and a night session. So if you get a day session, you stay there until the night session starts.

It's not just the majors that have this, but smaller tournaments too.

A session usually has 2-3 matches scheduled.

For the majors, I think they have two different kinds of passes. One is where you get a ticket to one of the big show courts. The other is a "grounds pass", which allows you to walk around to all of the other courts. At least that's how I think they work.

I'm going to call in or text a radio station, and ask them who owns the SAP Open, and why they think it moved.

Cool, let me know if you find any good info on that.

Also, you're right. I've never thought of it that way but during the Australian open it was typically 3 day matches, then a break, then 3 night matches scheduled. And I'm sure Wimbledon, the French, and US have similar patterns (from what I remember).

That seems about right. Three matches would last, on average, about 6 hours? So it's long, and you can choose to stay the whole time and still be entertained, if you're into the sport. But at the same time it's not ridiculously long.

[nuraman00]

Cool, let me know if you find any good info on that.

Also, you're right. I've never thought of it that way but during the Australian open it was typically 3 day matches, then a break, then 3 night matches scheduled. And I'm sure Wimbledon, the French, and US have similar patterns (from what I remember).

That seems about right. Three matches would last, on average, about 6 hours? So it's long, and you can choose to stay the whole time and still be entertained, if you're into the sport. But at the same time it's not ridiculously long.

Agree, that sounds about right.

I think night sessions are two matches, just because it's getting late, but they try to schedule the more high profile ones at night.

Day ones are about 3.

Day sessions start at 11am or 12:30pm, depending on if it's early in the tourney, or late. They probably run until 5pm on average, maybe 6-6:30 if it's there's been a lot of long matches.

Night sessions start at 7pm or 7:30.