Atlanta Tennis Championship: Marathon man Isner can test Roddick

Events / Sean Calvert / 19 July 2010 / Leave a Comment

Assuming he's recovered from "that match" and travelling round the country picking up awards, John Isner could go well this week

"Now that the lanky one (Isner) has finished schlepping around the country collecting awards and making TV appearances he has some tennis to play and the bottom half of the draw looks to be a good one for Isner on paper."

This is a new event, well sort of, and one where the hard-court specialists can find some form with the US Open not too far away. Andy Roddick is a strong favourite and rightly so but the best bet may be fellow American big-server John Isner, says Sean Calvert.

The Spanish dominance of the sporting summer continued in both Sweden and Germany last week with Albert Montanes and Nicolas Almagro scoring surprising wins in Stuttgart and Bastad respectively.

Thankfully, my favourite time of the year is now upon us as the ATP Tour moves over to North America for the hard court season and the first event is a new one - of sorts.

Traditionally, the first hard court event of the US Open series is the US Men's Hard Court Championship in Indianapolis, but that's all changed this year as the event has been unable to find a sponsor since 2006.

So, the ATP bought up the rights, sold them to a group in Atlanta and we now have a new tournament, although to make things even more confusing, there was previously an ATP event in Atlanta from 1992 to 2001.

Anyway, that aside, we have a clear favourite at the Atlanta Tennis Championships this week and that man is Andy Roddick, who accepted a wild card invite and has been put in at around [2.7] to win as he did here way back in 2001.

As there hasn't been an event here since, you could say that Roddick is defending his title in Georgia and his 2010 hard court match record of 26-4 suggests that he is likely to do just that.

I warned against backing the favourite, Nikolay Davydenko, in Stuttgart last week and that proved correct when the Russian went out in his first match, but I can't see that happening to Roddick this week.

The American hasn't played competitively since his shock defeat to Yen Hsun Lu at Wimbledon, but with a first round match against either Rajeev Ram or Karol Beck and only Xavier Malisse in his quarter, he should reach the last eight with ease.

The adjacent quarter looks tougher, with Mardy Fish, James Blake, Taylor Dent, Horacio Zeballos and two-time Indianapolis champ Robby Ginepri all vying to take Roddick on in the last four.

Of these, the best value is undoubtedly Ginepri, who at around [28.0] could be one to keep on your side should he find his French Open form, where he claimed some notable scalps.

The fact that he has won Indianapolis twice suggests that this is his time of year and if he gets on a roll, can be hard to stop.

Roddick's overall 11-1 head-to-head record against Ginepri has to be a factor of course, but Gin's one win over A-Rod came in the Indianapolis event, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that lightning could strike twice.

A more likely outcome however, is that John Isner will be the one to face Roddick in the championship match on Sunday.

Now that the lanky one has finished schlepping around the country collecting awards and making TV appearances he has some tennis to play and the bottom half of the draw looks to be a good one for Isner on paper.

Lleyton Hewitt should be Isner's main stumbling block en route to the final and the Aussie has a 3-0 head-to-head lead over Isner. However, these courts should suit Isner much better than the ones he's played Hewitt on so far.

Assuming that Isner has recovered now from 'that match' against Nic Mahut and had lots of hard court practice, he should be able to build upon the two ATP Tour finals that he has reached so far in the US and the title he won in Auckland this year.

Other possibilities in that bottom half include mercurial pair Janko Tipsarevic and Dudi Sela, but neither has won a tour level event yet, while Teymuraz Gabashvili found his best form in stuffing Roddick at Roland Garros and is not without some hope at around [50.0].

Overall then, Roddick looks strong at around [2.7] but Isner is the better value at more than double the price and for an outside punt look for Ginepri and Gabashvili to do well at big prices.