PETE ZIEBRON
The opening betting line on Sunday for Tuesday's Richard Gasquet - Kristof Vliegen 1st round match at the Legg Mason ATP 500 tourney in Washington, DC showed the 359th ranked Vliegen to be a heavy underdog at +300. By Monday morning, the line on Vliegen increased to +350 and if I were a betting man, I would have placed a significant wager on Vliegen, a lanky Belgian who reached a career high of #30 in 2006.
- Kristof Vliegen, the 359th ranked man in the world, with an 0-7 match record in 2010, was a slam dunk bet to win the match against Richard Gasquet who came into the match ranked #40. How? Why?
Less than 48 hours prior to taking the court against Vliegen in Washington, DC, USA, Gasquet played and lost in the Final of the Allianz Suisse Open ATP 250 in Gstaad, SWITZERLAND.
That's right, Gasquet played 5 matches in 6 days in a clay court tournament - lost the Final to Nicolas Almagro on Sunday 7-5 6-1 - flew from Europe to the United States on Monday and played his first hard court tournament since March today. The result? Vliegen jumped to a quick 4-0 lead in the first set, won the set 6-3 and Gasquet, out of gas, retired. Game, Set, Match, Vliegen in 37 minutes. Voila, #359 dispatches of #40. Easily.
A fine bet and payoff indeed provided one wagered on Vliegen with a house that considered the match a victory as some houses voided the bet due to the fact that there was a retirement by one player and the match was not completed.
Similar scenarios have played out in recent years where players have played in a Final on a Sunday on one continent and scurry off across the Atlantic to compete in a larger tournament less than 2 days later.
In August 2006, Nikolay Davydenko played and won a 2 hour 34 minute Final on a Sunday at a small clay court tournament in Sopot, Poland and promptly flew to Toronto to compete in Rogers Cup Masters Series tournament. I attended the Rogers Cup that year and arrived on site early on Tuesday to see Davydenko warm up on a side court before play started for the day. Davydenko was exhausted and was not able to put much on the ball in warmups. Later that day, Davydenko managed to hit just 1 ace in a straight set loss to Xavier Malisse.
Last April, Lleyton Hewitt reversed course and flew from the United States to Europe following a Sunday Final's win on a clay court. Hewitt won the US Men's Clay Court Championship ATP 250 in Houston, Texas in a Final that was delayed by rain, then encountered flight delays the next day en route to the Rolex Monte Carlo Masters 1000 tournament and arrived at the court within two hours of when he was scheduled to play Marat Safin. Despite fighting valiantly, Hewitt was no match for Safin and was outaced 10-2.
When asked about his frantic travel schedule, Hewitt remarked: Yeah, I think it was the toughest, yeah. Yeah, it was sort of just like one thing after another really. Yeah, it was not the best preparation, that's for sure.... The final was in Houston. It was delayed a few hours because of rain and the court got flooded so we had to wait for that. So I couldn't get out Sunday night. And then, yeah, Monday, with the time change and everything, it just sort of put it even further behind. Then our flights got delayed about three and a half hours, as well, out of Dallas..... So, especially just coming off the plane, I probably wasn't as sharp as I would have liked to have been or normally would try to be.
Hats off to Gasquet, Davydenko and Hewitt for honoring their commitment to play in the tournaments that they scheduled, even after playing in a Final on another continent only 48 hours before they were expected to take the court. In the case of Gasquet and Davydenko, why were they playing ATP 250 events on clay and in Europe less than one month from the start of the US Open? Why are clay court tournaments even on the ATP schedule in late July???
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