U.S. Men's Clay Court Tournament Is Almost Here!

The volunteer kick-off for this year's U.S. Men's Clay Court tournament was last night - and I was there! Once again, I'll be driving for the tournament and living vicariously through whoever ends up in my car. Since this is my second year volunteering, I am seen as a "seasoned" veteran who can help the newbies figure it all out. I'll take my prestige anyway I can get it.

So the line-up for this year is, in my opinion, quite fantastic. The top eight seeds are:

1. Mardy Fish (USA) - won the tournament in 2006 and won in doubles in 2002 when partnered with Andy Roddick
2. John Isner (USA) - entered the ATP Top 10 this year and played great last year
3. Feliciano Lopez (ESP) - got a wildcard, LOVE this guy after watching him play in Davis Cup
4. Juan Monaco (ARG) - also got a wildcard, just crushed Mardy Fish in yesterday's Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne
5. Marcel Granollers (ESP) - won the tournament in 2008, also love him after Davis Cup
6. Kevin Anderson (RSA) - got the last wildcard, won a tournament in Delray Beach earlier this year putting him in the ATP Top 30
7. Carlos Berlocq (ARG) - drove him and his sweet family around last year
8. Alex Bogomolov, Jr. (RUS) - I saw him play last year but he never was in my car so I don't have any scoop on him - yet

Besides former champs Fish and Granollers, Ivo Karlovic, winner in 2007, will be back (Yay!!) and last year's champ - Ryan Sweeting - is returning.

And Sam Querry will be there! And James Blake! And, of course, the incredible Bryan Brothers who have won this tournament in doubles four times including the last three years in a row. And their always fun coach and dad - Wayne Bryan.

So this year I plan on taking lots of photos and shooting some video. I start driving next week so stay tuned!





© Kim Selzman 2012 All Rights Reserved

More Fun At The U.S. Men's Clay Courts!

My last day at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships was my most fun day. Highlights included:

• I got to drive Ivo Karlovic one last time. He plays his semi-final match against American John Isner tonight. I'm sorry America. I'm rooting for Ivo because he is so nice. I'm sure John Isner is nice too but he has his own car.
• I got to see just a few minutes of Kei Nishikori's victory over Russian Igor Andreev.
• I got to hear the Bryan Brothers band!
• I got to drive a really cute kid around. His name is Andrea Collarini. He is 19, grew up in Argentina, plays for the U.S., trains with the USTA and - bonus - he was a finalist in the French Open Boys' Singles (he lost 4-6, 5-7 so it was a good match). Apparently, the last American boy to win the French Open Juniors was John McEnroe so I was impressed with Andrea's status as a finalist. He is now one of my new players-to-follow.
• I got to watch Mardy Fish win his match against Spain's Albert Ramos. I'm told that if Fish wins this tournament, he will break into the ATP Top 10!
• I got to watch John Isner and Sam Querry defeat fellow Americans Donald Young and Denis Kudla in doubles. 
• And the No. 1 fun thing I did yesterday - I got to sneak into the Lexus Pavilion with two of my friends, who apparently have no pride, morals or scruples, and enjoy free drinks and food while watching the doubles match. I hope no one at the tournament finds out although I kept waiting for someone to ask me to leave since I was in my "volunteer" get-up (not attractive, about one step above janitor duds) and everyone else in the Lexus Pavilion was way over-dressed.

Sadly, after all of this hard work, I am leaving town for the weekend and won't get to see the completion of the tournament. Oh well.

The good news is I took a bunch of photos with my camera and my Blackberry yesterday - all pretty terrible but the one above is a decent one I got of Mardy Fish (obviously I'm very loose on the definition of "decent"). I took some video with my Team 4all Flip camera and, based on those results, I will not be pursuing a career in videography any time soon. But I'm going to post my video clips to my Tennis Fixation YouTube channel just for fun. (Yes, that's right. I have a YouTube channel - don't ask me why. You can visit it by clicking here: The TennisFixation Channel.)

Just for fun - here is a photo of cutie-pie and up-and-comer Andrea Collarini from his finals match at Roland Garros. I just wanted him to get some Tennis Fixation recognition for his efforts. And for being very sweet when they didn't have his post-workout-recovery drink when we went to get it at GNC!

Photo via www.2010.rolandgarros.com

© Kim Selzman 2011 All Rights Reserved

I Heart The US Men's Clay Court Championship!

I have spent the past 4 days as a volunteer driver for the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship at River Oaks Country Club and, for me at least, it has been so fun! I have had the chance to see and speak with more ATP players in the last few days than I'm sure I will ever again. I discussed my latest doubles match with a ranked ATP player from South Africa! I can't remember his name but how great was that? For me anyway. He probably thought, "Where do they come up with these nutty drivers?"

Anyway, I'm back to driving again today. This is the final day of qualifying - the guys who win today will take the 4 spots into the Main Draw that are open to qualifiers. On Saturday, there were 32 qualifiers playing and by the end of today, there will only be 4. I have learned a lot about the whole qualifying process from one of the chair umpires that I drove and from a player's wife. It is brutal.

So, here is a quick and very incomplete list of some of the players I've gotten to drive with these past few days:

• picked up Ivo Karlovic of Croatia from the airport; at 6'10", I figured he would be easy to spot but one of the Final 4 basketball teams happened to arrive at the same time as he did; suddenly, there were LOTS of very tall, very athletic guys coming out of the airport; he is currently ranked a low No. 174 due to injuries but I saw him play yesterday - he hit 29 aces to win his match; he is playing Donald Young today for one of the Main Draw spots;
• drove Paul Capedeville of Chile and his coach, I even got to take his coach to GNC for whatever special post-recovery sports drink it is that Paul likes, he is currently ranked No. 138 and plays today for one of the spots in the Main Draw;
• drove Franco Skugor of Croatia, currently ranked No. 149, he was so quiet I thought he must have lost his match but he too is playing today for one of the Main Draw spots;
• drove Grega Zemlja of Slovenia, he was so nice and now I know where Slovenia is (near Italy);
• drove Guillermo Canas of Argentina a few times, he's coaching;
• drove Carlos Berlocq of Argentina and his wife and baby, he is into the Main Draw already as his current ranking is No. 72;
• drove Jonathan Erlich of Israel, he is ranked No. 46 in doubles and was very nice and very convincing in telling me why I need to visit Israel;
• saw Mardy Fish, the No. 1 seed for this tournament, he gets his own car so I won't get to drive him and pester him about my tennis matches.

Every one that I've driven, without exception, has been so nice and polite and they don't appear to be bothered by my incessant chatting. Maybe they're just good at keeping up appearances. Anyway, my rule is that if I drive them, I root for them. So today, I'm supporting Ivo Karlovic, Paul Capdeville and Franco Skugor. I'm going early to watch some of the matches and hope to get some pics to post here. I used my cell phone to take pictures of Ivo hitting his 29 aces yesterday but my photos were SO bad that I'm not even going to try to show you those. Hopefully, good pics today.

Also - I'm figuring out who is the winner of the latest Tennis Fixation Giveaway for the 4allbyjofit skort. I'll try to post that today and definitely no later than tomorrow!



© Kim Selzman 2011 All Rights Reserved