Aegean Int....Eastbourne, Great Britain and Antalya Open...Antalya, Turkey (ATP 250s)

[don_budge]

A couple of ATP 250's this week in a warmup for the real thing coming soon. Wimbledon...Roger Federer will be in the house. These two events are Federer Free so therefore are not very interesting by definition. Reason being? It's the play. It's boring...the players are boring. It's merely a preview of the "Post Roger Federer Era" and it's going to be tough my friends. Try and watch some of the going's on here and remain interested. I cannot do it. Novak Djokovic grace Eastbourne with his presence by way of a wild card. He's into the third quarter finals against "The Donald" Young. Young seems to have raised it another half of a level and finds himself in position to make a big time statement. Will he do it? Can he do it? It remains to be seen...he certainly hasn't done it so far. But there is a first time for everything.

Let's just take it as it comes...specialize in having fun. Take a look at the draw and you tell me...anything look remotely interesting?

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/scores/current/eastbourne/741/draws

On the other hand there is another event in the gateway to the west...or the east depending upon which side you are coming from. Antalya, Turkey. One of the last places I am going to go on vacation. Maybe Dominic Thiem feels the same way. He couldn't get out of there quick enough losing to the #222 ranked player in the world...Ramkumar Ramanathan of India. I saw a bit of the match and Dominic didn't have much spunk in him whereas the Ramkumar kid looked pretty smooth and pretty happy to have the opportunity to roll over Thiem. But beyond that...this tournament is dead in it's tracks. It's going nowhere on the interest meter which is a real shame. It more or less confirms what I have been saying about the Post Roger Federer Era...it's going to suck for a long time. But if you enjoy the tennis in Antalya...more power to you.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/scores/current/antalya/7650/draws

[bottle]

Yah, yah, don_budge, you don't like Turks, Muslims, blacks, women, pretty much everybody-- do you want a prize for disliking so much? So whom or what do you like exactly other than Roger Federer? (He may not count since we all like him.) I don't like the vibes of the Turkish prime minister, or is it president, but I've heard from people who've actually been there that Istanbul is one of the cool and beautiful cities in the world. But I'm sure from hearing the song that it's not Constantinople.

[don_budge]

Meanwhile...back at the ranch. Richard Gasquet is the last holdout in the one-hand backhand game although he is hardly going to go down in history as an all-court player. Not by definition. But he has beaten a couple of giants that should be using one-hand backhands but don't. They going to be sorry if they only speed up the court incrementally.

I saw the beginning of the Donald Young and Novak Djokovic match and I must say that "The Donald" managed to impress me just a bit more. The first set appears to have gone all Djokovic's way but it looked to me that Young was competing. He wasn't backing down and this is a good sign. He apparently persevered to force the second set to a tie-break and why not? Djokovic is somewhat vulnerable and he should be pushed. Pressured. Otherwise...yawn.