2021 St. Petersburg Open...ATP 250...St. Petersburg, Russia

[don_budge]

https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/current/st-petersburg/568/draws

What a great, great city...St. Petersburg, Russia. It's great that three Americans get the chance to go and see the real thing without being jaded by the false narrative of Russian is the enemy. Russian is the Boogey Man!!! It's sickening how the Russians are made to be the bad guys these days. It's like watching the old Western movies and the Redskins are the bad man. The Orange Man. But it is even better that the three Amigos are winning in St. Petersburg. Representing. Sebastian Korda, Mackenzie McDonald and Taylor Fritz. Three fine American representatives. But boys...it is not enough to represent. Now you must take some scalps! Three good wins in the first round and it gets progressively more difficult as the rounds increase. Oops...four Americans. I overlooked Tommy Paul.

Aslan Karatsev in the draw as well. Interesting character. At the ripe old age of 28 he is making his move on the tour. Eating his way up the food chain. It has been fits and starts for Aslan. Hot periods followed by the inevitable plateau associated with development. But he is hard nosed and one tough Russian. He looks so typically Russian. Not that there is one sort of Russian. They are a diverse people and have been through the centuries.

One other character of interest. The on-going saga of Denis "The Menace" Shapovalov. Perhaps a Russian genetically as well. Via Israel. But Denis has had the worst case of fits and starts that you ever want to see. Some initial success. But mostly mediocrity considering his immense talent. But he has to get a handle on it before he develops some kind of loser complex. He goes into tournaments highly seeded making statements about his ability only to fall flat on his face. Much was made of his performance at Wimbledon when he took a measly set off of Djokovic disguised as the Joker. Everyone takes a set off of Djokovic. It is nothing to write home about. Put Djokovic in the bag...now that is something to write about. Denis, seeded number two and ranked number thirteen, is playing a player that he should routinely dispose of considering the disparage in the ranking. Pablo Andujar is ranked #92. We'll see how it goes with Denis The Menace. He has a habit of getting in his own way with unsound tactics and questionable choice in his technique. Leaving the ground and flying through the air to hit routine shots...WHeeeee! Bouncing the ball backwards between his legs before he serves. It really does't make any sense.

Come on Boys...Make American Tennis Great Again! At least make it respectable.

[don_budge]

https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/cu...burg/568/draws

What a great, great city...St. Petersburg, Russia. It's great that three Americans get the chance to go and see the real thing without being jaded by the false narrative of Russian is the enemy. Russian is the Boogey Man!!! It's sickening how the Russians are made to be the bad guys these days. It's like watching the old Western movies and the Redskins are the bad man. The Orange Man. But it is even better that the three Amigos are winning in St. Petersburg. Representing. Sebastian Korda, Mackenzie McDonald and Taylor Fritz. Three fine American representatives. But boys...it is not enough to represent. Now you must take some scalps! Three good wins in the first round and it gets progressively more difficult as the rounds increase. Oops...four Americans. I overlooked Tommy Paul.

Another awesome couple of weeks for Taylor Fritz. Son of the outstanding Canadian player, Harry Fritz, he joins Sebastian Korda with some great tennis genes in the family. Taylor lost in the finals here to Marin Cilic. No shame in losing to Cilic, as he seeks to return to form after some years. Once ranked in the top ten, he has dropped to the mid to high forties as of late. But never mind Cilic, it is Fritz who gets the love this time. After his stellar performance at Indian Wells where he beat Berrettini, Sinner and Zverev. Not to mention Nakashima another up and coming American...before losing to Basilashvili. Darn...I almost spelled that on the first try. Basilashvili...there you go don_budge.

Fritz did himself a huge this past week living up to his #5 seed at St. Petersburg while the rest of the field tanked. Marin won the tournament unseeded. Man...it is great to have an American performing well over there in Russian. Those Russians are performing all over the world and coming out in droves it seems. But look out now...there are a number of Americans in the top 100 and the top 50 as well. It will be great to have some healthy competition between these two countries and hopefully it will produce a little more good will...on the Americans part.

#23 John Isner, #25 Reilly Opelka, #26 Taylor Fritz, #39 Sebastian Korda, #41 Frances Tiafoe, #53 Tommy Paul, #54 Mackenzie McDonald, #56 Jenson Brooksby, #57 Marcos Giron, #65 "Let's Go" Brandon Nakashima, #87 Steve Johnson, #89 Denis Kudla and #93 Tennis Sandgren. That is thirteen in the top 100. Quite a change of circumstances.