US Open Qualifying Tournament

Flushing Queens has welcomed over a hundred professional tennis players this week to compete for 16 spots in this year's US Open.  The tournament is free for the public and features great match-ups for up and coming players.  Former qualifiers who have found success at the US Open are Lleyton Hewitt & Benjamin Becker. 

This year I had the opportunity to watch American Scoville Jenkins come in the first round of the qualifying tournament, using his power to complete the upset.  The former Illini who are competing in the qualifying tournament are Brian Wilson, Ryler DeHeart, Rajeev Ram, and Amer Delic; he has already qualified for the US Open because he ranked in the top 100 in the world.  Rajeev was the Carmelo Anthony of College Tennis in 2003, but has lost in the first round of the qualifiers in '06 and '07.  Brian Wilson just completed his match with a 6-4 7-6 (7-5) victory over Grega Zemlja.  Ryler's match will be complete later today after it was postponed due to rain yesterday.  Currently he is tied at one set each.  I wish the former Illini the best of luck.  Watch out for Amer Delic in the first round of the US Open against Lleyton Hewitt. 

I would have put pictures of this guys up here but all of them are protected by interweb security, and I did not bring my camera yesterday to take any pictures.  So instead, I have a video of Amer playing a close match against Marat Safin. 

I'd also like to note that I was an unofficial player agent yesterday but didnt qualify for a US Open security badge.  Maybe next year I will get to be an honorary coach.  I plan on going to the Open for at least one day or night.  And if you gave me odds for  Federer vs the rest of the field, I would take the field.  I just have a feeling that someone else is going to win this Grand Slam.

Check out tennis.com or usopen.org to follow the players and the rest of the tournament.  Also here is an NYMAG article about Ryler from last year.

Update (8/24):  Brian Wilson and Ryler DeHeart both lost in the 2nd round.  Also, Scoville Jenkins went on to win in the 3rd round and will move on to the 1st round in the US Open.  It's always nice to see more Americans in the US Open.