On Friday I was left wondering why Davis Cup captian, Patrick McEnroe, would throw newcomer Sam Querrey to the wolves and make him play Nadal first in the competition.  I kept shaking my head, 'why wouldn't you lead with veteran Andy Roddick?"

Well, there is a reason I'm not the Davis Cup coach.  I forgot that they play reverse singles so Roddick was paired against Nadal today.  Querrey was due to face Ferrer (not Federer).  Let's only hope that that Americans in Davis Cup had the same kind of luck as the Americans in the Ryder Cup.

U-S-A  U-S-A  U-S-A

Do you ever wonder what it is like to plan and implement a major tennis tournament?  From The Other Side of the Net will explore the inner workings of the Indianapolis Tennis Championships Presented by Lilly.  I'm Sarah Brelage, Executive Director of Staff Operatinos.  I've been with the tournament for 15 years and have held about every position within the organization.  Talk about some stories!  Welcome to my blog

With Rafia's win in Shanghai, some are already talking about his place in history.  Is he the best men's tennis player of our time?  No, No, No!

He had a great year on the ATP tennis circuit.  I'll even go so far as to say he had an awesome year.  He won just about every men's tennis event out there.  He also has charisma, good look and is a great ambassador for his sport.

BUT....
It was one awesome year.  I personally think that he needs to have a couple of great years to be considered in elite company. 

He also needs to play not necessarily more events but a variety of events.  Tennis seems to be nationalized.  It is a given each and every year that the foreign players are going to stay in Europe and play 'at home'.  They will come to the US to play those events that they are required to play.  To be considered on my list of 'best men's players of our time' - he owes it to the fans of Indianapolis to play the Indy Tennis Championships at least once.  Not every year, just once.  In fact, the fans in Los Angeles, Delray Beach or San Jose deserve to see the world's greatest player (if he is that) at least once every 3-4 years.

So, Rafia - congratulations on an awesome year - please come play tennis in Indianapolis this summer!  Our wonderful tennis fans should have the opportunity to see you play!

Mr. Simon, what are you doing to our Americans in Madrid?

Indianapolis Tennis Championship winner, Gilles Simon, just beat one of our favorite sons, James Blake, in Madrid, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.  Simon is 12th in the world now (I think he was about #18 when he played in Indy) and took care of the ninth seed, Blake in the second round.

Gilles now faces another Indy Champion, Robby Ginepri in the third round.  I'm certainly in a quandry over who to root for in this tennis matchup.  Both are past champions in Indianapolis and both are great guys.  If I asked either one to sign an autograph for a fan, they would do it.  If I asked either one to take a break from training and shake a sponsors hand, they would do it.  Great guys and great champions.  Men's professional tennis need more players like Simon and Ginepri.

So, I'm going to go out on a limb and not choose.  Both are playing great tennis and the best man (on Thursday) will win!

Ever heard of the Grapple in the Apple?  Well, my new friend Mike Karnuta at the Indiana Sports Corporation sent me this link to a Nike ad campaign that ran during the US Open.  Tennis needs more of this!  Check the Grapple in the Apple out.

This reminds me of Nike's great commercial in the streets of New York City with Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras.  Men's tennis needs more companies like Nike spending money to advertise the stars, rivarlies and personalities of tennis.  I'm thinking the Indianapolis Tennis Championships needs to 'steal' some of these ideas to help expose some of the mini-rivalaries in the game today.

Thanks to Mike for sending this great creative my way and thanks to Nike too!

 I was walking our Hall of Champions today and stopped at Patrick Rafter's picture.  Back when we were the RCA Championships, Patrick was a mainstay in our lineup. 

Patrick played in Indy three times.  In 1993, he was a semi-finalist losing to Boris Becker.  In 1995, he was a quarterfinalist.  Near the end of his career, he captured the Indy title in 2001.  He beat another crowd favorite, Gustavo Kuerten.  I have found memories of that victory.  I remember walking out of the transportation office soon after the final to find Patrick sitting on the curb.  He was still in his sweaty clothes and was on his cellphone, obviously talking about his victory.  He quickly hung up when he saw us and thanked us for a great week.  Yes, he thanked us for a great week.  So that got me to thinking - where is he now?

Patrick continues to support charitable efforts, primarily in his native Australia.  In 2006 he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.  He continues to play World Team Tennis.

Little known fact - Patrick's last championship before retiring came right here at the RCA Championships (now the Indianapolis Tennis Championships Presented by Lilly). 

Please come out of retirement Patrick.... 

 I noticed that Carmel's own Rajeev Ram is making a tour through the ATP Challenger Series in Waco, Texas this week.  Ram, seeded eigth, lost a tough three set match to Nicholas Monroe.   

The ATP Challenger Series is set up as a great developmental opportunity for young players.  The Series is to men's professional tennis what AAA baseball is to the major leagues.  If you look through the draw in Waco, you will notice many familar faces.  I counted ten guys who have played in Indianapolis at one point, including Bobby Reynolds and John Isner. 

Ram is definitely an Indy favorite.  He first competed in the RCA Championships (now the Indianapolis Tennis Championships Presented by Lilly) in 2002.  His best results were in 2005 and 2008 when he reached the round of 16.

Not only is Ram loved by the crowds here but he is loved by the volunteers and staff.  He is a true gentleman and always willing to sign autographs, talk with sponsors and meet with the press. 

The next stop on Ram's Texas tour is probably the Lubbock Challenge.  Go Rajeev!

So who is this young American, Sam Querrey, that is set to face Rafael Nadel in the opening round of the Davis Cup today? 

Sam is 21 years old and hails from California.  He is one of the tallest players on the ATP Tour at 6'6".  Sam started playing tennis at the age of four.  He turned pro in 2006, loves playing basketball, tennis and golf.

Currently ranked 39th in the world, he has had a great run this year.  He won the Las Vegas event, was a semi-finalist in Delray Beach and here at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships.  He first played in Indy in 2006 where he reached the round of 32.  In 2007, he was a semi-finalist losing to eventual champion, Dmitry Tursunov.

Good luck today Sam!

Men's professional tennis has now hit the big time with the release of the 2009 ATP World Tour 2009 Calendar.  Even if you aren't a fan of these type of things, you have to admit that it is good publicity for men''s tennis. 

2007 Indianapolis Tennis Champion, Dmitry Tursunov is one of the players showcased.  Also within the calendar pages are Paradorn Srichaphan, another Indy Tennis favorite as is Tommy Hass.  The number one doubles team in the world, Mike and Bob Bryan represent the United States. 

Each region of the world is represented and in total players from 12 countries are showcased.  To check out the calendar, 2009 ATP World Calendar.

My hats off to the ATP for showcasing some of the lesser known players and a different 'side' to men's professional tennis

Over the weekend, Gilles Simon, beat Carlos Moya 6-3, 6-4 to take the BCR Open Romania title.  What is significant about Simon's victory?  Well, Gilles is the reigning Indianapolis Tennis Championships Presented by Lilly champion and has significantly boosted his chances of qualifying for the Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai event.

Simon was virtually unknown when he arrived in Indianapolis.  He was Indy's number two seed but to be honest, I even had no idea who he was.  Since his victory in Indy's men's professional tennis tournament, Simon has had an impressive run.  The 23 year old went on to defeat Roger Federer in Toronto and advanced to the semi-finals.  This has undoubtably been his best year - with three titles so far. 

Simon moved up three spots and is now number 12 in the ATP race.  Gilles has played more tournaments than the 11 players ranked ahead of him.  There are two Masters Series event left before Shanghai so let's cheer for Indy Tennis Championships' Gilles Simon! 

Now that the US Open is finished, all tennis eyes will focus on the upcoming Davis Cup matches.  The Davis Cup is to men's professional tennis what the Ryder Cup is to golf.  The only exception being that the Davis Cup goes on all year long.

Blake is physically and mentally exhausted from the summer.  He played a full schedule (including participating at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships), the Olympics and the US Open.  Blake's replacement is Sam Querrey, another Indy Tennis favorite. 

Querrey has practiced with the US Davis Cup team and has had a strong showing on clay.  He was a quarterfinalists in Monte Carlo (clay) and reached the round of 16 at the US Open.  The American's will face a strong team from Spain on outdoor clay September 16-21 in Madrid. 

I know I should be writing about men's tennis and the Indianapolis Tennis Championships but I feel I should devote some space to Serena Williams.  It seems you either love her or hate her.  How can any sports fan or general fan not be able to applaud her performance at the US Open?

After five years and one month, Serena is now the number 1 ranked women's professional tennis player in the world.  She beat Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 7-5 to take the US Open crown.  What an achievement.  Not only did she win a major, the major tennis tournament in the world but she moved into the number 1 ranking.

She has gone the longest period between the top ranking by any player since the early 70s.  I don't care if you aren't a tennis fan, you have to applaud her unbelievable effort and perservance to comeback and take the US Open crown and ascend to the #1 ranking.

Go Serena!!!

Since I'm still in the dumps about my recent US Open picks, I not going to recount last night's tennis match.  Roddick was not mentally prepared.  Hats off to the Williams sisters, though.  That has to be a tough stage to be playing your sister on the national stage for a semi-final spot at the US Open.  The greatest tennis event in the world!

I want to grip about the Indianapolis Star's coverage of the US Open.  I am a faithful reading of the Sports page every morning before work.  This morning, I was excited to read about last night's mens tennis match, todays matches and other general comments from the US Open.  Yes, the largest standalone sporting event in the world!  I expected the Colts to get the front page and the US Open to be on the inside of the front page.

I read through the Colts, high school football, NFL, baseball, transactions/AP info and then finally found the US Open information.  How can this huge event on the sports calendar be regulated to the back page - especially when the Indianapolis Tennis Championships feeds into the US Open.  There is a men's professional tennis tournament in Indianapolis - there are fans of tennis in Indianapolis.  How can the US Open, generating $200 million in revenue, be slammed to the bag page?

In further investigation, I decided to check out www.indystar.com for the lastest US Open news.  After much searching, I found a blurb about US Open highlights under the National News section-at the bottom and fifth on the list.  It even appears after a story about Marion Jones being released from prison early.  Game, Set and Match - how can tennis compete with a convict being released from prison early.

Men's professional tennis is taking a dump on me.  I decided to hang out on a limb and pick the men's winner of the US Open this year.  I was pretty confident that some of my picks would come through.  I had a couple upsets selected and then some of the tried and true favorites - Nadal, Federer etc.  I went so far as to pick the Indianapolis Tennis Championship's winner, Gilles Simon.

Well, I obviously need to start taking tennis lessons or watching is more closely on television.

My original predictions for the quarters:

Nadal, Blake, Simon, Lopez, Roddick, Moya, Tursunov and Federer

Of my choices, the only men still left in the tournament are Nadal, Roddick and Federer.

I knew I should have picked a man named Fish for the "tournament of my life" award.  Mardy is coming off some injuries and hasn't played a ton of tennis this summer.  It is nice to see him do well in the biggest tennis event all year.  Too bad he had to beat my man Blake.

Andy is now being coached by Patrick McEnroe.  I met Patrick this summer as was very impressed.  He is now charged with developing the young elite players for the USTA.  He should do well in that role.  Hopefully he can get Andy's tennis game back on track.

General observations from the Open (and now totally unqualified eye): Federer doesn't look strong, Monfils is a breadth of fresh air and Del Porto is proving his summer wasn't all luck.

Proving professional tennis players do reign supreme!  ATP Tennis player, Fernando Verdasco,  recently posed naked for an issue of U.K.'s Cosmopolitan magazine.   

Verdasco was posing in support of the Everyman Male Cancer Campaign.  He should be commended for his athletic body as well as his willingness to support the cause.

I had Fernando advancing to the 4th round of the US Open yet he lost early to #23 seed Igor Andreev.  Fernando has never played at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships so I question why I was putting so much stock in his US Open play.  I guess I should have realized that maybe the photo shoot took more out of him than I thought.

Yes, the granddaddy of them all begins today in Flushing Meadow.  The US Open takes center stage in the tennis world.  I would argue that it is the premier Men's Professional Tennis Tournament in the world.

We love to watch how 'our' tennis players from the Indianapolis Tennis Championships go on to do in NY. 

I decided to go out on a limb and choose by quarterfinalists for this year's US Open.

Here goes:

Nadal
Blake
Simon
Lopez
Roddick
Moya
Tursunov
Federer

Nobody would blame me for choosing Nadal and Federer.  I think 99% of the population would pick one of them to win the whole thing.  Blake had a great Olympics and is playing well on the hardcourts.  An Indy favorite, Andy Roddick should also do well.  Going out further on a limb, I'm going to choose none other than Gilles Simon to make the finals.

Professional tennis hits the radio airwaves.  RadioTennis.com is one of the lastest and greatest things to hit professional tennis.  Although we were not able broadcast matches on RadioTennis.com at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships Presented by Lilly this year, it remains a great concept.

RadioTennis.com provides live streaming audio play-by-play of professional and top level tennis from around the world, via the Internet.  The best part - it is absolutely free!

So get into professional tennis!  Check out RadioTennis.com

The grandest stage in men's tennis is almost set.  The first three rounds of the qualifying tournament for the USTA granddaddy event are over.  The professional tennis players have been in New York battling for 16 spots into the US Open for several days.  Before the final round begins in Flushing Meadows, I thought I would choose my picks.

My picks:
Bjorn Phau
Giovanni Lapentti - brother Nicholas won the RCA Championships several yrs ago
Robert Smeets - love the last name
Robert Kendrick - a US player who recently competed in Indy
Brian Dabul - Da bulls, Da bulls
Thiago Alves
Ryler De Heart - another US player
Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi - played in Indianapolis this year and was great
Flavio Cipolla - have to root for a guy with the first name of Flavio
Thierry Ascione
Rik de Voest
Paul Capdeville - played well in the Indianapolis Tennis Tournament
Kevin Kim
Alex Kuznetsov - an upcoming American
Gille Muller
Stephane Bohli

While watching the Olympics late last night, I started pondering who are the most conditioned athletes?  Michael Phelps will certainly go down as the most decorated Olympian of all time.  In watching him swim so fast and so effortlessly, you know he is superbly conditioned.  He also is mentally tough.  I watched beach volleyball, and yes they are great athletes but superb conditioning and mental toughness?  I'm not so sure.  The gymnasts - well I certainly couldn't perform those type of vaults, flips and landings.  I watched one girl land with a bum ankle and asked my husband, how in the heck could she do that with bad ankle.  His comment was that it was only one landing.  She can suck it up and then she is done performing.  One and done.

That brings me back to the tennis athlete.  I've watched my fair share of tennis stars at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships, US Open and other ATP events and I'm still amazed at the type of athletes these guys have to be. The matches can be long, you have no coach, breaks are limited and don't last but more than a minute or so, the surface changes, the conditions can be difficult.

For a Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal to be tops in the game, they have to be able to master very different playing surfaces and compete in sometimes difficult conditions.  At the Indianapolis Tennis Championships this year, the court surfaces reached temperatures in excess of 110 degrees.  It was hot out there.  Those guys chased down balls, served, hit the ball as hard as they could for sometimes two hours or more.  They got several breaks, for a minute or two and no coaching.  They had no teammates cheering them on or sharing the load.  They were out there by themselves competing against their opponent, the elements and sometimes the crowd.  Talk about mental toughness.  I walked out on the tennis court and couldn't wait to get back into the air conditioning and my bottle of Evian water.

So here is the stumper - name me a sport which only involves one athlete who competes for upwards of two hours without coaching or any support staff.  No timeouts, no prolonged breaks, no coasting - just all out hustle, determination and athleticsm.

So with the 2008 Indianapolis Tennis Championships Presented by Lilly now in the tennis bag - what do we do?

Well, we begin assessing what went well in 2008, what needs to be tweaked or fixed, our dream list (those things that we hope to get through the budget review process) and of course paying all of the bills from tournament week.

Our potential tweaks for 2009 include:
1) providing some type of cooled location for fans to eat.  The food was great this year but the tent was warm

2)  One session each day of the event (Monday through Friday).  The session would potentially begin at 4pm and continue throughout the evening.  We believe this might be better for the fans (cooler, easier to attend, concentrated tennis) and the players.  We are currently researching this option.  Let me know if you have an opinion!

3) Tennis is the show.  We will continue to concentrate our efforts in insuring that the product on stadium court is both entertaining and enjoyable to watch.

4) More interactive vendors.  We will continue to seek sponsors and vendors who want to activiate on site. We believe this enhances the overall experience for the fans - you can shop, try out the latest in technology or test your fitness level.

Any other suggestions????