By 4:30 pm today, the first professional tennis tournament in Maryland history will have a champion. We root for underdogs all the time, so today’s #1 vs. #2 final is not what we’d hoped but everything for which we could have asked.
Throwing all of that away, we are backing Shahar Peer today for all the money ($37,000 to be exact). Her inspired play and passionate fans make her an exciting player to watch.
The video above shows her final game and match point in yesterday’s win over Paszek in the semis.
The doubles final will immediately follow, and it’s #1 vs. #2 again. Sonia Mirza and Yaroslava Shvedova face #2 Olga Govortsova and Alla Kudryavtseva.
LEGG MASON UPDATE:
Today is Denis Kudla day on Stadium Court. The Arlington-native and College Park-trained player is a cross-town DC rising star, and expect the crowd to root for him in the first main draw match of the tournament.
Also, don’t forget: Verdasco and Fish play today. Just not in DC. Fernando Verdasco has reached the final at Gstaad, and Mardy Fish goes for the championship in Los Angeles. Both will be headed to Dulles as soon as the day is over.
Matthew Ebden will be glad he didn’t draw another UVA player today. Maybe he can keep the crowd out of it. UVA rising freshman Mitchell Frank may have lost his match to Ebden at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, DC yesterday, but he won the crowd. Nearly a thousand Cavalier faithful easily made this match the most raucous at Legg Mason Qualifying in years. Our video is near the end of the match as Frank is facing defeat. We wished we could have shown you the second set, won by Frank, where the Chair Umpire couldn’t even count how many times he had to settle the crowd.
ORDER OF PLAY – SUNDAY, JULY 31, 2011
STADIUM start 11:00 am
Qualifying – T Smyczek (USA) vs A Kuznetsov (USA)
Not Before 1:00 PM
Qualifying – M Matosevic (AUS) vs A Delic (BIH)
Not Before 3:00 PM
[WC] D Kudla (USA) vs T Kamke (GER)
GRANDSTAND start 11:00 am
Qualifying – C Guccione (AUS) vs J Witten (USA)
Qualifying – W Odesnik (USA) vs R Ram (USA)
COURT 1 start 10:00 am
Qualifying – M Ebden (AUS) vs P Simmonds (USA)
Qualifying – [WC] N Massu (CHI) vs A Sitak (NZL)
Tennis Atlantic 
Return Serve?