Tennis Atlantic

2012 Australian Open Wild Card ‘Media Hit Around’ with Mallory Burdette; Men’s Bracket Predictions

Yesterday,  I took part in the media hit around at the venue with Mallory Burdette. Mallory was friendly and congenial as well as running us amateurs around the court.  After that, she participated in a press conference in which she stated that she has a tremendous opportunity to move up in the rankings after just turning pro because she does not have to defend any ranking points for the next few months.  She also mentioned she enjoys playing doubles and has an interest in playing doubles consistently at the pro level.  When asked about her decision to turn pro, she said her experiences playing pro tournaments this summer helped encourage her decision to turn pro.

I asked her about her preparation going into this event since the last pro tournaments concluded a month ago. She said she has been training at the USTA facility in Fort Lauderdale, participating in a lot of fitness training with her coach and playing practice matches with other players in the USTA system in order to keep in top form.

Play starts at 10 a.m. today and runs through Sunday with Tennis East Coast having wall to wall coverage of everything going on in Norcross.

Since the men’s bracket is out now, I’ll do like my counterpart Steve and make my predictions on the men’s side.

Quarters: Smyczek d. Harrison, Klahn d. Sandgren,  Williams d. Kosakowski, Kudla d. Buchanan

Semis: Smyczek d. Klahn, Williams d. Kudla

Final Smyczek d. Williams

The most experienced player in the field,  late fill in Smyczek, who closed out his year with a win at the Champaign challenger should have an edge over his opponents, including predicted finalist Williams, who he beat in the Champaign semis.

Klahn should be helped by the experience of the US Open against Sandgren while the talented Williams should be challenged by Kosakowski and Kudla but triumph.

This event also provides an opportunity for experience for last minute call-up Buchanan.

—Steen Kirby