BANG'S THAILAND OPEN REPORT 2005 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I took a 10-day vacation to Thailand at the end of September and the first 3 days of it were in Bangkok, so I decided to attend the Thailand Open while I was there. I got into Bangkok on 28-Sept-2005 and met up with my friend Gene, who is backpacking through Asia for the next few months. Since we were in Bangkok for a short time, we decided to do some tourist things the first 2 days and just catch some Quarterfinal action at the Thailand Open on 30-Sept-2005, our last day in Bangkok. I bought us tickets a week in advance through the ThaiTicketmaster website and got some good day session seats for 1500 BAHT a piece (exchange rate at the time was 40 BAHT = 1 USD). As for the tournament itself, it's a small indoor tournament with a field of 32. The number one seed was World No. 1 Roger Federer. Other notables in the draw included hometown hero Paradorn Srichaphan, Aussie brat Lleyton Hewitt, US Open surprise semi-finalist Robbie Ginepri, Mark "Scud" Philippoussis, British hopeful Andy Murray, Boris Becker's disappointing successor Tommy Haas, and Luxembourg's Gilles Muller - the man who took Andy Roddick's Mojo in the 1st round of this year's US Open. The tournament is held at Impact Arena, a multi-purpose venue used for different events in Bangkok such as concerts and trade shows. We stayed in Bangkok in an area called Pratunam, known for its markets and shopping. In order to get to Impact Arena, we could have taken a bus but decided to just take a cab. It took about only 25 minutes to get there by cab and it cost only 300 BAHT, which was a good deal considering the convenience. Once we got to the arena, we were starving and decided to get some food at the event. Suprisingly, food was incredibly cheap. We bought roasted chicken w/ rice lunch for 40 BAHT and bottled water for 10 BAHT. Folks, if you're calculating at home in the US, that's $1 for lunch and $0.25 for bottled water at a sporting event! Impact Arena has 2 courts, Center Court and Court 1. One of my favorite things to do at tennis tournaments is watch players practice. So before the first match of the day, I walked around looking for a practice court, which would likely be Court 1. After walking around for awhile, I was convinced there was no Court 1. I think the tournament organizers might have taken that court down since the tournament was nearing its end. What a pity. Back to Center Court we go and up first was a doubles match. I typically don't watch doubles and the last doubles match I saw was at the 2005 Aussie Open, where the ever-annoying Bryan brothers were playing against James Blake and Mardy Fish. The doubles match on this day at the Thailand Open featured Soderling/Landsberg vs. Aspelin/Perry. Who vs. who??? I only recognized Robin Soderling. This match was played under the new ATP doubles scoring rules, which is just ludicrous and will eventually kill doubles rather than increase its participation. Not much to report on this match, just that the outcome had a funny looking score with Aspelin/Perry winning 6-5(3),6-5(3). That's no misprint, tiebreaks are played at 5 games all and the first to 6 points with at least a 2 point advantage wins. The matched also whizzed by since there is No-ad scoring under the new rules. Next match up was mercifully a singles match. It featured Andy Murray against Robbie Ginepri. Murray is an 18 year old Scotsman with a big chip on his shoulder - the whole British tennis world with sky-high hopes, to be exact. The kid has a good serve, big forehand, and some variety in his game as he is able to mix things up by using his backhand slice quite often and also has the ability to finish points at net. He's been moving up in the rankings but needs to improve his fitness, as he lost a couple of 5-setters in his last 2 slams due lack of fitness. Andy's opponent, Robbie Ginepri is a 23 year old American who was coming off a good summer hardcourt season, finishing as a semi-finalist at the 2005 US Open. Ginepri is a fairly one-dimensional player with a solid backcourt game, who likes to rely on his fitness and great wheels to grind out matches. Just don't let him play the net if he's on your doubles partner because like 3/4 of the ATP Tour, he's pretty hapless up there. In fact, with the modern game, volleying seems to be a lost art, but I digress...Ginepri's shot selection is much improved, though, and that's reflected in his most recent results over the summer. Early in the match, Ginepri got an early break and was able to make it stand, winning the first set 6-4. At this point, I was thinking Murray was just gonna either lay down or run out of gas if it went 3 sets. Murray bounced back and won the 2nd set 6-4. Going into a 3rd set would seem to favor Ginepri, as he likes to wear his opponents down with his baseline grind-it-out style, not to mention his great fitness level. Surprisingly, Murray did not wilt and was able to win the 3rd set, cashing in on one break, and showing a lot of poise by eventually serving it out. After the Murray/Ginepri match, we had to catch a 3-hour bus to Pattaya (a city East of Bangkok), so we couldn't stick around for the rest of Quarterfinal day. We missed a snoozer of a match with Jarkko Nieminen defeating Taiwan's Yeu-Tzuoo Wang. The feature match of the day was Paradorn Srichaphan vs. Lleyton Hewitt. Srichaphan won in a walkover as Hewitt pulled out with an injury before the match. I guess we didn't miss much after all! The only disappointment was not getting to see Roger play, since his match was the feature match of the night session. Oh well, that's what happens when you buy single session(day or night) tennis tournament tickets in advance - it's usually a necessary thing, but it does become somewhat of a crapshoot as to who you'll see play. All in all, it was a good tournament and something I'd attend again if I was in Bangkok at the right time. Next up for me - hopefully Wimbledon, where I look to capture the 3rd different major of my tennis (viewing) career. Ha!!