Sorry, I just couldn't resist echoing that headline from the other day, despite its questionable relevance to the story about Kazakhstan appearing in the Davis Cup World Group draw for the first time. But it's a modest workday for me and this Bulgarian boy, 19-year-old Grigor Dimitrov, is really lighting it up on the Challeger circuit, having just won the third successive event he's played.
Dimitrov's streak goes back to Geneva, in August, and includes two recent wins—Bangkok 1 and Bangkok 2—in Thailand. I guess you can call Dimitrov's feat a Thai Challenger Mini Slam. And why not add two more Challenger segments, so you could could create the Thai Challenger Grand Slam? I'd change the names, though: "Bangkok 1, 2, 3 and 4" just doesn't have the same ring as "Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and U.S. Open."
Seriously though, I assume that Thai officials have enough dough to create two tournaments instead of one high-paying one, and in some ways doing so is a better deal for everyone except the guy collecting the winner's check—as counter-intuitive as it may seem in an enterprise where the size of the purse is one of the major selling points for the event and all those interested in it.
Offering two opportunities to earn ATP points is a better incentive to lure up-and-coming players to what is still, relatively speaking, a far-flung outpost of the game. And if you look at the Challenger schedule, you'll see that it's organized in segments that slightly eases the pain (cost of travel) for players who are usually just scraping by, or even going into hock to earn a shot at stardom. I also wouldn't be surprised if they had to come up with Bangkok 1 and 2 in order to earn the ATP sanction, and the tournaments are obviously linked to the ATP 250 event coming up there. BTW, if you want to poke around in these esoteric regions to investigate these issues, Core Tennis (unfortunately, the site doesn't load for me today) and Steve G Tennis are great places to start.
In any event, On May 19th of 2008, Dimitrov (who was ranked as high as No. 3 among world juniors) was ranked outside the world Top 1,000. He has a lot of up-side. His ranking has climbed to No. 146. So he's coming up on ATP and Grand Slam direct acceptance territory, and quick. Watch out world!
Meanwhile, Pablo Andujar, a journeyman experiencing a dream week, is set to play Juan Ignacio Chela, the No. 3 seed, for the title in Bucharest, and Mischa Zverev of Germany is in his first-ever ATP final. He'll play eighth-seeded Gilles Simon for the title in Metz.
So, while the U.S. Open is long over, the Grand Slam year has ended, and fall weather in the northern hemisphere is dampening tennis enthusiasm among all but the most dedicated of fans, the dream lives on. . . an on. All around the world. Is this a great sport, or what?
- Pete