[Season 3] (Day 32) PSALT's Preview: Pierce Grand Prix

PSALT · [Season 3] (Day 32) PSALT's Preview: Pierce Grand Prix

Not too much to talk about here in Paris, the main story is the return of Vanessa Child; she has not played since the Davenport U.S Championships. She cited a quad strain and has been out ever since. I have been talking about it all summer, huge amounts of players have withdrawn from events; all of them make up bull excuses in doing so. One thing to clear up was Stevos; it appeared that he had pulled out right before the draw was made for Hawaii Tennis. It turns out he was denied entry for infringing on a health code that allows you to enter only a certain amount of events in a row, the code was set in place due to the over a month long journey of Leftys_Rock last year. Also, I have a brief statement from a representative of the Tour on all the pullouts later in the interview. Ok, there are a few interesting matches here, Leftys-Ying-Chang, J-man-Yodavitch, and Avolt-Aztec are the interesting first rounders. I don’t have long preview for this one, this event rarely has anything to talk about, so I will go ahead and post the interviews. The Tour will go first,

Q. A lot of pullouts recently, how badly is these wave of player's excuses hurting the tour? Any punishments being handed out?

ITF:
Yes there have been a large number of withdrawals lately and it definitely is not a plus for the tour. The only fine has been to Vanessa Child for a last minute withdrawal from the Kuznetsova Classic a few days ago, but no others. Players need to have more discipline and know what their bodies are capable of. Nevertheless, we do understand that injuries sometimes pop up and that it is not always a scheduling issue.

The main interview, Leftys,

Q. You have struggled quite a bit as of late, what had been your problem? Being the grittiest player on tour, you would think you would be able to get yourself out of a slump.

Leftys. Everybody goes through a slump at times, and it so happens that mine is right now. It's unfortunate it has to be right now, when I have a lot of tournaments to defend, but it happens to everybody.

Q. You have been part of a rivalry with J-man since the start of last year, a classic Brute Strength versus Brains kind of matchup. He has gone on to enjoy much more success and your rivalry has pretty much died down. Is he having more success because he is the better player, or what?

Leftys. In my opinion, having bigger strokes "wins you half the battle" as some people say. Not taking anything away from his strengths or anything, but it is basically what it is. I unfortunately do not hit nearly as hard as he does, so I cannot enjoy that. I just think my game takes a bit more time to develop, so I can't exactly say whether he is better than me or not. For now, of course he is.

Q. Your head to head with NEA is rather famous, NEA who is always in any match is more or less "owned" by you. Why is that? It is really aggressive mentally strong player (you) versus defensive mastermind (NEA). To expand on that, you almost always beat players from you generation; even those who in most cases are considered superior players, why do you always beat them?

Leftys. Yes, it seems that I lose quite a bit more than expected to people I should normally beat! However, I don't lose to NEA very much. I honestly don't know, I guess it's because I never really go away in a match? But I guess my game just matches up well with his. And with everybody else, I don't know, it might be my mindset going into matches with people from my generation.

Q. The tour has been plagued by pullouts; top 15 players Child, JoJo, and PSALT are just few of the player to pull out of events at the last second, thoughts? Are they being ungrateful to the fans that pay money to come see them? Or are players forced to commit to too many events by the tour?

Leftys. It is unfortunate, it may just be bad scheduling and hopefully they will learn from it and stack better next season, I learned that last year and am suffering the consequences now. But as far as I know, the tour isn't forcing anything on anybody except grand slams are mandatory. I think they could schedule better, but honestly, it's all up to them.

Q. Who is your pick to win the last Major of the year in New York?

Leftys. Jennacourt seems to have quite a nice chance; it's her home country and favorite slam. PSALT has a very nice chance as well. He loves the atmosphere in Flushing Meadows. You can never count out Johnny or Child though, even when injured. And J-man could spring up a run in New York. We'll see what happens. I'm quite an avid fan as well, so I’ll also be watching what goes on even when I’m not playing.

Picks,

Leftys def Ying-Chang 7-6 6-7 6-3
J-man def Yodavitch 6-0 6-7 6-4
Mollusk def Dreyfus 6-0 7-5
Aztec def Avolt 6-4 6-4

Leftys def V.Child 6-1 6-4
J-man def Dave 6-4 6-7 6-4
Phobe def Mollusk 3-6 6-4 6-4
Trinky def Aztec 6-4 1-6 7-6

Leftys def J-man 7-6 0-6 7-6
Phobe def Trinky 6-2 6-2

Leftys def Phobe 7-6 7-6