Pros, Tennis Amateurs Mix at 2nd Annual Shotgun 21 Event
The 2nd annual Shotgun 21 World Championships takes place on July 26th at the Palisades Tennis Center in Los Angeles. The unique and entertaining Shotgun 21 format was used as the pre-qualies at The Tennis Channel Open, the former ATP event in Las Vegas, and is currently used as the qualies for numerous junior events around the country.
The format is ping pong scoring up to 21 with only underhand serves. The event features men and women in the same draw, and last year, WTA player Jill Craybus defeated ATP player Alex Reichel 21-16 to give the Billie Jean King perspective to the Karsten Braasch/Williams Sisters grudge match (for you tennis buffs familiar with the gender battles over the years).
Matches are win by one point. Last year the semifinal between Sam Querrey and Phillip Kim went to 20-all, with the next point deciding the match, as did the semifinal between John Isner and Alex Bogomolov Jr.
Kim won the last point and Isner netted the feed, setting up a Bogomolov-Kim final. At 20 to 11 Bogomolov, it looked like Bogie was going to easily walk with the $10K check and the $4K Fender Stratocaster while Kim would be taking the $2K check. But Kim rattled off nine straight points, setting up a $12,000 point. Forty five strokes later, Bogie took the $14K and the funk, while Kim got $2K and the trunk.
This year, Alexandra Stevenson, Vince Spadea, Travis Parrott, Phillip King, Nick Monroe, Ryan Sweeting, Donald Young have indicated they would be playing. Tommy Haas, Taylor Dent, the Bryan Brothers and Marcos Baghdatis have all been invited. Last year Tommy Haas came to the event, but did not play due to issues with the ATP, issues that have supposedly been worked out.
Go to http://shotgun21.com/ for more info or call Alexa at (860) 335-7503
Palisades Tennis Center http://palitenniscenter.com/
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