Submitted by Abir Bhattacharya, Jul 24, 2007 13:30

Yes the USTA has the US Open Series and offers a bonus prize money of 1 million USD to the winner, provided the winner of the series goes on to win the US open. But that cuts no ice with the top players from Europe. Why so, please read below.

Here are the facts, the US Open series consists of 2 big events ( the 2 Master Series) and 4 ULTRA SMALL events. I should also add, as per ATP, the events at LA, Washington, Indianpolis etc is ranked LOWER than the corresponding clay torunaments going on in Europe concurrently. Top players from Europe will not cross the big-pond to show up on such small events.

Now coming to the players. Roger Federer will not play any event which is below a certain standard and he is NOT playing anywhere else during this time frame. he will show up for the 2 Master Series events, no matter how ridiculous their scheduling is (back to back weeks). He does not care about the 1 million extra prize money (he does not need it ), he would rather be 100 % for the Grand Slam event.

Rafael Nadal is chasing the number on spot and as long as the hyped up US open series events are ranked lower than the clay events in Europe, he is perfectly within his rights to play the clay events, because it gives him more ranking and race points. He will still show up at the 2 major Master Series events.

Compare this to the likes of Roddick and Blake, they never bother to show up at Monte carlo on clay which is a Master Series event (right below the 4 Grand Slams). At least the European players make it a point to show up at ALL the big-events in US ( 4 Master Series and US Open), unlike their American counter-parts.

If the USTA expects top players from Europe to show up at the run of the mill nondescript US Open Series events, then their expectations are misplaced. They should either raise their events stature or be content with the largely American field in these events.

As far as forcing players to play on events the only way to do that will be to reduce the number of events or completely revamp the whole calendar. A event like LA offers 35 Race points, compared to 50 for Stuggart, 100 for the Master Series, and 200 for the Grand Slams. Now put yourself in the shoes of the top players and what would you like to play, if you are good all surface player?

The current Americans will favor the low ranked hard-court events over the clay events because they CANNOT play on clay. This is their only chance to make a surge up the rankings and make the year end ATP Finals

Lastly, may be the writer should come up with some suggestions on how to improve the standard of American men's tennis rather than cribbing about the thumb on the nose that the top players of the world )who are incidentally from Europe) show these tiny US Open Series events.

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