This web site presents pictures taken at Countrywide Classic in Carson, California on May 26-27, 2008. Carson is a suburb of Los Angeles about 10 miles south of the airport. The tournament took place at the Home Depot Center - a sports complex designed to host professional competitions in soccer, tennis, track and field, cycling and more. These images are from first round singles matches. Players are presented in order of the world singles rankings used to make the draws. Click on a thumbnail to bring up a larger image. Thumbnails with a big 'Q' over the picture bring up short, Quicktime movies. All still pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 30D digital camera. Quicktime movies were taken with an Olympus E-100rs. Thanks to the USTA, ATP, the players, and the Home Depot Center for allowing me to take these pictures.

Amer Delic (USA) [133]

Amer was the #3 seed in the Men's Singles event. He lived up to his seeding by winning the event after the #1 (Robert Kendrick [120]) and #2 (Sam Warburg) seeds both lost in the first round. Amer defeated last year's winner Alex Bogomolov Jr. [201] in the final 7-6,6-4. These shots are from Amer's first round win over Ryler DeHeart [288]. In an ironic turn of events, Amer and Kendrick, who were seeded #1 in the Men's Doubles, lost in the first round. Amer makes himself more photogenic than other players by wearing his cap backwards.

Colin Ebelthite (AUS) [222]

As the #7 seed Colin headed up a contingent of 5 Australians. These shots are from Colin's first round victory over Haydn Lewis [621]. These two players were as different as could be in playing style and temperament. Colin is a grinder who does nothing in a particularly pretty way, but he puts forth a monumental effort to win each point. Haydn is a natural athlete who moves very nicely and has good touch. But it seemed like Haydn's mind was not in the match. Seemed like he could care less if he won or lost this match (which I'm sure wasn't true). Colin displayed some deft touch around the net, executing some difficult volleys for winners.

Ryler DeHeart (USA) [288]

Ryler had the misfortune of coming up against the #3 seed and eventual champion Amer Delic in the first round. Ryler lost the match 1-6,3-6. However he had better luck in the doubles where he lost in the final paired with Daniel King-Turner. The facts that Ryler is a short, lefty, with freckles makes him look a bit like Rod Laver (the greatest player of my generation). Ryler has a ways to go before he reaches Rod's level of play.

Alberto Francis (USA) [296]

These shots are from Alberto's first round loss to Michael McClune 2-6,3-6. Guess you could call this an 'upset' since McClune was ranked #377 at the time. However upsets are very common at the Challenger level of pro tennis. You gotta admit that Alberto bears a striking resemblance to crooner Harry Connick Jr.

Ricardo Hocevar (BRA) [319]

These shots are from Ricardo's first round loss to American wild card Lester Cook [383] 4-6,1-6. Though they seemed evenly matched at the beginning, Ricardo seemed to get discouraged in the second set, not putting up much of a fight. I'm guessing that Ricardo prefers to play on clay. This match was played at midday in brutal lighting conditions. By looking at Ricardo's shadow on the ground in the picture of him serving, you can see that the sun was directly overhead. Both players aborted many service attempts because the sun got in their eyes.

Daniel King-Turner (NZL) [334]

Daniel pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament taking out #2 seed Sam Warburg [139] in the first round. These shots are from that match which Daniel won 6-4,4-6,7-5. However he lost in the next round to upstart wildcard Michael McClune. As the #4 seeds, Daniel and Ryler DeHeart made it all the way to the finals of the Men's Doubles.

Michael McClune (USA) [377]

Michael justified his wild card by winning his first two matches against players ranked above him. These shots are from his first round victory over Alberto Francis [296] 6-2,6-3. In the second round he defeated Daniel King-Turner [334] 6-3,4-6,7-6. He eventually lost to finalist Alex Bogomolov Jr. [201] in the third round (quarterfinals) in three sets. In spite of the cap, Michael was the most photogenic of the players I shot at this event.

Lester Cook (USA) [383]

Lester was another American who justified his wild card by reaching the third round where he lost a 3 setter. These shots are from his first round victory over Ricardo Hocevar of Brazil. Lester won this match handily 6-4,6-1. The sun was brutal for servers on the east side of the court resulting in many aborted serves. At one point Ricardo tossed the ball up to serve, lost it in the sun, then rather than stopping his service motion completely, he did a little a mini-swing which came nowhere near the ball. It was obviously not a real attempt at a serve, but it sort of looked like he wiffed the serve. This prompted Lester to ask the umpire if it counted as a first serve :) The umpire said, 'No, it did not count as a first serve'. Never saw that before. The fourth picture demonstrates how bad the sun was in that you can see the shadow of the ball on Lester's chest. BTW I didn't know anyone in America younger than me was named Lester (not that there's anything wrong with it). Lester was entertaining to watch because he likes to come to net. He'll even chip and charge on the return of serve.

Haydn Lewis (BAR) [621]

Haydn is the first professional tennis player, male or female, I've seen from Barbados. Must say that outwardly his demeanor fits the laid back Caribbean stereotype. Didn't seem like he was particularly excited to be playing tennis that day, or that he cared if he won or lost. These shots are from his first round loss to #7 seed Colin Ebelthite 1-6,2-6. Haydn's groundstrokes were not up to Colin's standards, however his serve was very strong. Haydn won a lot of points on service aces. He has a lot of athletic ability and moves well as is demonstrated in the Quicktime animation. Haydn is the only qualifier I shot at this event. He had to win three singles matches just to get into the main draw, so he obviously does care about winning.

Home Depot Center

The first picture gives you a bird's eye view of most of the The Home Depot Center. Not shown off to the right are more tennis courts, a velodrome, a track and field facility, and a sandy area for beach volleyball events. Soccer is the biggest sport here with the stadium being the home field of David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy. Being designed to host professional tennis tournaments, it's layed out very nicely for spectators. The stadium is very comfortable and not so large that you feel distanced from the action if you are sitting near the top. Matches were played only on courts 1-5 on the two days I attended. These courts are sunken below the surrounding walkways giving fans a great view of the action. Since court 4 is near the players lounge, it serves as the show court after the stadium. Picture 2 shows a panaramic view of court 4 with the player's lounge in the background. Picture 3 gives you an idea of how a typical outside court is layed out. Note that you can watch the action on this court from three sides - excellent for us amateur photographers! The last shot is another view of court 4 at the start of a match from a vantage point near the player's lounge.

  1) This is an excellent event to attend for true tennis fans for several reasons: 1) it's free,
     even the parking is free, 2) both men and women are competing, 3) the venue is extremely fan
     friendly with great public access to all match and practice courts, and 4) the weather is very
     nice in Los Angeles this time of year (not too hot).

  2) In fact, the Home Depot Center is such a nice tennis facility that it should be used more for
     professional level events. How about forming a World Team Tennis team with HDC as its home
     venue? The nearest WTT team is in Newport Beach. Los Angeles needs a WTT team! Let's form
     one. How much money does it take? And what would be a good name - 'L.A. Stars'? Kinda goes
     well with the Galaxy, plus we have lots of movie stars in L.A.

  3) There is an email link at the bottom of this page for anyone who wants to reach me with
     comments, corrections, etc. Please let me know if you see any typos on this page. Thanks.