Nalbandian, Querrey, and Fish Atop Standings
August 8, 2010
Former world No. 3 David Nalbandian defeated Marcos Baghdatis at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C., 6-2, 7-6(4), while two-time Grand Slam singles champion Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3, to win the Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego today. Both Nalbandian and Kuznetsova earn 70 points in the Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge Standings to take a share of first place in the current points race.
Winning his first career Olympus US Open Series tournament title, Nalbandian is now in a three-way tie atop the men’s standings with Americans Sam Querrey and Mardy Fish, while Kuznetsova, who won the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open, is in a similar tight race, sharing the lead in the women’s standings with Victoria Azarenka and Radwanska. The win at San Diego is the second career Olympus US Open Series tournament title for Kuznetsova.
The men’s and women’s winners of the Olympus US Open Series will compete for $1 million in bonus prize money at the 2010 US Open. The Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge men’s and women’s leaders after Week 3 are as follows:
Next on the Olympus US Open Series: The men will compete at the Rogers Masters in Toronto – where Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will all make their 2010 Olympus US Open Series debut – while the women, led by world No. 2 Jelena Jankovic, head to Cincinnati for the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open. ESPN2 will provide 20 hours of coverage, including back-to-back finals on Sunday beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. Tennis Channel will provide coverage beginning Tuesday. For a complete television schedule, visit usopenseries.com.
Now in its seventh season, the Olympus US Open Series has established itself as a true regular season of hard court tennis, linking 10 summer tournaments to the US Open. Fans can follow the action throughout the summer through national television coverage, culminating each week with back-to-back men’s and women’s finals every Sunday afternoon. Players battle for $40 million, including a chance for bonus prize money at the US Open. In 2008, Olympus became the first title sponsor of the Series. The Olympus US Open Series is also supported by sponsors American Express, Evian, Grand Marnier and SPDR Gold Shares.
Sam Querrey won the 2009 Olympus US Open Series men’s title and Elena Dementieva won the women’s title. In 2007, Roger Federer collected the biggest paycheck in tennis history — $2.4 million — for winning US Open and the Olympus US Open Series. In 2005, Kim Clijsters also captured both the US Open and the Olympus US Open Series, winning $2.2 million — the largest purse in women’s sports history.