First Round “bye” For Andy In Indy

The US Open Series begins Monday, July 18 with the first round matches of the RCA Championships, but Andy will have to wait until Tuesday to begin his USOS quest. As the number one seed, Andy received a bye the first round. On Tuesday, he will either face Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov, who recently took out Tim Henman in a close 5-setter at Wimbledon, or a qualifier.

Andy shouldn’t be nervous because Nipper and Chipper will be cheering him on. Nipper and Chipper are the RCA mascots. Throughout the tournament, fans pay $2.00 to have their picture taken with the dogs to raise money for the local Riley Hospital Children’s Fund. It is also tradition that Nipper and Chipper celebrate with the RCA Champion following the title match.

As the number one seed, Andy was placed at the top of the draw. He shares his quarter of the draw with fellow Americans Robby Ginepri, James Blake, and Vincent Spadea as well as Xavier Malisse and Paradorn Srichaphan. Andy is looking for his second ‘hat trick’ of the season.

You can watch the later rounds of the tournament on NBC on this coming Saturday and Sunday at 1:30pm Central. The Tennis Channel also has coverage of the matches on Friday and Saturday (check your local listing for times). For coverage all week, ESPN 950AM Radio will be replaying that day’s matches every night at 10pm Central.

Go Andy!