BB&T Atlanta Open 2012

For the third consecutive year, Atlanta hosted an ATP tour event, the first in the U.S. series of hard-court tournaments leading to the two week U.S. Open, which begins at the end of August and ends in September. However, this year was the first with an anchor sponsor - BB&T - and the downtown venue of Atlantic Station (a 3 year partnership with 2 additional option years). The event ran from July 14 through July 22 and featured all of the top ranked American players (John Isner, two-time defending champion Mardy Fish, Andy Roddick, Ryan Harrison, Donald Young and James Blake) and up-and-comers (Brian Baker, Jack Sock and Steve Johnson) along with international players from Asia Pacific (Kei Nishikori, Go Soeda and Matthew Ebden), South Africa (Kevin Anderson, Rik De Voest) and Europe (Gilles Muller, Nicolas Mahut and Xavier Malisse).

Andy Roddick won the singles title, his second of the year (Eastbourne) and 32nd of his career, beating Luxembourg's Gilles Muller in the final 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2 in two hours, 14 minutes after outlasting two-time Atlanta finalist John Isner in the semi-finals the night before 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 in the tournament's longest match (148 minutes). Mardy Fish retired with an ankle injury while leading 6-4, 3-2 in his first match of the tournament, a second rounder vs. Muller. The doubles title was won by Australia's Matthew Ebden and American Ryan Harrison over Belgium's Xavier Malisse and American Michael Russell 6-3, 3-6, 10-6.

For my second straight year, I worked as a volunteer scorekeeper (and court monitor) at the tournament, and chronicled Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5 and the finals while providing "insider stories" and photos of the event.