The 2008 Olympus US Open Series launched this week at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships and Bank of the West Classic in Stanford with wins by Gilles Simon of France and Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada.
The No. 2 seed Simon defeated defending singles champion and No. 3 seed Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-4. Tursunov has appeared in an Olympus US Open Series final in each of the past three seasons. Qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada upset the 2007 Wimbledon singles runnerup and No. 6 seed Marion Bartoli 7-5, 6-3 to earn her first career singles title.
Simon and Wozniak now take the early lead in the Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge, in which the men's and women's winners will compete for $1 million in bonus prize money at the 2008 US Open. The Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge leaders after Week One are as follows:
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2008 Men's Standings
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2008 Women's Standings
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Next on the Olympus US Open Series: The men will compete at the Rogers Masters in Toronto -- including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s first appearance on the Olympus US Open Series this summer -- while the women head to the East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles. ESPN2 will provide 16 hours of weekend coverage, which includes semifinals action on Saturday night beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET and the finals on Sunday beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET.
The 2008 Olympus US Open Series marks the fifth year of the Series which links 10 summer tournaments to the US Open, creating a cohesive, six-week summer tennis season for ATP and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour professional tournaments in North America.
In 2008, Olympus became the first title sponsor of the Series. The Olympus US Open Series is also supported by sponsors American Express, Evian, MassMutual Financial Group, Valspar Paint, and Wolf Blass Wines.
Roger Federer won the 2007 Olympus US Open Series men’s title and Maria Sharapova won the women’s title. Federer went on to win the US Open and collected the $1.4 million winner’s check plus the $1 million OUSOS bonus payment for a record $2.4 million payout -- the largest in tennis history.
The final standings for the 2007 Olympus US Open Series were as follows:
Men:
1. Roger Federer, SUI
2. James Blake, USA
3. Andy Roddick, USA
Women:
1. Maria Sharapova, RUS
2. Jelena Jankovic, SRB
3. Patty Schnyder, SUI