The 2011 Olympus US Open Series, now in its eighth season, began this week with No. 1 seed Mardy Fish successfully defending his title at the Atlanta Tennis Championships. Fish defeated John Isner 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, in a rematch of their 2010 final.
This is the second career Olympus US Open Series title for Fish, who finished in third place in the 2010 Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge Standings. It marked Isner’s third career appearance in an Olympus US Open Series final; he lost to Andy Roddick at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C., in 2007.
Fish now takes 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 2011 US Open.
Click here for the Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge men’s leaders after Week 1.
Next on the Olympus US Open Series: The men will compete at the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles – featuring the first appearance on the Olympus US Open Series this summer by 2009 US Open Champion Juan Martin Del Potro, along with James Blake and reigning NCAA men’s singles champion Steve Johnson. The women begin the Olympus US Open Series in Stanford, Calif., at the Bank of the West Classic with Serena Williams making her 2011 Olympus US Open Series debut along with last year’s Stanford finalists Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka. ESPN2 will provide 12 hours of coverage, including back-to-back finals on Sunday beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. Tennis Channel will provide coverage beginning Friday.
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 follow the action throughout the summer through national television coverage, culminating each week with back-to-back men’s and women’s finals on 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, Esurance and Gatorade.
Fans can also engage with the Olympus US Open Series via the "Follow Me to the US Open" contest, launched by the USTA to allow fans to follow tennis all summer long, through the Olympus US Open Series and the US Open. Fans will accumulate points by engaging with the Olympus US Open Series and the US Open, and the fan who accumulates the most points at the conclusion of the 2011 US Open will receive a trip to the 2012 US Open and a one-hour hitting session in Arthur Ashe Stadium. The contest will engage tennis fans via social media, online media, traditional media, on-site assets at all Olympus US Open Series events as well as in-broadcast assets to better show fans the connection between the Olympus US Open Series and the US Open.
Andy Murray won the 2010 Olympus US Open Series men’s title and Caroline Wozniacki 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 -- and again equaled that amount in 2010, winning the US Open and finishing the Olympus US Open Series in second place.