Julien Benneteau has been on the tour for over ten years.  In that time, he’s never won a tournament.  So, for him, winning Winston-Salem was far more likely than going deep in the US Open.  Benneteau would have been happy winning the tournament and losing in the first round at the US Open.

Ah, but, before we talk about the tournament, let’s talk about the hurricane.

You know, Hurricane Irene.

North Carolina is getting pounded by Irene as I write this post, but as luck would have it, Winston-Salem is far enough west to avoid any effects from the hurricane.  Even Raleigh, which is in center NC is getting some rain.

Somehow, CBS decided, yes, we want to cover the finals of this tournament, and goes to show you that classic stations like CBS, NBC, and ABC should just forgo sports.  Why?  The biggest reason is these stations are completely obligated to show news.  Earthquake, hurricane, attacks?  ESPN doesn’t have to cover it.  It’s not their expertise.  They show sports.

So local stations have realized it’s far more interesting to give round the clock coverage of the hurricane rather than cover the tennis tournament, even if the brunt of the weather is hours away.  After all, what better excuse to bump up ratings over a second-rate tennis tournament?

And count on CBS not to follow ESPN’s model of broadcasting sports on the Internet, because such an idea is completely foreign to them.  Sorry, CBS doesn’t do that.  Why on earth would they broadcast it for free?  Wait, they’re already over the air.  It’s already free!  But the classic stations continue to broadcast sports like it was 1980.

OK, back to the tournament that I couldn’t see.   Turns out Benneteau won the first set.  If you’ve followed Benneteau’s path to the finals, you know he’s been on the verge of losing in three consecutive matches, having to fend off match points in the last two matches, clawing out 3 set wins in the last three matches.  The crowd loved Benneteau’s fight.

Isner is, however, the hometown boy.  And they love him too.  They say he’s “hometown” because John is from North Carolina.  Technically, he’s not from Winston-Salem, but from Greensboro.  But, it turns out that Greensboro is the closest major city, so hometown is close enough.

Benneteau took the first set 6-4, but Isner took the second set, 6-3, got a break early in the third set, and rode that to the victory, 6-4.  This is Isner’s third title in his career.  He won his second title in Newport just after Wimbledon and, much like Mardy Fish, is having the best summer of his life.  Isner had been struggling until Newport, and now he’s on top of the world.  Although he’s seeded in the 20s, he’ll be a dangerous low seed.

Isner has to start off with a tough battle with Baghdatis.  If he can get past him, he should be good to the third round.  The big danger is Robin Soderling, but Soderling has not played a match since early July so the question is how well he’s playing.  If he’s hot, Soderling can pose all sorts of problems.  Soderling serves huge, and hits the hardest ball on tour second only to Juan Martin del Potro, circa 2009.  That del Potro isn’t in the tournament.  Go watch a replay of the 2009 US Open just to see how ferocious del Potro’s game was, and how, by comparison, his game is still striving to this peak.

In any case, congrats to John Isner for winning the inaugural Winston-Salem event, and the US Open is ready to start on Monday.