Ricardas Berankis, formerly Richard Berankis, is one of those players that are almost mentioned with the next group of up-and-comers which include Bernard Tomic, Milos Raonic, Ryan Harrison, and Grigor Dimitrov.  However, Berankis, much like Dimitrov, has never had a great result.  With the Los Angeles field decimated by the Olympics, it was 50th ranked Benoit Paire that was top seed.  Had Sam Querrey not been injured last year and been slow to regain form, it might have been Querrey out at Wimbledon rather than being favored to win his third title.

Apparently, Berankis was not in the same category as Querrey who won the match easily, 60 62.

With this win, Querrey moves from the mid 50s to 38 in the world.  He’s on the verge of getting a seeding at the US Open.

Yesterday, Philipp Kohlschreiber tried to get a title in at Kitzbuhel over defending champ, Robin Haase.  Kohlschreiber must really like playing it close because the Olympics started yesterday.  He must have been given an exemption to start on Sunday or just been lucky.  Alas, he didn’t win the title as Haase came from a set down to win sets 2 and 3.

This week, Washington DC picks up a few good players despite being played the week of the Olympics.  Mardy Fish chose not to play the Olympics this go around.  He won silver two Olympics ago and is unlikely to repeat that performance given his current form.  Kevin Anderson is seeking a green card to the US and was not eligible since he didn’t meet Davis Cup requirements for South Africa.  The same is true of Alexandr Dolgopolov.  Brian Baker’s rank wasn’t high enough to qualify back in early June, so he’s been playing tournaments in the US.  He has yet to match his European success, losing early in Newport and Los Angeles.

Haas wasn’t given a special exemption so his ranking wasn’t high enough to get in the Olympics.  For Andujar and Chardy, they have the misfortune of playing for Spain and France, respectively, who are so deep, they could have two Davis Cup teams and their B team would be more than a match than some countries’ A team.

Despite the weakened field, Washington DC is still an ATP 500 event which means the winner can pick up a significant chunk of points.