Originally posted on 07/06/2014:

ATP Newport Mini-View
It's the last grass court tournament of the season at the site of the Tennis Hall of Fame. Defending champion Nicolas Mahut is back as the 4th seed, while two time winner John Isner leads the field as your top seed. The top eight seeds also include Ivo Karlovic, Lleyton Hewitt, Donald Young, Steve Johnson, Jack Sock & Adrian Mannarino.

Seeds are often prone to upsets early at this tournament. Since 2010, seeded players have dropped ten matches in the opening round. Qualifiers are ones to watch against the seeded players in that opening round. Seeds also generally are picked off as the tournament progresses as well with two semifinalists in three of the last four years being non-seeds with at least one non-seed making the semis each year in that span.

Three of the top seeds this year look like oens to watch as they generally do effort well here. Isner has won twice with a 13-3 mark all-time. Mahut has won once with a 15-7 mark. Hewitt is 9-3, making the Finals each of the last two years. Keep that in mind as the other five seeds might be better guys to keep your eyes on to go against this week with the right match-ups.

Seed Trouble
#5 Donald Young
By match-up alone, Young is going to be up against it in the opening round. He's got hard serving Sam Groth. Groth lost early at the Winnetka Challenger, but his grass court form was decent overseas with a Finals appearance in one of the Nottingham Challengers and working his way through qualis and into the Wimbledon main draw. Young beat him last year on hard courts, so there is that. Still, an upset seems possible. If he survives, his second match would be against Berankis or Jaziri. Jaziri would be the tougher out on current form and the surface.

#7 Jack Sock
Sock is one I would look at going against this week. He'll be flying high from his doubles title, but he's not been able to find that much success in singles on grass. He's just 4-5 all-time on the surface. He's 2-2 all-time at Newport, one of those wins coming via retirement last year. Kuznetsov could be tough right off the bat as the American worked into the main draw at Wimbledon and nearly beat Fognini before blowing a two set lead. He upset the seven seed last year at this tournament, knocking off Kenny De Schepper.

#8 Adrian Mannarino
Tough draw for the Frenchman against Jimmy Wang. Wang should have plenty of belief on the surface after a 3rd round run at Wimbledon. Mannarino will certainly have form on his side after winning the Manta Challenger, but he went through a very long week to win there with qualis and the run through the Finals. Put some travel on top of that and Wang could score the opening round upset.

Futures Watch
Hewitt +800
Hewitt has a nice draw for the first few rounds. He opens against Ryan Harrison who has been out of form and now nursing a back injury. The other seed in his quarter is Steve Johnson who has never played at Newport, but will be a threat. Outside of Johnson, the rest of the quarter appears to be filled with players that Hewitt should feel comfortable against on grass. He'll have to get through Isner in the semis, but he could be a nice investment to start with and trade out on.

Stakhovsky +2800
If you want a longshot, Stakhovsky might be your guy. His quarter has Karlovic as the highest seed and his likely 2nd round opponent should he make it through. A potentially fatigued Mannarino is the other seed in this quarter. The more dangerous guy could be Wang. Stak has some ability on grass as we've seen, his desire will be the big question. At long odds, may be worth a smaller shot though.

Mahut +1000
A disappointing Wimbledon flameout for Mahut could lead you to steer clear this week, but his draw is really nice. Young is the other seed and he could be gone early against Groth. Even if he's around, Young still hasn't shown the consistency on grass recently. Mahut took advantage of a similarly simple draw that also took shape for him with some upsets last season. The bottom portion of the draw looks a bit more open to me and that makes this look enticing.