Week 19 - Challenger ($100,000+H) - Seoul, South Korea (Hard)

Doonan · Intermediate Club Player

Week 19 - Challenger ($100,000+H) - Seoul, South Korea (Hard)

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Alex won !!! Brilliant win over Freddy.
Scores disappeared now but I think it was 6 - 7 6 - 3 7 - 6

Etienne · Club Coach

Yes, won the final tie break to 4.

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Disappointing loss for Dan. I watched the first set - standard was ok, Dan had break points. Congrats to Alex though!

I note that Kravchuk was knocked out by the fairly lowly ranked Matt Barton (257) It can't be a common occurrence that finalists one week and knocked out in the first round of the following week...

goldenboy · Club Coach

Shame re Dan but not massively surprised. 10 competitive matches in 2 weeks is a lot.
Wonder if he'll play Bangkok next week

Nice win for Alex, will have a nice new career high

Spectator · All-time great

Well done to Mr Ward. That's excellent.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Absolutely. Well done, Alex.

And just to show that after three mega sets like that, he still feels the need for a bit of court time, Liam and Alex have just taken the first set in the doubles:

7-6(4)

against the second seeds, too.

Jaffa · Challenger level

Great result for Alex, he really is playing well at the moment. Obviously can't expect much against Millman next but 14 points and $1800 is a nice return from his singles this week.

Won't be far off DA for challengers now.

Madadman · Top national player

Liam & Alex, as Alts, have beaten the 2nd seeds in the doubles in the MTB 10-8. 7-5 2-6 10-8.

Spectator · All-time great

Now that is rather wonderful and unexpected news ... and all the more wonderful for being unexpected! (I didn't know they were playing). Hurrah for them.

NB: I thought I'd go to the livestream so that I could watch a bit of the match ... but evidently only Centre Court is streamed and they weren't on it. But I did catch the last few points of Duckhee Lee breaking Yuchi Sugita to take the first set. Not the greatest live stream ever and only a few points, but Lee was looking very impressive. He's another of my non-GB favourites - think it's quite amazing that he manages to be the top-ranked person of his age despite not being able to hear.

-- Edited by Spectator on Wednesday 11th of May 2016 09:16:18 AM

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Well done to them! Hopefully their accommodation can be free for several more days!

What does Dan do now though? His next match will not be for another week. Flying back cattle class immediately after his loss would cost a couple of £k, door to door it would take at least 18 hours and he'd have to fly back to Thailand for next week unless he is "injured". I hope that having pals around him will keep him content in Asia, that he can look after his body and put in an appropriate amount of training.

Spectator · All-time great

Well, there is a good cohort of them in Seoul (including Mark Hilton, no?) And presumably it would be possible to follow the wise course you describe while also exploring a rather fascinating part of the world. (And before anyone makes unhelpful comments, there is much to explore that doesn't involve anything that would set back training.) Might be a nice opportunity for a more relaxed training week in interesting surrounds.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

As others have said, delighted for Alex after a terrific win and Dan is not a surprise. After the two weeks he has had, there was going to a an "after the Lord Mayor's Show" performance somewhere as fatigue catches up with him, so no real disaster there.

Perhaps Dan can spend the next day or so coaching Alex in how to beat the Milkman, whom Alex faces in the next round. Best not take too many tips of Liam on this one wink

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Absolutely no idea but maybe Dan's plans will be influenced by what Lloyd is doing? i.e. if Lloyd's injury is not great and he's coming home, there might be more chance Dan will jump on the plane with him. Whereas I imagine he'd be more likely to hang around if he's got Lloyd to banter with in the 'down' time (I'm assuming the two are still good mates - they might have had a bust-up, for all I know).

But mega congrats to Alex on a new CH coming.

And to Dan too - it's been great, you can't win 'em all, and the Slovenian chap is ex-top 50, he's no clown.

And decent wins during the trip for Liam too.

Spectator · All-time great

Would love to see Mr Ward have a good run into the latter stages of a Challenger (agree that John Millman isn't perhaps the ideal next opponent for ensuring this, but you never know). His steady progress over recent months is making that feel like more and more of a possibility in the not-too-distant future, assuming no untoward health or world events.