Waikoloa Challenger 2007

Vonce · Club Coach

RE: Waikoloa Challenger 2007

Drew · Jan 25, 2007

johnnylad wrote:
Hopefully Jamie has enough for him!

Fruttero will be 26 this year and is from California...beating Goldstein is a bit of a scalp....he won the third 7-6(6) to take the match....very close...Goldstein could have had a MP or two...will be a toughie for Jamie...both players will be brimming with confidence...hope its a close match,,with a Baker win of course.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

I saw Frutti play at queens qualies one year, was imprssed with his game, serve vollyer and can volley well, he was very good at half vollies too.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

great result from Jamie, hope he can reach the quarters now although playing the guy who beat the first seed can be just as hard as the first seed themselves. It would be nice to see Jamie jump up the rankings this year, and fully make the transition to Challengers and ATP qualies.

Sheddie · administrator

That's a fabulous win for Jamie

Very much needed as well, with several pts having dropped off in the past couple of weeks and lots more to follow in Feb and March.

Good to see him taking advantage of this weaker-than usual US challenger. Oudsema's ranked 266 and Jamie was struggling to beat guys of that ranking last autumn, and he won in straights !!! Spending all this time in the USA seems to be paying dividends so far this year, really good wins in Auckland and Doha and some pts here.

Jamie aims to break the top 150 this year, would be really cool if he can make it !

Sheddie · administrator

Arka wrote:
USM, will he do Delray Beach next week? He can qualify in this sort of form.

Yeah he's going for Delray Beach, I think he should make the cut. Qualifying will be tough, although the MD cut is very low, there will still be some top 150 guys in the qualies but still you never know. Jamie's in great form.

Competing in the states takes a while to get used to, the courts and balls behave completely differently to in Europe. That's probably why Jamie had that indifferent set of results in the autumn in the challengers there, now he;s spent a winter training in Florida, he'll be much better prepared. Competing regularly over there will really bring his game on a lot

Sheddie · administrator

Count Zero wrote:
I saw Frutti play at queens qualies one year, was imprssed with his game, serve vollyer and can volley well, he was very good at half vollies too.

Jamie has a mixed record against serve-volleyers, he hammered Marray 1 and 1 last autumn but has lost to Moodie and Bastl this year (though he should have beaten Bastl and Moodie's massive serve was too hot to handle on the day)

Fruttero is ranked 394 currently, he's started the year well, making a 10k final in Guatemala and qualifying here. Beating a former top 50 player like Goldstein is very impressive (though Goldstein is definately well past his best). Last year, his highlights were 4 challenger quarters - Marray and Martin Lee both beat him on grass.

Hopefully Jamie can come through, he'll need to serve well though, he sometimes struggles against net-rushers who really attack his 2nd serve and continuously charge the net.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

having seen fruttero play i cant believe he is only just in the top 400, maybe when i saw him he was having a blinder, or maybe he is on of the part time players?

Sheddie · administrator

Count Zero wrote:
having seen fruttero play i cant believe he is only just in the top 400, maybe when i saw him he was having a blinder, or maybe he is on of the part time players?

Yeah, it's surprising he's ranked so low. However, he's not particularly consistent results-wise, lost mainly in rd1 of challengers last year apart from a few great weeks when he made the quarters.

Maybe his serve can be erratic from one match to the next and that's quite an integral part of a serve-volleyers game. It's probably the main reason for Jonny Marray's inconsistency over the past few years - I believe he had problems with his ball toss but thankfully he seems to have sorted that now on the evidence of the last 5-6 months

Salmon · Tennis legend

Baker won 75 64.

17 points already!

Stakhovsky up next.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Go Jamie!

What a week so far from the fabulous Baker Boy!

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Yay! Go Baker! Great week from him.

Stakhovsky is a very tough ask up next, he looked pretty good when I watched him in Davis Cup although I've kept an eye on his results since and he seems pretty erratic so hopefully he's has an off day.

VSandhi20 · Futures qualifying

Well done Baker!

With Baker getting used to the surface in the US, he should beat SS but Stakhovsky is an inconsistent player so we dont know whether he will be on fire, hopefully hes not!

Good luck Baker!

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

another good result. If baker can beat Stakhovsky i think he would re-enter the top 300.

RobC · All-time great

He may well be there already. I make it that he's on 129 points. WR300 was 126 points on the 15th Jan.