Ross should definately get through the first two qualies rounds here, he plays an unranked Swede called Jimmy Asp in rd1. Asp has never played any pro matches before.

Two players who will definately have been keeping a wide berth of each other over the past 2 months are Alan Mackin and Jamie Baker. I read yesterday that they had a massive bust-up at Saddlebrooks in December due to the comments Jamie wrote about Alan missing the DC in his Times article.

Funny how given that, they've ended up playing almost exactly the same tournaments since then

GC77 wrote:

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Off topic, but has anyone else noticed that Mr Hingis (aka Radek Stepanek) has decided to enter Marseille qualies this week - seems a bit harsh on those drawn in his section, needing to beat a top twenty player just to make the main draw!!

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Lol, players in that section must be seriously pissed off !!  Knowing that they have to beat a top 20 guy and in doing so they're still not guaranteed any points or dosh must be pretty demoralising !

 

MAIN DRAW

R1 Q1: Alan Mackin WR 238 v Michael Lammer (SUI) WR 297
R1 Q2: Jamie Baker WR 252 v Santiago Gonzalez (MEX) WR 243
R1 Q4: Josh Goodall WR 210 v Michael Ryderstedt (SWE) WR 340

Overall, a good draw for the Brits (i.e. they have all avoided seeds in R1), but Alan and Josh have lost 8/8 sets between them against their now lower-ranked opponents, so their matches will be a measure of how good their improvement over the last year has really been.

Alan has failed to take a set off Lammer in three previous meetings, being fed three breadsticks in the process. However, those meetings were all on clay and the last was in 2003. Lammer has an odd record against Brits in the last two years - losing to big Arv in straights in Cherbourg in Feb 2005 then beating Andy Murray in straights in Dresden three months later.

Fresh from losing a doubles semi to Butorac/Murray in Dallas, Gonzalez has a career high of 155 in May last year but has since dropped a fair bit. Jamie has never played him before. His recent record against Brits has included wins over Parmar and Childs and losses to Boggo and Childs.

Ryderstedt often plays in the UK but Josh has only met him once, losing 3 & 2 in Bath nearly a year ago.

Ross dished out a double bagel

I can hardly believe that there's only one Challenger on in the world this week and qualifying for it is this weak!

Ross being seeded 6 is mad enough, but there were 12 bagel sets and 4 double bagels in 12 QR1 matches, all of which were won in straights.

With his new-found form, Robert Dee must be kicking himself that he didn't play here instead of in Spain

-- Edited by steven at 22:05, 2007-02-10

Sounds like Joplin needs the Craig O and Craig K touch to spice things up a little bit.  If we can get enough fan/players support via emails, posts on message boards etc., we will definitely put a package together and represent it to the USTA.  Thanks again for all the nice things you guys/girls have said about our Dallas Challenger.  We definitely appreciate it.  Who knows, maybe we have changed the Challenger circuit for the best.


CK

p.s.  I thought yesterdays interviews were priceless.....catch tonights.  By far award winning material if I must say so myself.