Sarajevo Challenger 2007.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Sarajevo Challenger 2007.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Go Greg!

steven · Tennis legend

No wonder Greg was keen to play here, if Carlsen's going to be a seed! He's the last player Greg beat (in Dnepro) and the only player he's faced more than 5 times and still has a 100% record against.

Great to see the big guy back anyway

Ghosting · Lower Club Player

Nice to see Greg wants compete again. Is it his first event this year? He should outclass them all.

john · Top national player

You sure about that? These guys are no mugs and Greg has been out a long time. Even if he came back and played a few months of tournaments, I still wouldn't be confident he could still play tennis good enough to win this sort of tournament regularly.

Still, GO GREG!

Salmon · Tennis legend

I wonder if Greg will ask for a WC into Dubai...

Ghosting · Lower Club Player

Everybody knows that on his day (his serve is on song) and on fast surface he can be very dangerous. However he had some health problems I think with hip last year (even Henman confirmed it after he beat him at US Open). Hopefully he is now fully fit and raring to be prepared for Davis Cup.

Salmon · Tennis legend

steven wrote:

No wonder Greg was keen to play here, if Carlsen's going to be a seed! He's the last player Greg beat (in Dnepro) and the only player he's faced more than 5 times and still has a 100% record against.

http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2007/1683/mds.pdf

steven · Tennis legend

Brilliant

, though if he can't make it 7-0 against Carlsen (on the roof), he'll probably decide it's time to retire there and then.

Bloomers has got Stakh unfortunately, with the winner likely to play Jan Mertl (the turtle) and no. 1 seed Peya lying in wait in the QFs.

Sheddie · administrator

Ghosting wrote:
Greg should outclass them all
Everybody knows that on his day (his serve is on song) and on fast surface he can be very dangerous. However he had some health problems I think with hip last year (even Henman confirmed it after he beat him at US Open). Hopefully he is now fully fit and raring to be prepared for Davis Cup.

I'm not too sure about that, I think you're underestimating the strength of these challengers. Greg's challenger record in recent years even when fully fit and on form has been quite poor by his standards. For example, it's quite bizarre given that he's won ATP Nottingham twice, made the Wimbledon quarters and the last 16 (4 times I think), made the semis of Queens but he's never been further than the quarters of the Surbiton challenger. He lost to 7-6, 7-6 to Moodie in 2003, 6-4, 7-6 to Dancevic in 2004 and 7-6, 7-6 to Bracciali in rd1 in 2005.

If his hip isn't causing him too many problems he'll definately be one of the contenders here, with that serve but he'll be by no means the favourite. The top seed Kristian Pless has taken sets off Federer and Murray this year, no 2 seed Alex Peya beat Soderling and Llodra on the way to the semis of ATP Zagreb. Robin Vik has been ranked as high as 57. Ernest Gulbis also made an ATP semi last year and beat players like Jan Hernych, Lukas Dlouhy, Hyung-Taik Lee.

Greg will need to be moving a lot more freely than at the Ukraine tie last year to make the quarters or further, if that had beeen best of 3 sets, Stakhovsky would have beaten him.

Given that this is likely to be Greg's only tournament before the Holland tie (unless Miami offer a wildcard), how far do you think Greg needs to go to convince John Lloyd he's playing well enough to be in the team ?

Boggo is definately out of the reckoning especially with Lloyd seeing that Indian Wells capitulation. Josh Goodall's form so far makes him v unlikely to be picked but Jamie Baker, Alan Mackin and Bloomers are all big contenders with Greg for that final place (assuming that the first 3 will be the Murrays and Henman).

Sheddie · administrator

steven wrote:

Brilliant , though if he can't make it 7-0 against Carlsen (on the roof), he'll probably decide it's time to retire there and then.

Bloomers has got Stakh unfortunately, with the winner likely to play Jan Mertl (the turtle) and no. 1 seed Peya lying in wait in the QFs.

These two go back a very long way, right back to 1995 when Greg started his domination of the Dane with a 6-3, 6-4 win in Seoul. The closest Carlsen's come to beating him was in Newport 2004, Greg won 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 on the way to winning yet another title there. Greg also won in Dnepropetrovsk in Nov 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.

What's the "on the roof" reference steven ?

Some of the captions you Rusedski board guys are coming up with, are a little too subtle for me !!

There's now a thread in "British men discussion" for Bloomers matches.

steven · Tennis legend

ultimateshedman wrote:
What's the "on the roof" reference steven ?

Sorry, spend enough time with Germans and that becomes an obvious add-on to Carlsen, though it's actually a Swedish children's book reference and Carlsen isn't the right spelling. Quiz alert: Somebody on here must know what I'm talking about ...

Btw (referring to your earlier post) Pless isn't no. 1 seed here, Peya is - Pless is nowhere to be seen, probably still in the US having gone out IW to Serra on Friday.

ultimateshedman wrote:

Some of the captions you Rusedski board guys are coming up with, are a little too subtle for me !!

We're trying to train Peter so he can snatch the Sun headline writer's job from Toby, but I can see it's going to be a long slog!

-- Edited by steven at 15:07, 2007-03-11

Salmon · Tennis legend

Greg not playing doubles.

You would have thought that he needs as much match practice as possible!

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Greg takes on Carlsen at 530PM Sarajevo time tomorrow

If we wins he will take on Jo Wilfried-Tsonga in round 2, who beat Sasa Tuskar 64 61

Robxon · Lower Club Player

steven wrote:

ultimateshedman wrote:
What's the "on the roof" reference steven ?
Sorry, spend enough time with Germans and that becomes an obvious add-on to Carlsen, though it's actually a Swedish children's book reference and Carlsen isn't the right spelling. Quiz alert: Somebody on here must know what I'm talking about ...

I assume Steven is referring to a wonderful childrens book of the 1950s (yes, I was a child then) called 'Karlsson(?) on the Roof' and if I remember correctly a couple of later sequels. He is a short fat man who is best friends with Lillebror(?).

I am struggling to remember the Authors name but I know it is the same person who wrote about Pippi Longstocking.

Some of these books are just as readable and relevant today as they were 50 years ago.

Do you remember when....