As you say, Lee did well to win the first set. I thought it was going to be a straight sets drubbing. Lee must have upped his game from that disastrous performance in Besancon last week.
Huta-Galung has a sledgehammer of a forehand and outhit Jamie Baker and Boggo indoors last year so this was always going to be extremely tough.
I dunno why Lee is going for these challengers at the moment as he has little chance of qualifying. given his current form. Surely he'd be best to go for one of the 10Ks in Europe - Switzerland or Portugal where the fields are weaker and he has the chance to boost the confidence with some wins and points
Oh wel,, it'll be interesting to see who wins and at least we're now sure of getting one of them through. Probably Karanusic for the winner and the top seed in that quarter is Navarro Pastor, so it's a R1 match well worth winning.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Kevin McDuffee buys another MD WC... and draws a qualifier...
Tourte is in MD. Maybe Childs has persuaded him to play dubs again?
Maybe Childs is playing these challengers with doubles in mind follwing Aucks, Murray and Hutchins into concetrating on doubles draws and trying qualifying where possible in singles?
Should be an interesting match though between the British no 4 and British no 5. It will be their 6th match, Josh currently leads the head-to-head 3-2. All 5 encounters have been indoors and they've been extremely close. Josh won the first 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 in early 2005 and again in two tiebreaks later that year. He also took their first match in 2006 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(9) before Richard gained revenge a week later, winning 7-6, 6-2.
Richard will go into this one as the favourite, he's ranked 24 places higher and has made a challenger final already this year while Josh has yet to win in 2007 and is on a 5 match losing streak.
Both players have massive first serves but from the back of the court they have quite contrasting styles. Whilst Josh hits his groundstrokes sweeter than Richard, Richard is pretty consistent at keeping the ball in play. Josh is more of a flair player, he will strike more winners and make more errors and how much he leads on each of these stats will probably determine who wins.
This is terrible. I like Richard a little bit more than Josh, but at the same time think that Josh deserves a win for all the hard work that he is putting in. No idea whom to shout for.
That is good news. Hopefully the boys can both win their rd1 matches and beyond. On the less positive side we are no longer guarenteed a player in rd2!
i hope Josh can really make the most of this and jump start his 2007 season before its too late.
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To look at a thing is quite different from seeing a thing and one does not see anything until one sees its beauty