(6)Myles Blake (Gbr) WR849 bye Joshua Oxley (Gbr) UNR vs Erkki Viitisaari (Fin) UNR Simon Childs (Gbr) UNR vs David Currer (Aus) UNR
QR2:
(6)Myles Blake (Gbr) WR849 vs Mark McCook (Aus) UNR/ Todd Breeze (NZ) UNR (13)Mao-Xin Gong (Chi) WR992 vs Joshua Oxley (Gbr) UNR/ Erkki Viitisaari (Fin) UNR (8)Troy Hahn (USA) WR901 vs Simon Childs (Gbr) UNR vs David Currer (Aus) UNR
Hahn was a tough draw for Childs, he's ranked in the 900s. His game suits artificial grass and fast carpet courts best...has a big serve and hits very flat. However, he's had some good results down under this year - qualified for Tasmania challenger and qualified + won a round in Aus F2 last week.
Surprised that Blake got pushed so close by McCook, he's been struggling against a lot of these unranked guys. However, a win's a win.
Rd3 (final qualies round)
M Blake (6) v C Ball (Aus)(16)
Myles has fallen at the final hurdle a lot of times recently, hope it doesn't happen again. Ball is ranked 1020, 171 places lower but Myles has been losing to guys ranked a lot lower than that so he'll need to up his game. Ball was in the junior top 10 in 2005 but has struggled on the mens tour, surprising as he's a tall leftie with a big game. He's having most success in doubles, currently ranked 216 - made 7 futures finals and a challenger final last year and has won rd1 doubles matches at the AO in 2006 and 2007.
Ball's problem might be that to maintain his good doubles ranking he plays tournametns that are too good for him in singles. Bit like Aucks, Jamie Muray and Ross Hutchins...
johnnylad wrote: Sadly I expect Ball to beat Blake...
Ball's problem might be that to maintain his good doubles ranking he plays tournametns that are too good for him in singles. Bit like Aucks, Jamie Muray and Ross Hutchins...
Same here, given Blake's recent results.
Ball has actually been just playing futures and the odd challenger qualies - very occasionally. He's just been losing in qualifying or rd1 in the singles and making the latter stages of the doubles every time
Myles will not play R1 until Wednesday. Kadir has beaten Kennaugh twice recently and has been beaten by Jamie Baker twice in the last year or so. He was also Slabba's doubles partner in three Japanese Futures last year!
__________________
GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
He's had some disappointing results so far this year, hopefully he can up his level and get his first ranking point since August.
Kadir will be very tough, he's been as high as 415 and gave Jamie Baker some close matches last year. Reached a 15K final plus several quarters. So far this year he's gained a couple of points in Australian 15Ks.