Portugal F2 - Lagos 10K (Hard)

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Portugal F2 - Lagos 10K (Hard)

XCW4EVA · County player

Go On Ben!

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Great wins for Pritchard so far.

Well in QR2 at least all our players who haven't already played have a hefty rankings advantage or are playing someone unranked.

Really ought to see all of them in QR3.

Sheddie · administrator

Quality results for Prichard and Allinson

Unfortunately I bring bad, bad news.....

QR2: P Zielinski (Pol) bt A Slabinsky (GB) 6-4, 6-3

Spoke to Alex about the match this afternoon, he's struggling a lot at the moment with off-court issues, his Dad's in hospital plus other things. He's having problems keeping focused at the moment.

He said "I played very badly today. The guy was a hacker and just gets lots of balls back, I was trying to be aggressive but was just missing over and over again. I made maybe over 40 unforced errors, don't know what was wrong with me today, played like a beginner. My coach said it didn't look as though I was mentally there. Zielinski is just awful and I don't know how Kennaugh and I both lost to him. All his shots landed short, all we had to do was just get it in. Same thing happened last week aswell, I need to snap out of it. Part of the problem is the courts, they're so slow and it feels like you can't get any power on the ball, the moment you try, you miss. Zielinski was just standing at the back and hitting heavy topspin shots, I think that next week I might just moonball every shot !"

steven · Tennis legend

This begs the question (again), why are they staying out in Portugal and not coming back for the GB Futures?

Simon · Lower Club Player

Better climate at this time of year, and maybe they feel they have more chance of getting points in a 10K than a domestic 15K.

There are so many GB people in Portugal this week though - was there some sort of training camp?

steven · Tennis legend

Fair enough, but given what Slabba said about how the surface really doesn't suit them, I'm surprised some of them didn't sign up for the first UK Future they could sign up for after going out last week. Maybe they did (but missed the deadline for Jersey, though as far as I know there is no advance deadline for qualifying) and we're going to see a lot of them back in the UK next week.

steven · Tennis legend

QR2: (q1) Tom Rushby WR 670 beat Alejandro Vargas-Garcia (ESP) WR 1411 by 1 & 1
QR2: (q12) James Ward WR 859 beat Joao Ferreira (POR) WR 1525 by 3 & 4
QR2: (q16) Richard Irwin WR 965 beat Aleksandr Agafonov (UKR) WR 1525 by 7-5 7-6(2)
QR2: Edward Corrie WR 1313 beat Tiago Godinho (POR) UNR by 3-6 6-4 7-5
QR2: Ben Pritchard UNR beat Christian Kloimullner (AUT) WR 1525 by 7-6(5) 1-6 6-1 (played yesterday)
QR2: Edward Allinson WR 1525 beat Diego Conca-Carbonell (ESP) UNR by 1 & 0 (played yesterday)
QR2: (q7) Andrew Kennaugh WR 794 beat Diogo Mota (POR) UNR by 6 & 1
QR2: (q9) Alex Slabinsky WR 780 lost to Piotr Zielinski (POL) UNR by 4 & 2

All GB results in QR2 went with rankings except for Slabba's dire loss to Zielinski - his 4th straight sets loss to a much lower-ranked player in his last five tournaments.

QR3: (q1) Tom Rushby WR 670 beat Tobias Obenaus (AUT) by 1 & 4
QR3: (q12) James Ward WR 859 beat Andre Timme (GER) UNR by 3 & 4
QR3: (q16) Richard Irwin WR 965 beat Gregory Muzil (RUS) WR 1102
QR3: Ben Pritchard UNR lost to (q5) Aleksandr Yarmola (UKR) WR 731 by 2 & 1
QR3: Edward Allinson WR 1525 lost to (q11) Sergio Perez-Perez (ESP) WR 858 by 4 & 3
QR3: (q7) Andrew Kennaugh WR 794 lost to Vladimir Ivanov WR 1267 by 2 & 4

All GB results in QR3 went with rankings except for Andrew's disastrous loss to Ivanov - it's his 4th loss to a much lower-ranked player this year too and leaves us with nobody in QR4 in a section in which we had both of the seeds!

QR4: (q1) Tom Rushby WR 670 v (q12) James Ward WR 859
QR4: (q16) Richard Irwin WR 965 v Marek Czerwinski (POL) UNR

QR4 is being played on Tuesday. Two Brits were seeded to get through here and one is sure to make it. Can Richard make up for the shambles in the Kennaugh/Slabba section and get us two through anyway?

By the way, how do you get four Perez's playing in one singles match? The answer ...

QR4: (q6) Luis-Antonio Perez-Perez v (q11) Sergio Perez-Perez

Salmon · Tennis legend

Good luck to Ward in that match. It seems so unfair that 128 player fields have no points for qualifying.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

The Panda Bear wrote:

It seems so unfair that 128 player fields have no points for qualifying.

You're right. Especially looking at how week some of the other futures qualifying competitions were this week.

But sadly the ITF or ATP (whoever it is) would say that the players can choose whatever tournament they wish to enter.

If we'd had 21 players enter Nigeria F1 and Nigeria F2 then we'd probably come home with loads of points coz the qualies were so weak they should all have qualified and they'd have scored points against each other at least...

to Irwin, Ward and Rushby. Its sad to divide myself but I want Ward to win the top match. Irwin seems to have done really well so far.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Can the people who voted for 1 qualifier please reveal themselves... Can't be 0 now and 2 means I keep my money!

I'd just be interested to see who is still in with a chance of winning!

RedCabbage · Club Coach

I think I voted 1. Can't be sure, though. Maybe the mods get a breakdown.

Sheddie · administrator

steven wrote:

Fair enough, but given what Slabba said about how the surface really doesn't suit them, I'm surprised some of them didn't sign up for the first UK Future they could sign up for after going out last week. Maybe they did (but missed the deadline for Jersey, though as far as I know there is no advance deadline for qualifying) and we're going to see a lot of them back in the UK next week.

Because this is a specially arranged LTA mini-tour, done by Sutton academy so the guys can't just pull out halfway through, they've already financially committed to 2-3 weeks in Portugal and there's a coach out there too.

A lot of them probably also feel that if they're going to make the breakthrough and get to the top 400 and higher, they're going to need to do well on those sort of surfaces and so need to work out ways to adapt their games.

Rushby's definately leaving Portugal after this tournament, Slabba's staying on as he's made the main draw cut next week and Podlewski will be in the qualies. Dunno about the others but I expect that a fair few will have a go again in qualifying .

Sheddie · administrator

RedCabbage wrote:

I think I voted 1. Can't be sure, though. Maybe the mods get a breakdown.

2 people voted for 1 qualifier, 5 voted for 2 qualifiers, 2 voted for 3 qualifiers, 1 voted for 4 qualifiers and 2 other people evidently had already started on the whisky as they voted for all 7.

Salmon · Tennis legend

ultimateshedman wrote:
2 people voted for 1 qualifier, 5 voted for 2 qualifiers, 2 voted for 3 qualifiers, 1 voted for 4 qualifiers and 2 other people evidently had already started on the whisky as they voted for all 7.

Hey! I don't drink.