to dougie, my point is he needs to beome more consistent, looks at who he beats before he loses!!!! no one is seeing my point, theres no point in winning lots and then losing the next few weeks to players he shouldn't!!! theres always a trend!!!

And I am a massive Boggo fan, im just pointing out that he
-He left a day before his match when he had like a whole week
-Hew performs well against a very good player then loser to a player which isn't as good
-Has a good few weeks, and then loses to players he should beat.

I'm just being honest when i look at the facts, im not saying he's not a good player and im certainly not saying he needs to improve and he needs more consistentsy because of 1 clay match.
I think he should beat the player he faced today, 4-5 first round exits on clay!!! if i read the stat right
It was his approach to this game which annoyed me, He leaves one day before a match? If he wants to do well on clay he obviously needs to approach games in a different manner. Maybe people should like at things before they biasly try and defend him, I'm sorry but thats the truth!!

-- Edited by XCW4EVA at 19:12, 2007-05-08

So u don't think he shoudl have won today?

IF alex wants to leave a day before a match thats his perogative.... mayb he was training on clay to prepare..... we dont know the reaosns surrounding his travel! yes i agree he does beat good players then lose to not so good players..but dnt most players.... he doesnt do it too regularly though...as i said last year he had 10 losses to players inside top100! As for him having 2 good weeks then 2 losses...well you got to look at the fact that 1 was a qf loss. and one was on clay in 3 sets .. (which he hasnt played alot of in recent years.).. i think we hav to admire the fact he's out there playing on clay and trying to do well on it for he knows to be a top 100 players he will hav to play and be able to compete on clay!

-- Edited by dougie at 19:45, 2007-05-08

Ricardo Mello/Marcelo Melo (BRA) d. Eric Boturac/Jamie Delgado (USA/GBR) 7-5 6-2

dougie, great stat find. you should also point out in the 06 stats which ones where also partialy due to injurys/lack of matches.

this year you missed his few qualies loses like minar and vemic, but thats some good work tho and helps put in perspective alex perfomances over the year.

he is getting close to the top 100 at an ideal time of the year, running into the grass -> hard court -> indoor. much better than last time when he was at the end of the year with the 3 titles to defend around xmas.

its not like Alex will be happy that he lost today, but i also doubt he will unduly angonise over it. Also looking at Mertl recent loses they have been to the likes of Zableta (wr 89, former 21 clay court specilaist), Boris Phasanski (former wr 55, clay court specil) and Carlos Berloq (former world 75, and guess what clay court specilsist - in the last 12 months Berlocq has only played 1 nonclay match - the loss to bloomers at wimby surrounded by match fixing speculation)

and with regards to his travel it really is up to him and i am sure he had his reasons, we dont know his flight arrangments etc, he would ave been training on clay in the days he had, but to suggest he had ages is not quite right, he reached the qf's the week b4, i cant rememer if they were thurs or friday, but by the time he made it back it wouldnt have given him that much time to train on clay, probably 3 days at most.

-- Edited by Count Zero at 20:21, 2007-05-08

Of course you are a massive fan of his and I appreciate that.