Week 25 - Futures F1 (M) - Ireland

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Week 25 - Futures F1 (M) - Ireland

Salmon · Tennis legend

Shame about Jones but it's great news concerning Slabba. What a great week this is turning out to be!

This will give him some much needed self belief.

steven · Tennis legend

What an excellent week for Slabba biggrin

whom I must admit I've been beginning to despair of over the last few months - he had a 9-match losing streak in Futures main draw matches coming into this week.

This is actually his first semi since he lost to Matt Smith in week 4 of the late 2005 GB Satellite and only his 3rd ever (the 1st was in the previous week of that Satellite when he reached the Final) - indeed, it's just his 2nd QF since Heerhugowaard at the end of June last year - the other one was Sheffield in January.

He has 1 point coming off from Bassano this week and the 2 points from that Dutch Future will come also off before his 6 points from this week go on at the end of Wimby, but he will still rise about 50 places.

steven · Tennis legend

It's not Niland after all ...

QF: Alex Slabinsky WR 908 beat (7) Raphael Durek (AUS) WR 621 by 3-6 7-6(5) 6-4 biggrin

SF: Alex Slabinsky WR 908 v Alexander Sadecky (SUI) WR 826

19-year-old Sadecky, who knocked out no. 2 seed Conor Niland in the QFs, is the guy who thrashed (still not 100% fit?) Miles Kasiri 1 & 1 earlier in the week and beat Simon Childs 5 & 2 in R2, but he hasn't done much before this week to suggest that he is particularly good - this is his first semi-final.

-- Edited by steven at 19:23, 2007-06-21

Salmon · Tennis legend

Going by rankings, Slabba should have a chance in that match. If he wins, he'll have an SE into next week's Futures.

Sheddie · administrator

It's gonna be a tougher match than u think...I spoke to Slabba tonight. Sadecky is a big serving leftie, he's fast around the court and attacks the net a lot. His game is suited really well to the courts....Kasiri is fully fit, he just got outplayed in rd1

Slabba also said "I've been playing well this week, was a tough match today, we had 3 rain delays. Durek has a huge serve which made things difficult. At 5-5 in the 2nd, I was 15-40 down on serve, managed to save both bps and hold. The tiebreak went right down to the wire, at 5-5 I came up with some big shots, won the set with a drop volley. In the 3rd, I broke to lead 3-2 and then the rain came down again. On the resumption I dropped just 1 pt in my last 3 service games to close it out."

"Miotto match in rd2 was also really close...he has a really big serve, probably the biggest I've faced. I lost concentration in the 2nd set (he lost it 6-1), it was pouring with rain, I started missing first serves and he broke me a couple of times. Miotto broke me at 4-4 in the 3rd, he served for the match in the next game but I got it to deuce and then hit two return winners to break back. "

"Courts are very slippery over here, had to buy special shoes."

"I should have done better in the wc playoff, was 6-2, 4-3 up against Illingworth with the break in the 2nd. It should have been an easy 2 and 4 win but I lost focus. However, if I'd won that one, I wouldn't have got all these pts this week !!!"

Sheddie · administrator

and Slabba's awesome form continues

Semis: Slabba bt Sadecky 6-4, 6-2

That's a fantastic win given Sadecky's results this week and how well his game suits the courts there...I thought it'd be pretty close, didn't expect Slabba to take it 4 and 2 !!

In the final he's got the Aussie 6th seed....first 15K final for Slabba !

Slabba has now doubled his pts tally for the week and moves up around 200 places to approx 705 !

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

That's an excellent result.

Very well done to Slabba.

I hope he can win in the final but whatever happens still a great week from him. Now all he needs to do is keep it up!

Drew · Jun 22, 2007

Congrats to Slabba !!

Bladetiger · Pro player

Fantastic

This week seems to have come out of nowhere, hope he can really move on from here.

Good luck in the final Slabba!! smile

Sheddie · administrator

Slabba lost 6-2, 6-3 in the final

Still been a gr8 week tho

Drew · Jun 23, 2007

Unlucky Slabba but a good week from nowhere really !!!

James · Satellite level

Hard luck in the final but still a good week for Slabba... =]

XCW4EVA · County player

Soooo good to read something positive about Slabba after the poor run hes had, i really thought he was going to push on into the top 500 by now, but hopefully this will kick start a surge upwards in the rankings