Blooms vrs Hewitt

gazzpash · Club Coach

Blooms vrs Hewitt

RobC · All-time great

5-3 HEwitt now

Count Zero · Tennis legend

wow bloomer breaks to love!!

must hold now or it will be worthless

john · Top national player

5-5!

Count Zero · Tennis legend

LH takes th set 7-5. shame but some great play by RB. keep it up.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Hewitt found some form and took the first set 7-5

Bloomers is playing really well though, and I'm throughly enjoying watching him.

john · Top national player

Bloomers fighting well here. Down 2 sets but leads 5-4* in third

Count Zero · Tennis legend

hewitt wraps it up in 3. shame bloomers couslnt take a set at least after a good display :(

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I hope somebody taped the match for him - Jimmy Connors (who I don't like, but credit where credit is due, knows his stuff) was giving quite a lot of technical comments on how he could improve his play. Wow, free coaching from Connors!

Count Zero · Tennis legend

the players will be gven dvd copies of the matches directly from wimby i think, its a bit odd tho as they have no commentary in them, which is werid to watch, but i guess better for coaching purposes.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Well I hope somebody has taped Connors' comments for him!

mjd · Challenger qualifying

Madeline wrote:

Well I hope somebody has taped Connors' comments for him!

If anyone recorded it please let me know

Sheddie · administrator

I recorded the entire match but unfortunately don't have a dvd recorder to transfer it onto.....m-j-d did u get tickets from Bloomers to watch ? I was looking for you in the players box, thought it might have been you just behind Bec Cartwright but wasn't sure

I haven't seen all of it but was hugely impressed with Bloomers in this match...pushing Hewitt all the way in the first set and really going after his shots from the baseline...he served extremely well, was striking the ball very cleanly off both wings, some scorching backhands down the line.

I saw Bloomers play Peya earlier in the year and there were a few great cross-court winners but on the whole in that match, the backhand let him down, was rather unreliable. That wasn't the case today, he consistently hurt Hewitt off that wing

Also, one thing which I've noticed which has improved hugely over the past few years is Bloomers' movement...his court coverage and anticipation of where Hewitt was going to go was really good today. He does need to improve his touch around the net though, could have done with playing a few more drop volleys to mix things up and keep Hewitt guessing

In the end, a few sloppy volleys from Bloomers plus Hewitt's extra experience on the big pts (like the bps he saved at 5-5 in the 1st) was what decided things...plus Hewitt does love playing the serve-volleyers and it's always going to be hard to beat him over best of 5 sets if you're serve-volleying because he does love a target

Sheddie · administrator

After last week's Bjorkman drubbing in Nottingham, I did think this was going to be a repeat....really pleased that Richard put in such a good performance. That's gotta give him lots of confidence now...hopefully he can take that to Dublin and depend his pts there...the courts do suit him down to the ground over there

Reaching the Dublin semis or/and final would unfortunately mean that he misses Newport qualies and he'd have a great chance of reaching the Newport main draw. I'm hoping that this year Richard decides to play the Manchester and Nottingham challengers, he'd have a great chance of racking up the pts in those rather than last year when he headed to the USA and had a bit of a miserable two months on the outdoor hard and lost the momentum and confidence gained in June

mjd · Challenger qualifying

Yes Sheddie, I was there in the players box, with a distinctive red and white cap that Richard gave me after his futures final in Bahrain a couple of years ago.
Having been at Nottingham last week I too was anxious with the possible outcome and what it might do to morale, so much so that even though Richard lost I came away feeleing elated with his performance against Hewitt.
By the way I was concerned to see the ankle support Riuchard was wearing - I later discovered that he had 'turned it' a week or so ago while having a knock with friend at a local court and was still feeling worried by it.

There has been much talk over the allocation of wildcards to Brits vs 'unkmown' foreign players, but the evidence at Wimbledon was clear - just try to get close to, or even a seat where a 'lowly Brit' was playing eg. Josh, Jonny or Boggo - it was almost impossible. Then go to a court where foreign players were playing eg. Simone v Cillic (which looked like a hard fought match) or as I particularly noticed in front of the food and drink hall Vliegen v Monaco where getting a seat was no problem at all at any time - So which do the majority of visitors prefer???