Week 34 - Futures F15 (M) - London-Cumberland, Great Britain

Salmon · Tennis legend

Week 34 - Futures F15 (M) - London-Cumberland, Great Britain

Drew · Aug 20, 2007

All 8 qualifiers are Brits...

Pritchard, Bamford, Skinner, Allinson, Carboo, Illingworth, Leahy, Ouvarov

Well done !!!!

jezzauk · Lower Club Player

All 8 are Brits, that's encouraging news. I used to think Ouvarov was the best named player we had. that was before Amadeus of course.

Drew · Aug 20, 2007

Freewebs is in meltdown again so will post the pdfs at work Tues AM.

MD1 :

1 303 FRA OGER, Thomas [1] v 2 Q 1287 GBR ILLINGWORTH, Matthew

3 Q 1213 GBR ALLINSON, Edward v 4 840 SUI EICHENBERGER, Patrick

5 Q GBR CARBOO, Ekow v 6 644 GBR KASIRI, Miles

7 993 FRA MARTIN, Fabrice v 8 381 NZL KING-TURNER, Daniel [5]

9 357 ESP ALCAIDE, Guillermo [3] v 10 WC 1507 GBR BAINS, Maniel

11 821 IND RAJA, Purav v 12 824 GBR IRWIN, Richard

13 Q 1038 GBR BAMFORD, Neil v 14 WC 1507 GBR WIRE, Richard

15 Q GBR SKINNER, Harry v 16 402 FRA YSERN, Pierrick [6]

17 603 JPN ISHII, Yaoki [7] v 18 875 USA LA PORTE, Shane

19 766 GBR EATON, Chris v 20 692 GBR WARD, James

21 739 GBR SLABINSKY, Alexander v 22 640 IND SIPAEYA, Sunil-Kumar

23 896 GBR BREWER, David v 24 375 NED HEMMES, Fred [4]

25 623 FRA COCO, Rudy [8] v 26 Q GBR LEAHY, Matthew

27 WC 1507 GBR HEWITT, Tim v 28 Q GBR OUVAROV, Michael

29 679 GBR RUSHBY, Tom v 30 WC 1328 GBR THORNLEY, Sean

31 Q GBR PRITCHARD, Ben v 32 351 JPN IWABUCHI, Satoshi [2]

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Drew wrote:

Freewebs is in meltdown again so will post the pdfs at work Tues AM.

MD1 :

1 303 FRA OGER, Thomas [1] v 2 Q 1287 GBR ILLINGWORTH, Matthew

3 Q 1213 GBR ALLINSON, Edward v 4 840 SUI EICHENBERGER, Patrick

5 Q GBR CARBOO, Ekow v 6 644 GBR KASIRI, Miles

7 993 FRA MARTIN, Fabrice v 8 381 NZL KING-TURNER, Daniel [5]

9 357 ESP ALCAIDE, Guillermo [3] v 10 WC 1507 GBR BAINS, Maniel

11 821 IND RAJA, Purav v 12 824 GBR IRWIN, Richard

13 Q 1038 GBR BAMFORD, Neil v 14 WC 1507 GBR WIRE, Richard

15 Q GBR SKINNER, Harry v 16 402 FRA YSERN, Pierrick [6]

17 603 JPN ISHII, Yaoki [7] v 18 875 USA LA PORTE, Shane

19 766 GBR EATON, Chris v 20 692 GBR WARD, James

21 739 GBR SLABINSKY, Alexander v 22 640 IND SIPAEYA, Sunil-Kumar

23 896 GBR BREWER, David v 24 375 NED HEMMES, Fred [4]

25 623 FRA COCO, Rudy [8] v 26 Q GBR LEAHY, Matthew

27 WC 1507 GBR HEWITT, Tim v 28 Q GBR OUVAROV, Michael

29 679 GBR RUSHBY, Tom v 30 WC 1328 GBR THORNLEY, Sean

31 Q GBR PRITCHARD, Ben v 32 351 JPN IWABUCHI, Satoshi [2]

19 of the 32 players in the MD are Brits, yet not one of 'em is ranked hghly wnough to be seeded: how many of those facing a non-Brit opponent (9) will still be in contention come this time tomorrow, I wonder... confused

I'll wager precious few... hmm

-- Edited by Stircrazy at 00:03, 2007-08-21

Drew · Aug 21, 2007

Lots of rain today...only these were played....

1 303 FRA OGER, Thomas [1] v 2 Q 1287 GBR ILLINGWORTH, Matthew

3 Q 1213 GBR ALLINSON, Edward v 4 840 SUI EICHENBERGER, Patrick

5 Q GBR CARBOO, Ekow lost to 6 644 GBR KASIRI, Miles 6-2 6-1

7 993 FRA MARTIN, Fabrice Def 8 381 NZL KING-TURNER, Daniel [5] 6-4 3-6 7-6

9 357 ESP ALCAIDE, Guillermo [3] lost to 10 WC 1507 GBR BAINS, Maniel 4-3 ret

11 821 IND RAJA, Purav lost to 12 824 GBR IRWIN, Richard 6-3 6-2

13 Q 1038 GBR BAMFORD, Neil def 14 WC 1507 GBR WIRE, Richard 6-1 6-4

15 Q GBR SKINNER, Harry v 16 402 FRA YSERN, Pierrick [6]

17 603 JPN ISHII, Yaoki [7] v 18 875 USA LA PORTE, Shane

19 766 GBR EATON, Chris lost to 20 692 GBR WARD, James 6-3 7-6(5)

21 739 GBR SLABINSKY, Alexander v 22 640 IND SIPAEYA, Sunil-Kumar

23 896 GBR BREWER, David lost to 24 375 NED HEMMES, Fred [4] 6-4 7-6(4)

25 623 FRA COCO, Rudy [8] v 26 Q GBR LEAHY, Matthew

27 WC 1507 GBR HEWITT, Tim v 28 Q GBR OUVAROV, Michael

29 679 GBR RUSHBY, Tom def 30 WC 1328 GBR THORNLEY, Sean 6-2 6-3

31 Q GBR PRITCHARD, Ben lost to 32 351 JPN IWABUCHI, Satoshi [2] 6-4 6-4

Drew · Aug 21, 2007

5 Brits in rnd 2 so far...lucky break for Bains !!!

-- Edited by Drew at 23:05, 2007-08-21

RedCabbage · Club Coach

Well done Bains and Irwin.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Illingworth lost the first set yesterday but I don't know what the score was when they stopped playing.

Pritchard's performance was really encouraging and I think he'll get his first point soon.

Thornley basically self-destructed against a Rushby who gave nothing away.

Bains looked to be a good prospect from the couple of games I saw and Ward/Eaton played a good second set which Eaton should have put away but failed to (he did come back from 5-1 in the tiebreak but again didn't quite manage to get it)

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

This looks to be a very good tournament for the Brits so far, with 5 of them already picking up ranking points and the likelyhood that there will be more

Good to see Bains get another point, and he looks as if he could be a decent prospect by the way he has started

Kasiri, Bamford, Irwin, Ward and Rushby all do the job they had to do and get themselves another point, and they have to try and kick on this week and make the Qf's/Sf's if they are to take the next step to the challenger level

Hopefully Slabba and Ed can join them in the next round, although they probably are the underdogs for their matches

Tim or Ouvrav will get through as well, so it will be good for 1 of them to get a point.

Sheddie · administrator

Right well I think it's time for my report on yesterday

The Shedman in Hampstead, Part 1:

.....well I certainly picked the worst day of the week to go !! There was no play till 4pm and when it did start, it was absolutely freezing !!!! Bethan, Annie and Julia are all in no doubt that I must take full responsibility for their impending colds !

Arrived in Hampstead at 9.30 and then came to terms with the horrible realisation that I had no clue where the tennis centre was !!! I was just armed with one of these dodgy multimaps off the internet which didn't seem to relate to the street names....plus no one I approached for directions seemed to be from the Hampstead area or indeed from Britain !

After 20 min spent wandering up and down the high street, thankfully Bethan arrived equipped with proper maps and we were able to find the place ! The Cumberland club is a really nice centre, with 8 outdoor acrylic and a number of astroturf courts plus good spectator facilities (for a futures !). However, when you walk into the club, you kinda feel like your gatecrashing a private party....everyone's like who are you !!

Once we found the courts it was pretty much hanging around for 6 hours waiting for playluckily Bethan and Annie were there and the company was good. There were indoor courts but some reason which God only knows, they opted not to use them until 4for the womens qualies.the problem with acrylic courts is that they dont absorb moisture like clay and so even a minor drizzle makes them slippy and also they take quite a while to dry again.really frustrating as the rain was never heavy and Ive played in far, far worse at my club

Anyway once play actually started, we headed to court 8 to watch Rushby-Thornley. Had a good chat with Thornleys coach who has an East-European accent, also works with Maniel Bains and a number of other juniors. Hes just been at the U16s nationals, thinks that its between Rae and Slater. He says Rae is a very strong player and is the favourite but at that age nothing is certain. She needs to take advantage of her height and move forwards more, using her wingspan at the net, same goes for Naomi Broady. He watched Raes rd2 match in Bournemouth against Lucy Brown and apparently it was 2-2 with Lucy 30-0 up on serve but she just threw it away from there with too many errors and didnt really believe she could actually win. Looking ahead to Rushby-Thornley, he said that it was a winnable match for Sean as Rushbys just a very solid player, makes no mistakes. Sean was going to have to be very patient, wait for his opportunities and then take them because if he was just too impatient, Rushby can just sit there all day and let the opponents ues rack up. Aim for the end of the year for Sean is top 1000. He said that theres a lot of players ranked in the 800s and 900s who Sean can beat. I asked him what he thought was Seans biggest weapon and he said, probably his mental toughness, hes a fightersometimes it looks like hes given up in a match but he never does.

Conditions were pretty tough for the players, really windy and bitterly cold. Sean started well with a huge forehand winner and held to 30 in the opening game but from then on things went downhill.Rushby broke for 2-1 and then again 2 games later and he led 4-1Sean broke back for 4-2 but was broken straight back and Rushby took the set 6-2. Rushby broke quickly at the start of the 2nd and although Sean fought hard and battled to the end he wasnt able to get back on level terms or up his level to really challenge Rushby and lost 6-2, 6-3.

Basically Sean was far from his best today, seemed to be struggling with the conditions. His forehand wasnt working well at all, numerous errors off that wing and that was really hurting him, he got very frustrated. The big problem was that he didnt seem to have the patience to rally with Rushby and wait for his opportunity, kept trying to go for huge winners very early in the rallies and missing, instead of maybe trying to manouevere Rushby out of position and wait for the right balls. Got very frustrated, smacked his racket on the court and hit balls into the fence a number of callswas complaining a lot to his coach. Cant really judge him on that potential as he was clearly far from his besthas quite a flat serve, forehand evidently the big weapon when on song (his coach personally prefers the Thornley backhand) and hes got an all-court game, looks to attack the netsomething which rarely worked yesterday due to the sheer quality of the Rushby passing shots. Rushby has a good solid serve, nothing massive but he gets some cheap points off it. The other pros would describe him as having good hands, he hit numerous classy volleys in this match and has great passing shots which left Thornley beating the ground in frustration. Rushbys big strength is up at the net, he hit so many superb stop volleyshowever from the back he doesnt really have a big shot, just very consistent probably the reason why hes never been much higher than 600ish. To get top 500 and higher, he needs to be more aggressive.

MORE TO FOLLOW

Sheddie · administrator

The Shedman in Hampstead, PART 2

While watching Rushby-Thornley, we also checked out 19 year old Ben Pritchard who was playing Japanese 2nd seed Satoshi Iwabuchi on the next court. It was a great match from Pritchard and considering hes unranked and Iwabuchi is down in the low 300s, there really didnt seem to be that much difference between them at times. Pritchard (who according to Julia looks like a young Mario Ancic).trains at Sutton academy, Thornleys coach also seemed to know him well. Pritchards big weapon is a huge serve, he opened with 2 aces and continued to bang them down. Iwabuchi is 30 and a very experienced player, shaven headdidnt look too impressed with the English weather but Slabba said he should be used to it as it chucked it down all the time when he was in Japan. It was just one break in each set, both times midway through. Pritchard maybe needs to be more aggressive from the baseliner, he moves well and is a good scrapper, defends well using the slice to keep things low and has a good forehand on the run. He can open up when he wants too though, hit a couple of massive forehands and backhands but maybe needed to do that more to try and take charge of the points. I was very impressed with how well he played the big points on his serve, there were a number of times when Iwabuchi had break points but Pritchard came up with great serves so many times. Iwabuchi is a leftie, average serve but works the points very well, huge forehand with loads of topspin. Always looks to attack and finish things at the net and has good touch up there. Pritchard didnt really get many chances on the Iwabuchi service games, didnt make enough returns and when he did Iwabuchi generally worked him out of position. In the final game with Iwabuchi serving for the match, Pritchard got it to 30-30 before the 2nd seed closed it out.

It will surely only be a matter of times before Pritchard gets his first point, that serve will be very effective indoors in the next few months.

We then watched 1st set of Richard Irwins match against Purav Raja. Bethan, Annie and Julia were looking forward to this as rumour had had it that Irwin is a looker so I reminded them that we were there just to watch some quality tennis, haha. He was well on top throughout the match so not surprised he won 3 and 2. In the 1st set, he broke in the 2nd game and led 2-0.Raja strung together some great shots and broke straight back but Irwin broke again to lead 4-2. Raja served to stay in it at 2-5 and saved set point but Irwin held his nerve to close the set out 6-3 and at that point we went to watch Eaton-Ward on the showcourts.

Someone told me that Irwin was a serve-volleyer but didnt do that todaymaybe just his game on fast surfaces and the courts were quite slow. He has a good serve, like with Rushby its not massive in terms of power but is effective, giving him mid-court balls to attack. He looks to hit the 2nd shot and then follow into the net if possible, some great touches up there, can see how he did well on the grass in June.one half-volley drop shot winner from behind was very classy. Decent forehand, didnt make many mistakes from the back. Raja was quite poor, made a lot of errors and didnt really have much to hurt IrwinRaja likes the drop shot but its about 50:50 with the points he wins and loses. Wasnt happy with a lot of the calls but they looked fine to me.

MORE TO FOLLOW

Salmon · Tennis legend

Thomas Oger (Fra) bt Matthew Illingworth (Gbr) 6-2 6-7 (8-6) 6-4

Edward Allinson (Gbr) bt Patrick Eichenberger (Sui) 3-6 6-4 6-4

Pierrick Ysern (Fra) bt Harry Skinner (Gbr) 6-3 6-3

Yaoki Ishii (Jpn) bt Shane La Porte (USA) 2-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-4

Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (Ind) bt Alexander Slabinsky (Gbr) 7-6 (7-3) 6-1

Rudy Coco (Fra) bt Matthew Leahy (Gbr) 6-1 6-3

Tim Hewitt (Gbr) bt Michael Ouvarov (Gbr) 4-6 6-4 6-4

Tiger Tim.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Sheddie wrote:
Bethan, Annie and Julia were looking forward to this as rumour had had it that Irwin is a looker so I reminded them that we were there just to watch some quality tennis, haha.

If you were hoping I wouldn't read that you were sorely mistaken. Prepare to rue the day you chose to write such libel.

-- Edited by imoen at 22:46, 2007-08-22

Sheddie · administrator

hahahahaha.....in actual fact I was hoping you would read it

and we know it's true, even if you didn't say so at the time