The Shedman in Hampstead PART 3

One of the best things about the futures tour is that you get so many more nutters than in the ATPs and for this reason the most entertaining match by far was Daniel King-Turner against Fabrice Martin. We caught the 3rd set and King-Turner was 5-1 up and served for the match twice, missed several match points and Martin went on to win it in the tiebreak. Both players are serve-volleyers with huge first serves, tbh I think King-Turner is the better player he just lost his head when in the winning position. Martin makes more volley errors and isnt as good from the back. King-Turner has great hands to find the gaps with passes, he conjured up a number of half-volley passing shot winners from the baseline (particularly off the backhand) which had Martin staring in disbelief.

King-Turner was getting quite pissed off throughout the match with Martins constant cries of cmon and fist pumping. He complained to the umpire about it on numerous occasions.after one key point, Martin roared cmon and King-Turner was like For gods sake not another cmon and Martin went cmon again, even louder

Then in the 3rd set, Martin was getting really pissed off at being broken again, swinging his racket and saying it was a knee injury and the umpire announced Mr King-Turner leads 5 games to one and Martin yelled shut up, shut up, shut up lol.both were so rude to each other too, lol.at one point King-Turner called Martin a f**kin w**ker and Martin was swearing after virtually every point. Id just love to see the fines they get from the tournament referee.

And then Slabba told me that they travel together ! I wondered why theyd both got black eyes, lol
Martin also has a really hot girlfriend who was courtside which was rather distractingand not just for me !

So then it was James Ward v Chris Eaton which on paper looked like it was gonna be really interested. For me Ward was the stand-out player of the day, of all the Brits I saw he was the one who looked to have the most potential to go far. Got all the tools so it surely wont be long before hes top 500 and starting to move up towards challenger level. He must be about 6ft4 and has a huge serve, one of the biggest there. Big hitter from the back of the court too, double-handed backhand is the best shot, blasted a couple of scorchers down the line.reminded me of Andy Murray in the way he can effortlessly up the pace at times. You can tell he trains on clay, hits with heavy topspin and never looks like missing from the back.likes to throw in a few dropshots every now and then and even when they werent particularly great he usually got away with them as he could anticipate where Eaton was going next. He can hit some great passing shots off the forehand, frustrated Eaton over and over again with that. Basically he outhit Eaton in the 1st set, dominating all the rallies and Eaton didnt get a look in on his service games. He broke in the 1st game of the 2nd and seemed completely on top when Eaton took a crafty time-out to have some massage on his shouldershe also whipped his shirt off which set the girls pulses racing a little hehe It was quite a long breakabout 10min maybe and when they resumed Wards concentration seemed to have wavered. He was broken back immediately and generally wasnt the same player in the 2nd set, less 1st serves in and more errors from the baseline. In contrast Eaton really upped his level, cut the errors down and started pushing Ward back and controlling the rallies more, particularly on his own serve, aswell as attacking the net more which proved very successful. He arguably should have won the set, as at 4-5 he had 2 set pointsWard was 15-40 down but outmanouevered Eaton round the baseline before holding his nerve on a couple of smashes to save the 1st then came up with a huge serve on the 2nd. In the tiebreak, Ward raced to a 5-1 leadtoo many errors from Eaton, think he got a bit tight. He pulled it back to 5-4 though and then Ward double-faulted to make it 5-5. Ward kept his cool well though, set up match point at 6-5 then Eaton put a backhand wide. Eaton has a single-handed backhand, nice striker of the ballif he plays the same way as he did in the 2nd set, staying aggressive and picking his approaches to the net then he can definitely move up the rankings.he does lack a big shot though, doesnt have that raw power.but then again people were saying that about Jamie Baker a couple of years ago and hell surely be top 200 soon so who knows !


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