Final scoreline not particularly surprising...last time they played in Japan (April 06) Iwabuchi won 6-1, 6-1, so it's an improvement from that. Unfortunately Slabba's game doesn't match up particularly well against him....Iwabuchi controls the baseline rallies so well, hits with really heavy topspin into the corners and uses the angles well so he's constantly pushing you out of court

I'll speak to Slabba this evening and find some info on his matches this week and whether he'll be able to play in France next week via an SE

Brilliant run for him though 2nd 15K final in the last few months so he's starting to perform consistently at this level....now up to 620ish (120 place ranking leap) and he hasn't got much to defend at all until January. Not too far off his career best of 570ish.....another couple of good runs will see him into the top 500 so hopefully he can do that by the end of the year

Slabba, Kasiri and Ward will all be top 500 before too long I think, they're the players who look to have the most chance of pushing on from futures to challenger level

Slabba has been working a lot on his serve and net game recently and I think that's the reason for the improvement...serve is very much a work in progress, he feels that can get a lot better, looking to get more cheap pts off it.....also, a lot of Slabba's losses in tourneys have been very close matches which could have gone either way, often you just need a bit of luck and he's been able to get that

Was great to see him beat Dan King-Turner in particular, that's a really impressive win as King-Turner's been a bit of a bogeyman in the past for Brits and his serve and net game are so good. Good to see him get revenge over Sipaeya too, that's an impressive result as although Sipaeya's ranked about 620 he's been up in the 300s and still has that class

Afterwards Alex told britishtennis.net "It was tough today, I kinda got outplayed. He's a tough guy to face, hits very hard and flat, takes everything really early and is constantly stepping up the court and has great touch at the net. He plays just like how I'm aiming to play, keeping really aggressive, attacking 2nd serves etc. He's a very experienced guy aswell, knows what he's doing !"

"I've been serving really well recently which is helping a lot. Continuing to work on that aswell as taking shots on more, taking balls early and looking to dictate."

"I now head to the Pyrenees for a 15K+H, have a special exemption into the main draw. It's on outdoor hard, I've entered another futures there the week after but I'll only play that if I get to the latter stages this week, otherwise I'll spend a week training before the Nottingham futures."

Alex also supplied some info on his previous matches this week:

Rd1: bt D King-Turner (NZ)(5) 7-6(7), 6-2:
First set went with serve and to the tiebreak, I was more aggressive than him in that which gave me the edge. In the 2nd set, I started reading his serve better, broke twice. He went a bit crazy at 5-2 down in the 2nd, started throwing his racket, got a point penalty so I started serving at 15-0. That game took about 20min but eventually I held to close it out

Rd2: bt S Sipaeya (Ind) 6-2, 7-6(5):
This started just like last week's match against Sipaeya (Alex lost that 7-6, 6-1)..I got to 5-2 up but while last week I got broken back, this time I held to take the set. Again, I was playing really aggressive, following shots into the net

QF: bt C Niland (Irl)(4) W/O
He had to pull out with food poisoning

SF: bt R Norby (Den) 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(3)
Norby has a good serve, especially the 2nd serve, he serve-volleys sometimes. Solid all-round game. I was serving really well in this one, saved a number of break points at the end of the 3rd. Played really aggressive in the tiebreak, dominating, taking shots on and finishing points at the net