Week 37 - Challenger 50K (M) - New Orleans, LA

Drew · Sep 9, 2007

Week 37 - Challenger 50K (M) - New Orleans, LA

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Sweeting. Tough match but I can see Baker vs Delic down the line here if Jamie's on top of his game and who knows from there...

Sheddie · administrator

Decent draw as Sweeting's about 30 places lower at 264. He's had a consistent if unspectacular season with 4 challenger quarters (including a 6-3, 6-3 win over Bloomfield in Binghampton). Got a wildcard into the US Open, losing to Tipsarevic in 4 sets.

Hopefully Jamie can keep the great form going that he showed in New York

Apart from pts from a 15K title in Nottingham at the end of September he's got little to defend till end of Jan so good chance to push on into top 200 and beyond

There's a tourney website but like too many of the US challenger ones in the autumn it's useless...more interested in advertising their Navratilova-Seles exhibiton than giving any info on the challenger

Sheddie · administrator

Jamie's on tomorrow at about 5pm GMT...hopefully MTF get some results updates

XCW4EVA · County player

I emailed the tourny director this morning asking her/him to try and email be back with Jamie Bakers score or updates from the event. No reply yet tho, hopefully they'll be in touch after the match.

Sheddie · administrator

thanks Matt

Atm it'll only be 8.45am over there so probably not checked emails yet...could be a chance as some American tourney directors are v helpful

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Jamie on yet?

Doubles

Baker & Warburg [GBR/USA] vs. Gaston & Jenkins [USA, WC]

RobC · All-time great

from MTF: Ryan Sweeting def Jamie Baker 63 60

-- Edited by RobC at 21:47, 2007-09-10

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Disappointing loss for Jamie, but at least it gives him a bit longer to prepare for the Davis Cup. He needs to be winning that kind of match if he is to make the top 200 by the end of the year though

johnnylad · Tennis legend

It was a banana skin but he shouldn't have been bagelled.

Sheddie · administrator

Disappointing loss but this report on the match from someone who was courtside does give an insight into things....seems like Jamie overdid things in last week's training block and didn't have the energy to match Sweeting in that heat. Makes the result not look so bad imo, probably would have been a lot closer if they'd played in USO qualies:

"The weather (particularly the heat and humidty) in Louisiana is a harsh mistress for sure.

That aside, the first set lasted ages with both players putting up quite a valiant fight. There were a few questionable foot fault calls, and of course a lot of players deal with controversial issues like that. I think several things combined came together to really make Jamie want just to finish the match up. The second set was pretty brutal and painful (as a spectator) to watch while still keeping faith.

Although, I do believe that Jamie wasn't feeling his best from the very start after having had vigorous practice at Saddlebrook just before arriving in New Orleans.

Could he have played better? Absolutely, and he has, but I think he did well considering. It could have been much worse if he wasn't such a scrapper. With some time to rest his body, I think he could do very well at the Davis Cup. It seems like such a fine balance between pushing yourself to the limits but not over."