think that's 4 guaranteed qualfiers and Irwin stands a good chance.

No idea if Karatchenia is any good. We'll wait and see...

Alexander SLABINSKY (GBR) (2) defeated David RICE (GBR) (14) 6-3 6-3
Henrik NORFELDT (SWE) (11) defeated Richard IRWIN (GBR) (4) 6-2 3-1 Retired
Neil BAMFORD (GBR) (5) defeated Joshua MILTON (GBR) (16) 6-3 6-3
Ian FLANAGAN (GBR) (6) defeated Alexander FARQUHARSON (GBR) 7-6(5) 6-1
Andrei KARATCHENIA (BLR) (7) defeated Harry SKINNER (GBR) 6-1 6-3
Ken SKUPSKI (GBR) (8) defeated Matthew ILLINGWORTH (GBR) (12) 6-4 6-7(3) 6-3


Main draw -

http://www.itftennis.com/mens/tournaments/drawsheetbyRound.asp?event=1100092401&tournament=1100016363

WCs go to Allinson, Pauffley, Eaton and Coxy. I wonder what's up with Evo.

Ta for the draw Arka.....Coxy must be cursed !!!

Ken Skupski (Gbr) bt Neil Pauffley (Gbr) 6-1 6-4

Martin Pedersen (Den) bt Boy Westerhof (Ned) 1-1 rtd

Frederik Nielsen (Den) bt Daniel Cox (Gbr) 6-3 6-0

Andrei Karatchenia (Blr) bt Artem Sitak (Rus) 6-3 7-5

Uros Vico (Ita) bt Alberto Giraudo (Ita) 7-5 3-6 7-5

Ervin Eleskovic (Swe) bt Antal Van Der Duim (Ned) 6-1 7-6 (7-4)

Marco Crugnola (Ita) bt Martin Vacek (Cze) 6-3 6-3

Brits' results as follows:

Joshua Goodall [300] vs. Ed Allinson [1038] 6-2 6-4 to Josh
Neil Pauffley [Unr] vs. Ken Skupski [927] 6-1 6-4 to the Skupster
Daniel Cox [929] vs. Frederik Nielsen [326] of Denmark 6-3 6-0 to the Dane
Neil Bamford [872] vs. Henrik Norfeldt [1099] of Sweden 6-1 1-6 7-5 to Bamford
Chris Eaton [738] vs. Ian Flanagan [895] 6-4 7-5 to Flan
Alexander Slabinsky [616] vs. Adriano Biasella [392] of Italy 7-6(11) 1-6 7-6(2) to the Italian, hugely annoying for Slabs to get so close and get nothing. Great effort though.

-- Edited by christian at 20:21, 2007-11-06

just got back...saw some great tennis....had some interesting chats

Highlight of the day/best quality match by far was Slabba (and no its not me being biased)

Sadly he lost 7-6(13-11), 1-6, 7-6(2) to the 7th seed who's a huge guy, about 6ft 6 and ranked 390

Alex was v unlucky, he played an awesome match, he was robbed by an absolute w**ker of an umpire, got some shocking calls at key pts in it. He led 3-0 in the decider, but two dire calls in one service games handed the Italian the break back and then another shocker on a crucial pt in the final set tiebreak. Suffice to say, the air was blue up on the viewing gallery....as Alex put it, "You screwed me in the 1st set, midway through the 3rd and now you do it again"...it was seriously generous of him to shake the umpire's hand at the end.

Despite the defeat, I was hugely impressed, Alex has been working a lot on his serve since the summer and it really shows, he was hitting bombs out there...forehand is also a real weapon from the back, he hit winner after winner off that side throughout the match...got a great all-court game - some clinical volleying....

Tbh he looked a class apart from the other Brits I watched (didn't see Goodall who won 2&4).... he could have gone deep here

Gutted atm....

Sunderland, Shrewsbury next up for him then 4 weeks in the jungle playing futures
and looking to rack up the pts and crack top 500 by year end....another futures final could just about do it


Will do full report sometime, I watched Skupski and Cox too....have a very, very early start tomorrow so might not be till Wed evening

It wasn't Dan's day today and bad luck for Alex. And I wanted Pauffley to take that. 




Second round:

Joshua Goodall [300] vs. Rasmus Norby [549] of Denmark
Ken Skupski [927] vs. Martin Pedersen [410] of Denmark
Neil Bamford [872] vs. Frederik Nielsen [326] of Denmark
Ian Flanagan [895] vs. Stefano Ianni [363] of Italy