I just don't get Flanagan - he only ever plays in UK but on his day seems capable of beating anyone on the right surface. Anyone know what he does the rest of the time and why he does not travel?

Trivial wrote:

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seagull wrote:

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I just don't get Flanagan - he only ever plays in UK but on his day seems capable of beating anyone on the right surface. Anyone know what he does the rest of the time and why he does not travel?

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He does play abroad, although not as often as he possibly should. His two best singles results this year are a semi in Greece and a quarters in Portugal..
I would also be interested to find out why he only seems to play every once in while though; maybe he coaches?

-- Edited by Trivial at 14:57, 2007-11-07

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I saw Flan in Manchester this year and kind of get the feeling with him that he just plays tennis as he knows he can and doesnt seem to have much push anymore. Its clear that he's got soem talent, but maybe bad treatment from the LTA, or no real mental push from Flan that he hasnt made that extra step. I didnt see him with a coach so I guess he just enters tournaments when he wants and if he's out it doesnt really affect him.

seagull wrote:

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I just don't get Flanagan - he only ever plays in UK but on his day seems capable of beating anyone on the right surface. Anyone know what he does the rest of the time and why he does not travel?

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Flanagan is very talanted but the main thing that lets him down is strength, he is tiny compared to other players. I spoke to Ian at the national premier leauge finals earlie this year he said and he has other commitments away from his tennis, he's quite a wealthy guy i believe, he basically said to me that the tennis is a hobbie and does not take it to seriously anymore.

The missing R2 result, for the sake of completeness:  Marco Crugnola (ITA/2) beat Ervin Eleskovic (SWE) 3-6 7-6(5) 6-4.  So, two Brits in the QFs - & both in the top half of the draw!   Both play Danes & will meet in the SF - if they win...

seagull wrote:

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I just don't get Flanagan - he only ever plays in UK but on his day seems capable of beating anyone on the right surface. Anyone know what he does the rest of the time and why he does not travel?

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as Jack says I don't think he takes it too seriously....

Spoke to Nick Weal (performance coach at Sutton) about Flanagan yesterday...he said that he trains a bit up in Nottingham....Ian has mentioned possibly coming down to join the Sutton performance squad but Nick doesn't know whether he's serious about it. He says that you don't really know where you are with him which is a bit strange !

as Jack says, he is quite a slight guy compared to a lot of the other pros but has wonderful timing and is very fast. He compensates for the lack of power with his courtcraft, when he's on form, he constructs the pts and reads the play so well. With the right mentality maybe he could have made top 300, not sure how much further tho

Most of the players love the buzz of being on the tour and its hard to give that up, even when you're stuck at futures level and making nothing so I guess that's why he still competes sporadically....

seemed to have some kinda coach/friend cheering him on from the sidelines against Eaton yesterday

Arka wrote:

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Martin Pedersen (Den) bt Joshua Goodall (Gbr) 6-2 7-6 (10-8)

Frederik Nielsen (Den) bt Ian Flanagan (Gbr) 6-1 6-2

Jeroen Masson (Bel) bt Niels Desein (Bel) 6-2 6-4

Vladimir Voltchkov (Blr) bt Marco Crugnola (Ita) 6-2 6-0

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Apart from Nielsen it's upsets all round. At least Goody and Skups came up trumps in the doubles, winning 0-6 7-6 (2) 10-7 They're due on court tomorrow, in the final, against Bemelmans and Desein, not before 13.00.


-- Edited by helki at 19:09, 2007-11-08

grrrrrr....everyone out now but might aswell finish my report of Tuesday's action....

checked out the Vladiator for a short while, he looked pretty rusty and was struggling to put away "David Ferrer lookalike" Rubens Bemelmans of Belgium, who has a cracking leftie serve. As at his peak...the Voltchkov serve is his main weapon...absolutely massive, unfortunately for him its the rest of his game which seems quite hit and miss....can generate some ferocious power off the forehand but for each sizzling winner he'd shank one out the back....the match went on for ages as Voltchkov would create one game/break point after another and then proceed to chuck it away by going for broke on everything

However looks like he's found his rhythm in the last couple of rounds, given both opponents a spanking

watched bits of Skupski-Pauffley which was interesting. Skupski is a serve-volleyer, big sliced leftie serve...great touch at the net too, scooped several half-volleys off his toes and into the corners....but not only that has a big forehand from the back....could definately go places, I expect he'll continue to really rise up the rankings towards top 500 next year....hopefully he can get a few big runs together, to semis or further....a lot of it comes down to a bit of luck on the big pts especially in the indoor tourneys.....I see he lost a really close one to Pedersen (who's beaten Goodall too) which could have gone either way

Pauffley is a really tall guy and has that huge serve but didn't get enough in to make a real impact in the match. In the 2nd set, which was decided by just one break for Skupski midway through, he got more serves in and also dominated the net more which made things closer. Unsurprisingly given all his doubles success, Pauffley looks to get into the net when possible....in the first set his approaches werent good enough. Needs to be more aggressive from the back of the court, he let Skupski dictate the rallies too much throughout and got punished...unleashed a couple of forehand bombs from nowhere but needs to be able to hurt opponents consistently point after point at this level with shots like that from the back....like Slabba and Skupski can do. For a tall guy, he moves well

He's got potential and will surely get his first pts soon but needs to get the serve more consistent and develop a consistent weapon from the back