Ed, I want the title this week. Arsenov and Klaasen are out, so the other half doesn't seem strong any more (not that it ever was strong...).

Ed lost 6-1 6-3 which is pretty much on a par with the rest of the quarter final results from around the world this week.

No. of GB players who were no. 1 seeds this week: 2
No. of GB players making it past the QFs: 0

No. of non-retired GB players who will be in the top 500 after next week: 5
No. of GB players likely to move up into the top 500 soon: 0 (if they keep looking gift horses in the mouth like they have done this week)

Where's the emoticon for despair? I've known some bad years, but if you take out the Scots has there ever been one as bad as this?

Ed. He needs to make more than just quarters in such weak fields.


Anyways, he'll have a new career high when the points are added and he needs 17 more points for the top 500.

Arka wrote:

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Anyways, he'll have a new career high when the points are added and he needs 17 more points for the top 500.

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Yes, but that's the point - he could have got 10 more of those 17 points if he had won the tournament this week and given his no. 1 seeding and the way the draw had opened up for him, if he can't pick up significant points in a tournament like this, how likely is he to be able to amass 17 more points in tougher futures before his points start dropping off?

There is also an argument that Seator is already over-ranked, simply because 9 of his points come from winning his QF and SF matches in Italy F31, in both of which his opponents retired injured.

Then again, in Poland F8 (his second highest-scoring tournament), he beat the now WR 313, WR 700 and WR 671 on the way to the Final, which is a performance worthy of someone in or around the top 500.

However, he then got stuffed 1 & 0 to the now WR 423 in the Final, which brings up the over-ranked point again, as does the fact that his only other score of more than two points comes from Armenia F1, where he picked up 6 points without facing a player in the top 1300.

His 4th and 5th best scores will come from the last two weeks (once they go on the rankings) and all of his other scores are 1s, mainly from African Futures.

This must all sound like a dig at Seator, which would be unfair - I actually have a lot of respect for the way he has gone round the world doing his best to pick up points and hopefully confidence and I really hope he does manage to find a way to get into the top 500 and improve enough in the meantime to stay there. The good news is that he has got until next July before significant numbers of points start dropping off.

I'm really just trying to suggest that we shouldn't get too excited, given what has happened every time a Brit has got anywhere near the top 500 in the last two years (i.e. none of them have actually made it), especially since the foundations for this run at the top 500 seem to be even shakier than most.

Arka wrote:

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I agree with almost whatever you said except for the retirement wins not counting part. Who knows... maybe his opponent twisted his knee when Seator was on top.

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Yes, that's a fair point - and it's hardly unknown for people to pull out 'injured' in a sullk because they're losing anyway. It's still fair to say though that apart from the clay court Future in Poland, there's no great evidence to suggest that he's strong enough to be a top 500 player and quite a lot of evidence that he isn't (though some of that will fall down if Ruckelshausen turns out to be a really good player!)