I think afters Shrewsbury a lot of people would say Slabba but i have to say i think it will either be Ward or more likely Kasiri, so thats my choice Kasiri, and im not ruling out Myles Blake putting down a decent run in one of the Australian Challengers coming up!

Kasiri here. I have always thought he had the best shot after his junior career. I know he has had his share of distractions etc, but it is nice to see him doing well now and I fancy his chances.

I think kasiri as well, and i also think he'll do it before the end of the year, either reach the final here or have another good performance next week and he's there, he's got a great chance!

Hopefully slabba, ward and skupski can follow next year, i'm not sure though whether i think seator is already overranked or not, though he pushed someone ranked higher than him today very very close so he could break the magic 500 barrier as well. hopefully morgan phillips will be back soon...

James plans to play another tourney in Israel and then possibly the two in Czech Republic or start pre-season training, he's yet to decide. Next year, he plans to do a lot more tourneys...this year he's played 25ish which isnt much compared to some players....he's aiming for top 250 by end of 2008.

Kasiri is playing the two in Czech Republic

Slabba is playing 2 in Sudan and then another 2 in Nigeria right upto Christmas. His aim is to be top 400 by next Wimbledon, he's hoping to get around 20 pts out of that African trip which would put him near 450ish.

It's going to be v close, but I'm going for Slabba to do it first....he needs to make a futures semi next week to get there (I think).

Re the game styles: Well all 3 have a lot of potential. I'd say that Slabba has the best all-round game, big serve and forehand and has also been working v hard on volleying and he's the best of the 3 at that.

Ward has a huge serve and a good forehand but needs to adapt more for the faster surfaces and stand closer to the baseline, be more aggressive etc...he's got the big shots but needs to concentrate on dictating the points more rather than just rallying with the guys..

Kasiri doesnt have a particularly big serve, fairly low 1st serve % but when he wants to he can unleash some huge shots from the back in particular backhand down the line. I've seen him a couple of times, and like Ward he was too passive at first...he was playing Ryderstedt whos top 300 and in 1st set he got smashed all over the court....in 2nd set he started to go for his shots a lot more and started to find the lines and it was really close...if he'd done that from the word go, it could have gone either way

Really when you look at the tournaments people have entered it should have been Seator already, but seems to be stumbling around the quarter finals. I think Kasari is the obvious choice, but dont discount Slabba picking up some good points in the next few futures.

I wouldnt discount Ken Skupski or Myles Blake either. Heard from Myles this week and he is determined to crack top 500 before the end of the year

Top 250 by the end of 2008! Wow, that's ambitious

gazzpash wrote:

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Really when you look at the tournaments people have entered it should have been Seator already, but seems to be stumbling around the quarter finals. I think Kasari is the obvious choice, but dont discount Slabba picking up some good points in the next few futures.

I wouldnt discount Ken Skupski or Myles Blake either. Heard from Myles this week and he is determined to crack top 500 before the end of the year

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Tbh Seator isnt really at the level playing-standard wise to be top 500 yet.....which is wise he's not able to take advantage of these weak african draws and when he went back to Britain he lost in rd1 both times

He needs to develop more weapons...counter-puncher game style

I think Slabba will do it because while Kasiri's got another Israel 10K coming up and then 2 pretty strong Czech 15Ks to finish...Slabba has 4 weakish African tourneys

I think Skupski and Blake have a bit too much ground to make up to do it before the others....

 

-- Edited by Sheddie at 08:55, 2007-11-24