Doubles Final :-

Richard Bloomfield / Ken Skupski vs Tom Rushby / Ralph Grambow(GER)

Would fancy bloomers to win this

He defo belongs in the top 200

Notes from a small city

The Sunderland Futures was again a very welcoming event; the staff at the Centre are very pleasant and helpful, and the fare on offer in the cafeteria really good. So, too, was today's tennis. Though the men's quarter-finals all resulted in straight sets victories, the one between Brits Bloomfield and Brewer was of high quality and very tight till the final game. The second set was a battle between Richard's excellent serve and powerful driving, especially on the forehand wing, and Dave's more subtle control, with accurate shots to the corner of the court and the ability to take the pace off the ball. Never having seen the Scot in action before, I don't know whether the relative lack of power in his serve and off the ground was in any way connected to the injury he was apparently carrying; at 2-3 in the second set, he called for the physio to work on his right upper arm and shoulder. However, later in the day, Brewer was to be seen happily chatting with friends so, presumably, any injury is not a severe one.

The doubles semi-finals provided excellent entertainment and, for British supporters, proved very satisfying. Bloomfield re-appeared with partner, Ken Skupski, and the pair of them outclassed their Swedish opponents considerably more comfortably than the scoreline suggests, never looking in any danger. I had seen Skupski here in November in singles action, and had been very impressed with his serving and volleying; his very pacy serve has the useful quality of sliding, unusual in the serve of a tall man. He also has that extremely useful ability in the doubles player of being able to pick up the ball driven back to his toes; he gets down quickly to the pick-up and is able to direct his response accurately. Richard played a good all-round game, with the exception of his volleying, which seems to have gone back somewhat; two or three years ago, his volleying was of such high quality. He may, of course, simply have been tired, having had less than a two hour break after his singles quarter, while none of those sharing the court had been involved earlier. To my comment that it was difficult to believe that there were 400 or so ranking places between the two, Madeline's response was to agree, then to add, " ... and if you had to guess which was which, you'd probably get it wrong."  I hope I'm not simply being seduced by my upbeat, optimistic co-posters, but I think this partnership has real potential.

The other semi-final featured Tom Rushby, in partnership with Germany's Ralph Grambow. This was another superbly entertaining match, played in an excellent spirit like the Bloomfield /Skupski game. A single break in each set was enough to force a match tie-breaker; the Anglo-German partnership had always looked the more secure, and they romped away with the tie-break for the loss of just four points, one of which was a double-fault by Grambow. Surprisingly to me, Rushby was clearly the best player a-court, something not obvious from the singles rankings; perhaps one of our coaches could explain why Tom appears to play so much better in doubles?

-- Edited by DJ at 12:52, 2008-01-19

Yes, it was of course. Forgive DJ, he had a very long drive from over the Border to go to these matches (kindly picking me up on his way), so he had a very early start!

-- Edited by Madeline at 21:57, 2008-01-17

Thanks DJ, reading reports from people who've been there always adds to it. I hope you and Mad had a great time.

Thanks, Bethan and Steven; I'm pleased you're pleased! And, yes, Bethan, we thoroughly enjoyed an excellent day's tennis, with lots of good British performances.

congrats. lets hope he can win both.