Week 8 - Futures F1 (15K) - Benin City, Nigeria

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Week 8 - Futures F1 (15K) - Benin City, Nigeria

Sheddie · administrator

steven wrote:

The past winners list shows that Aucks won here in 2004.

and even more notably...that week the local Nigerian police stormed Aucks' hotel room, convinced he'd beaten up the local pimp...think he may have got carted off down the local station too before he proved his innocence

Hi Ed, cool to see another pro player on the site and great couple of wins ! Sasha told me that when he won back in Dec he had to be escorted off court by police as he was mobbed by tribespeople and he had a cheque for several grand in his back pocket.....crazy stuff !

I guess you've heard the stories about John Mc....best one I've been told was that when he was competing in Eastern Europe, he returned home each weekend to coach to earn money for the tour...in order to break even he had to avoid paying the ferry fees and did so by hiding in the back of a friend's mushroom truck all the way home

steven · Tennis legend

That's Aucks for you, always up to no good.

wolf · Tennis legend

Q/F
MCGAHON (IRL) / SEATOR (GBR) (3) defeated MISQUITH (CAN) / OWOLABI (NGR) 6-3 6-3

S/F
MCGAHON (IRL) / SEATOR (GBR) (3) Vs HROMEC (SVK) / SOMOGYI (SVK) (2)

Q/F
Valentin SANON (CIV) (6) Vs Edward SEATOR (GBR) (4)

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Seator doing very well!

How brilliant to hear from him on our boards.

Our highest ranked poster methinks!

Great to hear about the tour from the inside.

Interesting to hear that clay doesn't seem to be your fasvourite surface Ed, but that you've made a concious decision to nplay on it and grind out a ranking and keep pushing on! Make so much sense in the clay dominated wolrd of mens pro tennis in 2008.

Edward Seator · Social player

A quick update for you. I was ment to be playing 2nd after 9am today. But again they have run out of balls, I couldn't quite believe it when I walked into the club this morning to practice. You would think the last time they went to Lagos to get balls they would of got enough but obviousaly not. SO been delayed till 1pm could be later tho.
If there is time we will also try and get the doubles played today aswell. Think another late night like tuesday in in store for me today, hopefully a succesfull one.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

AGAIN! That's unbelievable!

Good luck to you when you do get to play, eventually.

steven · Tennis legend

That must be frustrating - should we send some balls out for next week? wink

(though they seemed to think they could use the other make for next week according to the article on the Ogbe site) - good luck whenever you get to play, anyway!

Some further gems from the site:

Edo State is aiming to "develop the game of Tennis from the secondary schools level" and has apparently given this task to a beauty queen. Miss Rosabel Oyaole, the "18-year old crowned Queen of Ogbe Hard Court Tennis 2008". smile

She's already been to see the deputy governor of Edo State, the aptly named Mr Lucky Imasuen. For a more serious version of the story, see http://www.ogbehardcourtchampionship.com/headlinenews.php?headnew_id=6

Tempting fate, they have also published a story about the medical committee "relishing in the rather clean bill of health the tournament is posting." Apparently, the tournament has been "without anxious moment as far as injury is concerned since it started last week."

It's bit worrying that they follow this up by saying that "we have treated just 98 injuries so far", which seems rather a lot, but happily they were all minor. Again, the full story can be found on the site http://www.ogbehardcourtchampionship.com/headlinenews.php?headnew_id=8

What I love about their site is that it shows what a couple of people with a bit of enthusiasm can do. They're probably enjoying practising their English too, which isn't at all bad considering. All they need there now is live scores ... ok, any scores!

Maybe the LTA could adopt the player in the article at http://www.ogbehardcourtchampionship.com/headlinenews.php?headnew_id=5 (someone else mentioned it earlier) and send her some racquets and trainers - it shows a fair bit of dedication to turn up and play with a borrowed racket and some borrowed shoes that are a couple of sizes too big and she still managed to double bagel an American (who was playing her first, and possily only, ever ITF match) and qualify!

-- Edited by steven at 11:43, 2008-02-22

DJ · County player

steven wrote:

Maybe the LTA could adopt the player in the article at http://www.ogbehardcourtchampionship.com/headlinenews.php?headnew_id=5 (someone else mentioned it earlier) and send her some racquets and trainers - it shows a fair bit of dedication to turn up and play with a borrowed racket and some borrowed shoes that are a couple of sizes too big and she still managed to double bagel an American and qualify!

Is it worth thinking about a (very minor) sponsorship of our own? If those of us who are not students were prepared to chip in, say, £25, we would surely raise enough for a racket and a pair of tennis shoes, at least. We could call it something on the lines of 'The britishtennis.net Rob Dee Commemoration Fund'. If one of our members had a business and was willing, we could send a donation to her/his website if it happened quickly enough, perhaps Ed or Fitzy would be able to pass it on ...

Edward Seator · Social player

Took a loss today, played pretty good tho, I was 4-1 up in the first when he started playing too good. He didnt miss a ball untill he went 3-0 double braek up in the second, I got back into the match with some really good tennis, had half chance on his serve at 4-3 30-30 to level at 4-4 with a forehand pass that landed about a foot long. My serve let me down quite a bit which is annoying.
Wasn't all bad tho as took a win in the doubs Semi Final with John, always nice to play a final, just got to make sure the right result comes out of it.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Still, well done for getting so far, and good luck in the doubles final.

Drew · Feb 22, 2008

Edward Seator wrote:
Took a loss today, played pretty good tho, I was 4-1 up in the first when he started playing too good. He didnt miss a ball untill he went 3-0 double braek up in the second, I got back into the match with some really good tennis, had half chance on his serve at 4-3 30-30 to level at 4-4 with a forehand pass that landed about a foot long. My serve let me down quite a bit which is annoying.
Wasn't all bad tho as took a win in the doubs Semi Final with John, always nice to play a final, just got to make sure the right result comes out of it.

Bad luck Ed...ta for all the updates !

DJ · County player

Yes, Ed (Edward? Which do you prefer?) Thanks.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Good effort Ed! Enjoy the doubles final.

How do you cope with losing? Looks good that you can take the positives.

(without wanting to let your opponents in on your tactics/strengths/weaknesses) How do you capitalise on coming up against players like Sanon today and feeling able to raise you rlevel and learn form it for next time?

Edward Seator · Social player

Umm main thing that has let me down last few tournaments is my serve. Againt Polansky I didnt hold serve while loosing the 2nd set 6-2 and was a break up 1-0 and got broken in the 3rd beofore finally holding. I was thinking about it today weather its the actualy serve or my mentality is different when returning. Today, I didnt hold serve from 4-1 up in the first untill 4-2 down in the second. So I need to sort this out to keep moving up the rankings, and I prefer Edward, but not too fussed