Chris Eaton, after his victory in week 7's doubles final, came through three rounds of qualifying for week 8's tournament without dropping a set - his reward, a main draw match with the number 4 seed, Dawid Olejniczak of Poland. Josh Goodall has a much easier looking section, his first opponent being Ivan Cerovic, of the host nation. Neither Josh nor Chris appears in the doubles draw.
It's hard to say. He's clearly got used to the court now, given his doubles win last week, which is a big advantage because the courts there are a bit extreme by all accounts, but Olejniczak has beaten many of the other Brits at that level (Slabba, Rushby, Bammy, etc) in the last couple of years, not succumbing to a Brit since he lost to Bloomers 4 & 1 in Oct 2006. He also reached the Pueblo Challenger Final last November, so I'm not quite sure what he's doing in a Future ... come to think of it, the same as Jamie Baker is doing in America, probably.
Anyway, with rankings:
L32: (Q) Chris Eaton WR 641 v (4) Dawid Olejniczak (POL) WR 302 L32: Josh Goodall WR 353 v Ivan Cerovic (CRO) WR 330
__________________
GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Finally, that's a half decent win for Josh. Still a hell of a lot of work to do to get his career back on track. He really shouldn't be languishing in the 350s. Needs a real good few months to get back to around 250 before the grass court season then make some big moves there
__________________
Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive.... those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience
Duclos took out the no. 8 seed today, but it was a tough match, 8-6 in the 3rd set t/b. He lost to Cox & Slabba last spring then beat the Skupster in a 3rd set t/b in Manchester Challenger qualifying before going out in two t/bs to Del.
__________________
GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Duclos took out the no. 8 seed today, but it was a tough match, 8-6 in the 3rd set t/b. He lost to Cox & Slabba last spring then beat the Skupster in a 3rd set t/b in Manchester Challenger qualifying before going out in two t/bs to Del.
Should beat Duclos, he's one of these good hitters, but not much about his game. Is a 350-500 guy that will hover there and there abouts. Mind you, that sounds like Goodhall at the moment which is a shame
Quarterfinals (1)Pavel Snobel (CZE) d. (WC)Antonio Veic (CRO) 6-3 6-3 (7)Vjekoslav Skenderovic (CRO) d. Nick van der Meer (NED) 6-3 6-4 (5)Marsel Ilhan (TUR) d. (q)Thomas Schoorel (NED) 6-3 4-6 6-2 Joshua Goodall (GBR) d. Grega Zemlja (SLO) 7-6 7-6(8)
An unexpected bonus for this week, seeing Josh make a futures semi again. Probably completely wrong but I think its been a while!
With this being on hard he's every chance of going further.
What's particularly pleasing is the "closeness" of some of the scorelines. It shows a player managing to control hs temperament and play welll when the pressur is on! Perhaps Josh is starting to "win ugly"
Not that long, JL - Josh reached the semis in Albufeira just 3 weeks ago, losing to eventual winner Ionita. The time before that was in Glasgow last October, where he lost to Chramosta in the Final, three weeks after beating Jamie Baker in the Final in Nottingham.
Ilhan is 20, currently ranked 307 (career high) and he beat 2006 Junior Wimbledon Champion de Bakker in the last 16 here. In the last year, he has won Futures in Spain & Turkey and reached Finals in Tunisia & (after qualifying) Uzbekistan. He generally plays in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, where points may be a bit easier to come by than in Europe & America in terms of the standard of the opposition, but the Spanish Futures win is particularly impressive.
He hasn't faced Brits very often, but beat Ross Connolly 2 & 2 just under a year ago and Kennaugh in Turkey in 2006 and but has clearly improved since then.
__________________
GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!