BT.net articles - Anyone want to help?

wolf · Tennis legend

RE: BT.net articles - Anyone want to help?

steven · Tennis legend

It's sound - you can pm him on here or probably better on AM.com. I wouldn't mind helping him normally but I've got heaps of work to do this weekend plus pick 'em and I'm feeling a bit frazzled!

I'm sure he could do the Muzza preview that Drew wanted.

wolf · Tennis legend

"It's sound" - I thought you was using some slang there Steven before I actually realised that was the username LOL. I'll PM him now.

I've put up the Australian Open qualies round-up on.

steven · Tennis legend

LOL I can see how you might have thought that. Thanks very much and thanks to both you and Drew (and Stuart F!) there's some great stuff up there now.

wolf · Tennis legend

I've put an Australian Open preview up, I'm quite proud of it actually!

EDIT: Just realised the doubles draws are already out!

-- Edited by wolf at 13:20, 2009-01-18

steven · Tennis legend

That's an excellent preview (if a bit hyped, but never mind wink

- you do make a good case!) - since it's the top story on the home page and it may get quite a lot of views today, I hope you don't mind that I've finally found out how to get into the blog and corrected some of the typos, plus the bit about Andy winning Cincy and Paris - it was Cincy and Madrid.

I've also split the paragraphs about the different players so as to try and make it look like a less daunting read. I haven't changed any of the actual content though, so it's still your article wit ha very minor sub-edit!

Not sure whether the most blurry pics might look better not being there at all, but I'll leave that up to you.

wolf · Tennis legend

Meh paragraphs are overrated.

I did actually read over it for once and correct a couple of things (I somehow managed to spell Booty's name wrong). Proof reading has never been my strength!

I'm looking for a better picture for Anne.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

wolf wrote:

What happened to ForeverDelayed? To be fair he was the one who had been doing the mens articles since the grass season, while I had been doing the womens ones.

I'm still about, although for various reasons, mainly due to not having any time due to Uni and other work I haven't been about as much, if at all for the last few weeks.

Although after next Monday I'll have got a load of the essays/exams out of the way (for this term at least), and this is the final time this year where the work is concentrated into a short period of time (for the rest of the year, the assesments are all spread out), so I should have some more time to help update the site again.

I'll see how much time I have this week with revision and writing an incredibly fun essay on a content analysis of the media, but I may be able to throw some stuff on the website, but from next week I'll be back in action full time again.

wolf · Tennis legend

Could someone put an article about Wardy up on the site after today's final?

wolf · Tennis legend

Can someone attempt to put these reports up on webs (with the Anne one being put on second)?

BALTACHA AND O'BRIEN ONE WIN AWAY FROM QUALIFYING FOR ROLAND GARROS

Elena Baltacha and Katie O'Brien have both reached the final qualifying round for Roland Garros as they both look to qualify for their second succesive Grand Slam, this time on their least favoured surface.

Baltacha came into the tournament having never previously won a match in Roland Garros qualifying but the 15th seed crushed her first two opponents, beating Anne Gerasimou 6-2, 6-0 and then Stephanie Vongsouthi 6-1, 7-5 to book a final round clash with the top seed Yaroslava Shvedova. Bally will be looking to defeat the top seed to qualify for her second Grand Slam in a row.

O'Brien had a tougher passage as she continued her impressive form this year, the 8th seed beating Karla Mraz 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-2, recovering in the third set after blowing a 4-0 lead in set two. In the second qualifying round she beat Rika Fujiwara 7-6(3), 6-2 to set up a final round clash with Arantza Rus, the world junior number one of last year.

Our other representive in qualifying, Georgie Stoop lost in the first qualifying round to Petra Martic 7-5, 7-5 despite being *5-3 and *4-1 up in each set.

Both girls are back on tomorrow; O'Brien first on court 6 and Baltacha third on court seven, with platy starting at 10am GMT and live scores available from the official website.

KEOTHAVONG REACHES MAIN TOUR SEMI

Anne Keothavong has become the first Briton since Jo Durie at the French Open in 1982 to reach the semi-final of a WTA tour level event in reaching the last four of a Premier event in Warsaw

Playing on her least favourite surface she beat the 7th seed Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the first round 6-2, 7-6 before defeating the veteran American Jill Craybas in the second round 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

She saved her best display of the tournament so far for the quarter-finals when she thrashed qualifier Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-0, 6-1, a match which was shown live on Eurosport. A fine display of brute strength which saw Keothavong hit numerous winners particulary on the forehand side saw her win the first eleven games before Olaru finally managed to get on the board. The Romanian simply didn't have the game to cope with the power and when it became clear she was being beaten in the rallies she started to try to go big herself and ended up handing Keothavong points with unforced errors.

In the semi-finals Anne will face Alona Bodarenko who thrashed Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-2 today. and will provide the Brit with her sternest test of the tournament so far.

steven · Tennis legend

I'll do that now ... and correct the errors (1983 not 1982) on the way - good reports btw

steven · Tennis legend

Done, hope they're ok.

wolf · Tennis legend

No you didn't correct an error in the last line of the Roland Garros article, just not good enough really. :p. Interesting idea in bolding the British players though and I like it very much.

I should be able to devote more time to writing articles in the coming weeks.

steven · Tennis legend

Oh, platy ... oops. ashamed

Still, I'll list all the ones I did correct if you're not careful ... wink

I liked your articles though, nicely structured with enough content but not too much, which is exactly what you need on the home page.

I'm glad you liked the names being bolded. I was just looking at some of the longer articles and thinking it's quite difficult to spot all the players being talked about if you just skim them, or if the article is mainly about one player with just a bit about one or two others at the end, so I thought I'd sneak that in and see if anyone noticed, and if they did, if they liked it or hated it.

wolf · Tennis legend

Can someone put this on the webs site for me (webs keeps crashing for me), with the men's article put on first, then the Murray one and then the Broady/women's one (so this one appears as the top one on the homepage).

Week 47 Mens Round-Up
Participation in challengers ended for the year as Jamie Baker, Richard Bloomfield and Daniel Evans reached the second round of their events.

At the $35,000 challenger in Puebla, Mexico, Bloomfield qualified and then beat wild card Greg Ouelette in the first round 6-4, 7-6(5).

In the last 16 Bloomfield lost to the 4th seed Pera Riba 7-6(4), 6-4.

Baker also reached the second round after beating Ryan Harrison 6-3, 6-3 before losing to the 6th seed Grega Zemlja 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Baker also reached the semi-finals of the doubles event. He and partner Nima Roshan were late alternates and recieved a walkover into the quarter-finals where they beat Bruno Rodriguez and Victor Romero 7-5, 6-2.

In the semi-finals the duo lost to Riba and Guillermo Osalo 7-5, 1-6, 10-6.

Jamie Delgado was also in the doubles draw with partner John Paul Fruttero and they beat Adrian Menendez-Macerias and Carlos Poch-Gradin 6-3, 4-6, 10-8.

In the quarter-finals the pair fell to Riba and Olaso 2-6, 6-1, 10-8.

Evans and Alex Bogdanovic were at the higher grade 106,500 +H challenger in Helsinki, Finland.

Evans secured an excellent first round victory over the 3rd seed Bjorn Phau 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 before losing in the second round to Antonio Veic 6-1, 2-6, 7-6(1).

Bogdanovic lost in the first round to the eventual runner-up Stephane Bohli 7-6(0), 6-4.

In the doubles Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski lost in the quarter-finals. The 2nd seeds beat Harel Levy and Dmitri Sitak 6-3, 6-2 in the first round before losing to Karol Beck and Jiri Krkoska 7-6(2), 4-6, 10-6.

Ross Hutchins was seeded first along with Horia Tecau, but they lost in the first round to the in-form local favourites Henri Kontinen and Jarkko Nieminen 7-6(10), 6-3.

Jonathan Marray was also in the doubles draw but he and partner Joesph Sirianni lost in the first round to Philipp Marx and Igor Zelaney 7-6(6), 6-7(2), 10-7.

At the $10,000 futures in Malaysia Sean Thornley qualified and reached the quarter-finals.

Thornley beat Dzmitry Zhyrmont in the first round 6-3, 6-3 before defeating fellow Brit David Rice in the last 16 6-1, 7-6(5). In the quarter-finals Thornley lost to Perakiat Siriluethaiwattana 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-2.

Rice reached the second round by beating Vaja Uzakov 6-4, 6-4.

At the $10,000 futures in Dominican Rebublic Alexander Slabinsky reached the second round by beating Tim Van Terheijden 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 before losing to Adam El Mihdawy 6-2, 6-2.

Murray out at Round Robin Stage in London
Andy Murray suffered heartbreak at the ATP World Tour Finals in London as he marginally missed out on a place in the semi-finals on his games won percentage.

Murray won two out of his three matches, as did Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro, and with the trio level on the number of matches and sets won, it came down to the percentage of games won in the group, and Murray missed out by 0.1%.

Murray began his campaign with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win over Del Potro but failed to build on a good start as he lost to Federer 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Going into his match with Fernando Verdasco, Murray knew a straight sets victory would see him through but he could only win in a third set tie-break, 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-6(3).

Even then only an unlikely combination of set scores in the final match between Del Potro and Federer could knock him out, but that's what happened, with Del Potro triumphing 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3.

Del Potro's loss in the final to Nikolay Davydenko made sure Murray would end the year at number four, but with Murray not defending his title in Doha in the first week of next year, it means Del Potro will be seeded 4th for the Australian Open, ahead of Murray in 5th.

Broady Romps to Title in Mexico
Naomi Broady exceeded all expectations on her first tournament back from injury as she won ten straight sets on her way to winning her first $25,000 tournament in Puebla, Mexico.

Broady had been out since July with injury but seemed to come back in full health as she defeated the 7th seed Maria-Fernanda Alves 6-1, 7-6(3) in the first round.

In the last 16 Broady defeated Leonie Mekel 6-4, 6-1 before destroying Claire De Gubernatis 6-2, 6-2 in the quarter-finals.

In the semi-finals beat the top 250 ranked 5th seed Julia Cohen 6-3, 6-3 before beating the world junior number six Ajla Tomljanovic in the final 7-6(4), 6-3.

The title will take Broady to around the 320/330 mark in the rankings from a position of 443.

Elsewhere, Elena Baltacha made sure she finished the year as British number one as she reached the quarter-finals of the $75,000+H event in Toyota, Japan.

Baltacha, the 3rd seed, beat Misaki Doi in the first round 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-1 before defeating So-Jung Kim 6-4, 6-3 in the last 16.

In the quarter-finals Baltacha suffered a surprising reverse against Tomoko Yonemura 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.

Jocelyn Rae and Danielle Brown both reached the second round of the $25,000 event in Kalgoorie, Australia.

Rae beat Alison Bai 6-3, 6-4 but withdrew before her second round encounter against Jessica Moore.

Brown benefited from the retirement of Emily Webley-Smith after Brown had won the first set 6-0 in the first round before losing to the top seed Olivia Rogowska 6-2, 6-3.

There was a return to form for Amanda Carreras as she reached the final of the $10,000 event in Vallduxo, Spain.

Carreras, the 7th seed, eased into the quarter-finals where she defeated the 3rd seed Letica Costas-Moreira 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

After recieving a walkover in the semi-finals, Carreras lost in the final to the 2nd seed Laura Thorpe 6-2, 6-2.

Carreras completed an excellent week by capturing the doubles title along with partner Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino, beating Yera Campos-Molina and Sandra Soler-Sola in the final 6-4, 3-6, 11-9.