The strongest ATP event of the season also has one of the weakest qualifying fields of the season, but there is British interest with Gregory Howe making the trip and sneaking in as an alternate
He's got 9th seed Jan Minar (CZE) (promoted to a seed after Cilic made the main draw) in round 1.
(9) MINAR, Jan CZE v (ALT) HOWE, Gregory GBR BASTL, George SUI v (7) RECOUDERC, Laurent FRA
(2) TROICKI, Viktor SRB v KLEC, Ivo SVK ZIMONJIC, Nenad SRB v (5) HERNYCH, Jan CZE
(3/WC) QURESHI, Aisam-Ul-Haq PAK v (WC) ALAYLI, Karim LIB (WC) ABBAS, Hamoud UAE v (8) LEDOVSKIKH, Mikhail RUS
(4) SIRIANNI, Joseph AUS v MCCLUNE, Michael USA LORENZI, Paolo ITA v (6) MOODIE, Wesley RSA
Would you rather he'd gone out early this week to play this? Challenger semis or chance to get into one of the biggest ATPs of the year? Personally, I'd take the ranking points and confidence of the Challenger semi. How about you guys?
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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
Take a look at the local wildcard, Mahmoud Nader. I can't even find an ITF profile on him. According to the ATP site, he hasn't played before. I just can't believe that a guy who's never played an ITF could be given a wildcard into one of the biggest ATPs of the year. Can anyone find anything on him?
And people moan that we give wildcards for Wimbers to Boggo hehe
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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
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
Thought maybe you might have picked up some insider info on your travels of Africa
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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