Finally! He'd converted 1 of 14 break points before that.

A break apiece in the third set. 1-1.

Knights won his doubles 6-4, 3-6, 10-5.

According to the BBC had a match point against Ramirez, shame he didn't pull through.

Greenleaf wrote:

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I must point out that Dimitrov has not mastered Juniors but plays men's tournaments full time and is doing far better than our players this way. But of course, only we follow the proper path to the top 100, so Dimitrov must be rubbish.

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You obviously do not know what you are talking about!! Dimitrov was runner up at the Orange Bowl last year, 2 years young!!! He was consistantly making semi's of G1's last year 2 year young,  so that shows that he was more than capable of moving up to futures on a regular basis! ok he may not have been world number 1 but he as good as mastered what he needed to in the junior game.

 He is winning matches on a consistant basis at futures level & as was stated in fact won a futures recently, the players you are talking about "taking the proper path to the top 100" are not at this guys level yet & he is a year younger than the guys you are talking about.

It really annoys me when people like yourself try & undermine what is being planned & set out for our players, just because you see some kid's doing more futures than others does not mean it is right for everyone, our players are just not good enough yet to play just futures & by making statements on comparisons to other players & thier schedules shows a real lack of understanding in player development on your part.

As you can see by Dimitrov playing Roland Garros, he has also entered Roehampton & Wimbledon that they are not the "waste of time" that some people believe them to be, this guy is winning futures & is still dropping down to play top junior events because they serve a purpose & hopefully you & many other people on here who keep coming out with "rubbish" regarding players schedules should take note.

What if Dimitrov reached the finals of the Orange Bowl? Coxy reached the semis of Roehampton and that has a far stronger field (cut of 65 compared to 140 for Orange Bowl).

And of course Dimi should be playing RG, Roehampton and Wimbly - he's 1991 born.




I'm not arguing about your knowledge of player development - of course it's brilliant. My point is that the three Dans are far better at Futures than at Juniors and it's pointless to pretend otherwise.

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 07:48, 2008-06-03

Sheddie - yes I was at Surbiton on Sunday, I thought George could have won but did not play that well. I thought he was way to passive, playing too much from the baseline & allowing Bammy to dictate. He also missed far too many first serves & was dissappointed himself as he has been playing well & recently beat Jim May 6-3 6-2 in an NCL match so was confident coming in to this. I should be there again today but I don't think we will get many matches played. Barney signed in but didn't make the qualies draw, he has really knuckled down recently & is playing awesome tennis in practise, he now needs to convert it to the match court.

Greenleaf - I really do hope they are better at futures because in all honesty thats where it matters but they are playing certain junior events because they serve a purpose & you insinuate that they are playing juniors to be held back. yes recently they have had good wins in futures but not enough often enough to play a good number of matches & say good bye to the juniors. This year for the boys is all about getting as many matches as possible so they are able to learn their trade, how to close out & win matches. If they are able to do that week in week out at futures level then great, but they are not quite there yet & need the odd ITF event here & there to play some matches & achieve some pre-arranged goals, then once they have ironed out a few creases in their games go back out & hit the futures.
Thats the beauty of it they know they can win matches at both levels & can use them both to gain confidence & match sharpness, something the older guys don't have & something these goals after this year won't have, so they need to make the most of it!!!!!

Jade's 0-4 down. Willis is 1-3 down.