French Open Juniors 2008.

Drew · May 31, 2008

RE: French Open Juniors 2008.

Salmon · Tennis legend

First Round -

Thomas Knights [89] vs. Guido Pella [123] of Argentina
Marcus Willis [18] vs. Henri Kontinen [31] of Finland
Daniel Cox [48] vs. Soong-Jae Cho [44] of South Korea
Daniel Evans [52] vs. Juan Vazquez-Valenzuela [9] of Argentina
Daniel Smethurst [75] vs. Matt Reid [34] of Australia

Jade Curtis [30] vs. Amandine Hesse [82] of France
Johanna Konta [15] vs. Julie Gervais [698] of France

I'll do the preview later.

Ratty · County player

Knights' draw is a lot tougher than it seems. Pella's ITF ranking of 123 looks poor, but that is because he has only played 1 junior tournament in the last 12 months - a Grade A 2 weeks ago which he came through qualifying to win!

He has an ATP ranking of 615, which I think is higher than anyone in the tournament apart from Tomic and Eysseric.

Salmon · Tennis legend

No, Tomic is ranked outside the top 1000 in ATP. But Tsung-Hua Yang is ranked 591.

Pella's overranked, though, he rarely beats people from the top 700. Both Cox and Evans are loads better.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Coxy has an easy draw - he beat his opponent in straights both the times they have faced (on hard and grass), and given clay is not Cho's surface of choice, it should be straights again.

Kontinen is a prolific fast surface player who has taken sets off Olejniczak and De Voest this year! But he's ordinary on clay, where he has lost in straights to both Cox and Pauffers this year. Willis should take it.

Evo's draw is hardly difficult. Vazquez-Valenzuela is badly overranked and has just a single win against a quality player (Krajinovic-Piskovic). He'd struggle to take four games off loads of people Evo has beaten, but I feel that Dan will lose this one.

Smethurst gets a doubles specialist and a true blue dirt hating Aussie one at that. Fine opportunity for him.

Jade gets Hesse, who's a wild card here. Hesse is one of the few 1993 born top 100 players and given that she loves clay and will have home support, I think she'll take it.

Konta faces another local wild card. Gervais is underranked in Juniors and unranked in women's, so she may have some potential. But Konta is someone who has just won a G1 in Europe and a 10K on clay, so she should win it assuming that whatever made her retire in Bonfiglio has been solved.

Good luck to Konta, Knights and Willis (Win Tennis trio...).

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

Knights got bagelled in the first set...

Drew · Jun 1, 2008

He is heading for a double 6-0 3-0

-- Edited by Drew at 10:41, 2008-06-01

Goldenslam · Intermediate Club Player

Greenleaf wrote:

Pella's overranked, though, he rarely beats people from the top 700. Both Cox and Evans are loads better.

I think the above statement is slightly untrue!!! Knights is getting a royal stuffing off this guy!! You don't get to 620 ATP without being able to play ball!!!

Goldenslam · Intermediate Club Player

2 break points

Drew · Jun 1, 2008

Knights had some BPs there but not joy...4-0

He is only getting 33% of 1st serves in !

Goldenslam · Intermediate Club Player

He's on the board now!!! get in !!!

Goldenslam · Intermediate Club Player

Knights is roasted 6-0 6-1......shame he will be gutted & rightly so.

richo · Junior player

cox just started and is 1 0 up with a break

gjr · Club Coach

Not sure where you keep these updates but Cox is *5-2 up first set

Salmon · Tennis legend

Goldenslam wrote:

Greenleaf wrote:

Pella's overranked, though, he rarely beats people from the top 700. Both Cox and Evans are loads better.

I think the above statement is slightly untrue!!! Knights is getting a royal stuffing off this guy!! You don't get to 620 ATP without being able to play ball!!!

I never said that he can't play, I said he's overranked in the men's game, which is very true.