Week 18 - Futures F4 (15K) - Bournemouth, UK

Malteaser · Junior player

RE: Week 18 - Futures F4 (15K) - Bournemouth, UK

Malteaser · Junior player

WCs went to Evans - who plays the number 2 seed and Marcus Willis vs. Spanish Qualifier.

Other WCs are Morgan Phillips and Jamie Feaver, as expected.

Some interesting draws elsewhere too - Cox againts seater (again) is a highlight to me. Rotten draw for Seater, wish he'd have got someone else, as they are both amonst my favourites!!!!

Come on the Brits!!!

Full draw is here:

http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2008/344/mds.pdf

Yorkie · Lower Club Player

Cox will sail past Seator, i'm expecting big things from Illingworth i think he'll make the quarters!

Ward was a big hope but yet again finds himself in the same half as the top seed..............he probably wonders what its like to be in the bottom half of the draw.........its been a while!

wolf · Tennis legend

I can see Ed taking Coxy on the clay.

steven · Tennis legend

Here are the full details of today's results, starting with the QR2 matches which did not get finished on Sunday:

QR2: Alistair Felton beat Christopher Helliar by 0 & 3 smile

QR2: Jonathan Brooklyn lost to Cory Phillips (AUS) by 5 & 2 cry

QR2: (q4) Matthew Illingworth WR 1054 beat Dominic Ross-Hurst by 1 & 5 smile

QR2: Chris Priddle beat (q14) George Coupland WR 1662 by 7-6(5) 7-6(3) biggrin

QR2: (q9) Andrew Fitzpatrick WR 1447 lost to Colin O'Brien (IRL) by 6-7(3) 6-4 6-3 bleh

QR2: (q7) Sean Thornley WR 1259 beat Mark Bowtell (IRL) by 4 & 2 smile

QR2: Mark Verryth lost to (q8) Pedro Sousa (POR) WR 1304 by 0 & 1 cry

QR2: Jagdev Sagoo (q11) beat Matthew Bright WR 1485 by 2 & 3 biggrin

I thought Fitzy would feel quite at home on clay after his trip to West Africa earlier this year and kind of assumed he'd be home and dry today after being 5-3 up in the 1st when play was suspended yesterday. I guess it's a different type of clay and/or O'Brien came out feeling inspired this morning. cry

He did then go on to take a set off Josh Milton too.

FQR: Alistair Felton beat (q1) Rohan Gajjar (IND) WR 834 by 0 & 3 biggrin

FQR: (q2/WC) Daniel Cox WR 939 beat Cory Phillips (AUS) by 0 & 1 smile

FQR: (q3) Tim Hewitt WR 1013 lost to (q10) G Closa-Puncernau (ESP) WR 1485 by 3 & 3 bleh

FQR: (q4) Matthew Illingworth WR 1054 beat Chris Priddle by 4 & 2 smile

FQR: (q5) Daniel Smethurst WR 1204 beat (q13) Robert Phillips (AUS) WR 1662 by 4 & 4 smile

FQR: (q6) Joshua Milton WR 1257 beat Colin O'Brien (IRL) by 6-4 3-6 6-4 smile

FQR: (q7) Sean Thornley WR 1259 beat Ramon Gonzalez (ESP) by 2-6 6-3 6-4 smile

FQR: Jagdev Sagoo lost to (q8) Pedro Sousa (POR) WR 1304 by 6-2 3-6 6-3 cry

Six qualifiers is a pretty good haul smile

and perhaps it's not surprising that Tim lost to a lower-ranked Spaniard given the surface. As was mentioned above, Alistair's performance in qualifying has been stunning - not only did he beat a player ranked in the top 1000, he also conceded just 9 games in 6 sets!

Alistair turned 18 earlier this month and this is just his second Future - he beat Nikki Roenn then lost to Andrej Martin WR 1015 by 3 & 1 in Bath, so while we don't know what was up with Gajjar today (Bournemouth belly, anyone?), this is an encouraging improvement!

I'll list the main draw pairings with comparative rankings in a separate post.

steven · Tennis legend

With 14 players in the main draw, we and three all-GB matches, it should be just about possible to avoid last year's disaster, when we had 11 players in the main draw and came away with just two ranking points, only Cox & Flan winning their R1 matches before going out in R2.

The key to getting players to the QFs and beyond here will be avoiding the usual clay court drill, i.e. virtually all of the Brits losing the first time they come up against an overseas player on clay, never mind how much lower-ranked they are. (ok, that's a bit harsh ... or maybe it isn't!)

The WRs below are this week's, so may be different from the ones I used in the Q results above, which are last week's.

L32: Edward Seator WR 504 v (Q) Daniel Cox WR 939 - winner to play winner of:
L32: (7) James Ward WR 488 v (Q) Guillem Closa-Puncernau (ESP) WR 1487 - (1) Conor Niland (IRL) WR 329 heads this quarter
L32: (WC) James Feaver WR 1017 v (3) Marek Semjan (SVK) WR 405 (winner to play Eleskovic or Paire)
L32: (Q) Joshua Milton WR 1256 v (WC) Morgan Phillips WR 1487
L32: Ken Skupski WR 637 v (8) Ludovic Walter (FRA) WR 500
L32: (Q) Matthew Illingworth WR 1055 v (Q) Alistair Felton UNR (winner to play (6) Timo Nieminen (FIN) WR 520 or Metenier)
L32: Miles Kasiri WR 512 v Petar Popovic (FRA) WR 573
L32: (Q) Sean Thornley WR 1259 v (4) Diego Alvarez (ARG) WR 400
L32: (Q) Dan Smethurst WR 1201 v Purav Raja (IND) WR 839
L32: (WC) Marcus Willis WR 1150 v (Q) Pedro Sousa (POR) WR 1306
L32: (WC) Daniel Evans WR 1342 v (2) Bruno Rodriguez (MEX) WR 404

Seator v Cox will be a good (if isolated) test of whether Akhenaten's ranking system (at the end of March, Akhenaten's list had Dan at 868 and Edward at 1076, the latter seeming a bit harsh!), while I think James might be glad to be in the top half of the draw this time, with an Argentinian and a Mexican ranked around 400 seeded in the bottom half.

My guesses ...

Ward - should win even if he is playing a Spaniard
Seator-Cox - too close to call, probably Cox, though I'd prefer Edward to win
Milton-Phillips - Morgan hopefully, if his comeback is on track
Illingworth-Felton - Matt, but then after Alistair's exploits in qualifying, who knows!
Smethurst - no idea!
Skupski, Kasiri, Willis - I doubt they'll beat their slightly lower-ranked opponents on this surface, but could be close
Feaver, Thornley, Evans - dire draws, virtually no chance I fear

So, 3 in R2 is the minimum (but would mean a disastrous day), 5-6 would be reasonable given the surface, 7-8 would be a really good day (more or less equivalent to all higher-ranked Brits winning), 11 is the maximum but would require three enormous shocks.

john · Top national player

No surprise to see Jag losing to a Portugese player on clay really. Suppose Sousa is just a clay court grinder and outlasted Jag over 3 sets.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Sousa is very good, I remember him thumping Rice 0 and 2 or something like that once.

I think that Cox, Ward, Morgan, Illingworth, Kasiri, Smethurst, Willis and Evans will win. The rest won't.

freerider · Futures level

i think that Smethurst, kasiri, illingworth, phillips, ward will win and i would say that ed and dan will go to 3 sets but wouldnt like to pick a winner

freerider · Futures level

it was higher ranked Joao Sousa that beat Rice, but pedro has beaten morgan phillips, eaton and illingworth earlier this year in portugal, in that disastourus anual portugeese tour.

freerider · Futures level

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/uk_results/default.stm

First few results in too:

freerider · Futures level

Marek Semjan (Svk) bt James Feaver (Gbr) 6-2 6-4

Benoit Paire (Fra) bt Ervin Eleskovic (Swe) 7-6 (8-6) 6-4

Pierre Metenier (Fra) bt Timo Nieminen (Fin) 6-2 6-0

Matthew Illingworth (Gbr) bt Alistair Felton (Gbr) 7-5 6-3

Pavol Cervanek (Svk) bt Navdeep Singh (Ind) 6-2 6-1

Daniel Smethurst (Gbr) bt Purav Raja (Ind) 6-1 6-2

Marcus Willis (Gbr) bt Pedro Sousa (Por) 6-3 6-1

Daniel Evans (Gbr) bt Bruno Rodriguez (Mex) 6-4 ret,

Very impressive from Smethurst and Willis and a stroke of luck there from Evans...

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

freerider wrote:

Pierre Metenier (Fra) bt Timo Nieminen (Fin) 6-2 6-0

[...]

Daniel Evans (Gbr) bt Bruno Rodriguez (Mex) 6-4 ret

Very impressive from Smethurst and Willis and a stroke of luck there from Evans...

A stroke of luck for Evans, perhaps, but that's the second and the sixth seeds out of the way... biggrin

The Hoose · Satellite level

With Evans and Willis playing each other in round 2, one of them will receive a very nice rankings boost.

Drew · Apr 29, 2008

Well done to the young lads for good wins....pity Felton didnt pick up a point here but at least it was a Brit that beat him !