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

Salmon · Tennis legend

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

wolf · Tennis legend

The young guns are doing well!!

Salmon · Tennis legend

They're always going to do well on the green dirt. One advantage of having the Nationals played on that surface.

The Hoose · Satellite level

The low-ranked Brits are really filling up the bottom of the draw: Illingworth, Thornley, Smethurst, Willis and Evans have filled up five of the eight second round berths in that half - and Kasiri could join them. Hopefully we can see some big advances this week.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Great result for all the youngsters this week which proves they all have the talent to win matches at this level and hopefully 2 or 3 of them can push on into the quarters and even semi's and give their rankings a real boost.

Morgan's loss was a bit surprising and he doesn't seem to be back to anywhere near his level of last year yet, which I suppose will take some more time and more matches, but this was a match I'd have thought he'd have won.

And the less said about Skupski's loss the better.... don't think clay is where he would be playing at all, especially with the amount of futures event around the world this week

James · Satellite level

Shocked by the Skupski result, he generally keeps matches close even if against higher ranked opponents, weird - aside from his unsuitability for the clay I presume he's either ill/injured or just had one of those days when nothing goes right.

Aside from that though, top results all around.. Thornley really pulled that one of the bag. Its nice to see a GB Future with more than one or two British players producing some good results and filling R2 with familiar names.

Akhenaten · Pro player

Four 17-year-olds & two 18-year-olds into Round 2!
That's what we want! What a result from Thornley!
Keep going lads!

Salmon · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
R2 pairings already known

............

L16: (WC) Marcus Willis WR 1150 v (WC) Daniel Evans WR 1342

The last time those two met was at the same venue (the Nationals last year). Evans won 64 62.

XCW4EVA · County player

Stick it to djokovic guys!!!

steven · Tennis legend

Boy oh boy does Ken not like clay ashamed

That's a stunning result for Sean though - over 800 places higher and an Argentinian on clay biggrin

(even if it is the 'wrong kind of clay' wink

)

I'm sorry to see Edward lose, though it wasn't completely unexpected - I'd prefer our higher-ranked players to be racking up the points right now - and sorry that Morgan lost (even if it was a good result for Milton), because it implies he's still some way off his old level.

steven · Tennis legend

I've just updated the top 25 table and it looks like a disaster week at first glance, until you realise that SIX of the players in the list of those outside the top 25 playing in Futures have scored ranking points. I wonder when is the last time 7 Brits ranked outside the top 900 scored ranking points in the same event!

steven · Tennis legend

Anyway, putting all of the above together, we get:

Today's R1 matches

L32: (Q) Daniel Cox WR 939 beat Edward Seator WR 504 by 3 & 3 biggrin

L32: (7) James Ward WR 488 beat (Q) Guillem Closa-Puncernau (ESP) WR 1487 by 0 & 3 smile

L32: (Q) Joshua Milton WR 1256 beat (WC) Morgan Phillips WR 1487 by 6-2 4-6 7-6 (3) smile

L32: Ken Skupski WR 637 lost to (8) Ludovic Walter (FRA) WR 500 by 1 & 0 cry

L32: Miles Kasiri WR 512 lost to Petar Popovic (FRA) WR 573 by 7-6(6) 6-2 bleh

L32: (Q) Sean Thornley WR 1259 beat (4) Diego Alvarez (ARG) WR 400 by 7-6(5) 6-0 biggrin

Round 2 matches to be played later today

L16: (7) James Ward WR 488 v (Q) Daniel Cox WR 939 - in (1) Niland's quarter
L16: (Q) Joshua Milton WR 1256 v (8) Ludovic Walter (FRA) WR 500 - in (3) Semjan's quarter
L16: (Q) Matthew Illingworth WR 1055 v Pierre Metenier (FRA) WR 654
L16: (Q) Sean Thornley WR 1259 v Petar Popovic (FRA) WR 573
L16: (Q) Dan Smethurst WR 1201 v (5) Pavol Cervenak (SVK) WR 474
L16: (WC) Marcus Willis WR 1150 v (WC) Daniel Evans WR 1342

I do wonder how much peer pressure affects the results of the young Brits. I have no evidence for it, obviously, but it's easy to imagine that in tournaments wheree a few of them are playing and they start losing, it almost becomes uncool to win (which could explain why someone like Rice seems to do better when he's virtually on his own and could be the REAL difference between British and Serbian tennis) where maybe this week it's suddenly become uncool to lose! biggrin

(as long as it isn't a one-week wonder!)

-- Edited by steven at 16:37, 2008-04-30

The Hoose · Satellite level

James Ward (Gbr) bt Giullem Closa-Puncernau (Spa) 6-0 6-3 smile

Petar Popovic (Fra) bt Miles Kasiri (Gbr) 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 bleh

-- Edited by The Hoose at 16:24, 2008-04-30

James · Satellite level

To be honest not a totally surprising loss for Miles, he seems to really struggle against people of a similar or higher ranking to his own. Nice and comfortable from James, if he beats Cox and comes out of it with some degree of form I think he may stand a good chance against Niland.

Yorkie · Lower Club Player

Easy from Ward and i knew cox would sail past Seator so no suprise there

Excellent result from Thornley its looking like a great week for the Brits, the youngsters are flying on this surface so Wardy will have his hands full tomorrow!