Week 23 - Surbiton Trophy [$ 50K] 2008.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

RE: Week 23 - Surbiton Trophy [$ 50K] 2008.

Sheddie · administrator

I went today aswell, met up with FD and we had a great time, many thanks to him for texting the scores ! I'd never been to surbiton before, was amazed just how many spectators there were, must have been around 100, the mini grandstand was packed all afternoon.....the tournament itself is run like an ATP - special facilities just for the players, proper media room etc etc.............judging by the sheer number of LTA officials there (and what did they all do all day ?) there seems no reason why the tournament shouldnt have a decent website with live scores. There's easily enough interest in the event. Live streaming is simple enough to arrange - laptop with webcam and that's it

The other thing which really struck me was the quality of the grass courts compared to Queens and Wimbledon.......I haven't seen the two centre courts at Surbiton (they don't use them until the main draw) but I'd hope the bounce is more consistent. On Court 4 in particular, bad bounces were regular, at least 2-3 a game, often more...

Onto the games we saw:

Ward bt Klein 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(5)

Note: Klein is one of Australia's big junior hopes for the future, won AO juniors 2007 and is renowned for a massive temper, he has been defaulted from tourneys in the past and was banned for a few months by TA for persistent bad behaviour. I was kinda hoping he'd take a few chunks outa court 7 today with his racket but instead he helped serve up a classic

Easily the match of the day !! The best quality tennis on display from anyone even including the top seeds..Dancevic, Fischer, Amitraj etc. From early in the match it was easy to tell that the winner of this one would be the huge favourite to qualify from this section and I will be massively surprised if Ward doesn't go on to make the main draw. I watched him in Hampstead last summer and the improvement is huge, back then the guy had the raw talent but now he's converted that into some serious weapons - one of the best serves in the draw and a stunning backhand

Klein was watched closely by an Aussie academy coach - a chilled rapper-style dude with shades. His riposte to his protogee's growing frustrations over line calls, his opponent, the bounces, the world in general.....was simple "just be there man." Evidently some kinda code-talk but it seemed to breathe new serenity into Klein each time and he focused once again on the tennis for at least another 2 points

Klein is quite a prospect himself with a quality serve, big forehand and lovely use of the dropshot. For a big guy he moves well and always made Ward play 1 more shot. However on these courts, once you're on the back foot in a rally its usually point over

Set 1 was close, till Ward threw in a poor service game at 5-6 to get broken to 15, netting a makeable volley. I felt he was the better player from the back but Klein kept coming up with huge serves

Set 2 - Ward had chances, some great backhands cross-court and down the line, getting him to 15-30 and 30-30 several times but each time Klein came up with huge shots. Both players began to realise the true value of the dropshot on these courts - it just dies and used it well. Serving at 4-5 Ward slipped to 0-40 but saved all 3 mps - 2 aces (1 on 2nd serve) and a massive forehand. Next game he came out firing, picked some stunning returns and soon it was 1 set all

Set 3 - It seemed ominous when Ward dropped his serve from 40-15 up straight away to go 2-0 down, some poor calls and bounces not helping. However Klein didnt capitalise, once again some inspired hitting from Ward enabled him to break back. There were few chances for either from then on.....in the tiebreak Ward returned better and went 6-3 up. He lost both mps on his serve - amazing retrieving from Klein but an unstoppable backhand at 6-5 sealed the match. A huge roar from Ward and Klein hurled his racket half the length of the court

Brilliant entertainment

more to follow

-- Edited by Sheddie at 00:11, 2008-06-02

john · Top national player

Great stuff Dave, keep it coming mate

Montana Doug · Futures qualifying

Enjoyed reading that David. By the way, just out of interest, is it free to get in for qualies? I just wonder is all. I wish there was a tourny near me I'd love to see pro tennis.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

mjd wrote:

Isn't 'ForeverDelayed' doing a grand job there?
He can't really be watching and enjoying the tennis with continually running around and checking scores.

Or just sitting in the same spot and with all 4 courts used today next to each other all I have to do is look across to find out the score on all the courts - you can watch all 4 matches at once!

I'll put some brief thoughts on today's matches up in a bit, and then extend on it tomorrow when I don't feel so tired and sleepy (although a lot of it will be similar to Sheddie's)

Just a not to say that this will be the last Surbiton challenger, at least according to someone who runs the club.... you get a popular event with good attendence and support, and then you take it away.

Qualifiers should be Dancevic, Amritraj, Ward and Skupski based on today's performances

Count Zero · Tennis legend

probab;y going to nottingham? htye lost their atp and challenger

lok forward to reports

James · Satellite level

Great report so far David, cheers bud.

Sheddie · administrator

Montana Doug wrote:

Enjoyed reading that David. By the way, just out of interest, is it free to get in for qualies? I just wonder is all. I wish there was a tourny near me I'd love to see pro tennis.

Thanks, more coming v soon......yeah free to get in for qualies which is probably why the ground was so packed !

Unfortunately you have to pay for main draw....heavy rain is predicted tomorrow and Tues so I'll be going again on Wed which costs 8 quid

Most pro challengers are free though even for main draw

-- Edited by Sheddie at 00:34, 2008-06-02

DJ · County player

Quality reporting, guys; grateful thanks to Daniel, mjd and David.

James · Satellite level

Gosh £8 seems rather steep, I can never understand such high prices, surely it would make sense to lower the price to a more reasonable level and in doing so encourage more people through the gates.. as per usual the greater good [encouraging more people to enjoy watching and then possibly playing tennis] is lost.

-- Edited by James at 00:39, 2008-06-02

Sheddie · administrator

Chris Eaton (GB) bt Adam Feeney (Aus)(4) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3

Brilliant win for Chris, probably the best win of his career by some way....though who did he beat in Wimbledon qualifying last year ? Feeney's a good fast court player with some grass pedigree too aswell as being ranked 265. Chris has beefed up his serve a lot, major weapon now and he produced some classic grass court tennis with excellent volleying. Feeney played a very similar game but his serve didn't quite have the same bite and Chris had more chances on the returns. He broke twice in set 1, first to go 3-1 up and again to seal the set ripping a number of return winners

Set 2 was decided by 1 game, Chris threw in a poor game, double-faulted twice and Feeney took his chance. Chris didn't let it affect him though, serving returned to previous standards in the 3rd and he was the one with all the break chances. Missed a few passes by inches at 3-2 but 2 games later he secured a 5-3 lead and served it out

Ward-Eaton will be close, I think James will win though as he's the better returner even though he does need to get to the net a lot more than he does on grass

Jonny Marray (GB) bt Matt Short (GB) 6-2, 6-2

Very straightforward for Marray, few too many double-faults but its just rust...Short looked quite good at times and I'm amazed he hasn't done better in futures qualies but Marray was always going to win this easily. A few classic touch volleys on the stretch from the big man reminding us again why he was such a force on grass 4 years ago. FD and I were rather puzzled why Matt S got the qualies wc ahead of Tim Hewitt and Kyle Brassington etc.....
I reckon his mullet got him the wc, with the big hair the organisers got him mixed up with Jamie Murray by mistake

Frank Dancevic (Can)(1) bt Ed Corrie (GB) 6-4, 6-2

Corrie felt he played as well as he could have done, Dancevic was in a different league and just cruised through this. Corrie pulled back a number of service games from 0-40 and 15-40 to make it respectable. If Marray/May has a blinder either could take out the Canadian on these courts but it was hard to tell just how good he is from this match

Jim May (GB) bt I Van Der Merwe (SA)(7) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3

May returns to giant-killing best with a bang....the guy is just so chilled out on court - even when he gets broken he's saying good shot etc (compared to Klein who says f***kin w**ker) and he's so polite to the ball girls - v popular with them.

Its easy to see why May has done well here, the courts suit him down to the ground, he keeps everything v low, hits lots of slice so gets max reward from all the dodgy bounces and he likes to hit those short angled volleys which just die on the grass

He lost his way briefly in the first set, losing 5 straight games from 3-1. Van Der Merwe is mainly just a serve though, May has the better volleys and returns and he got it together again in sets 2 and 3. Faced bps when serving for the match at 5-3 but came through

The big question over May is, how good is his baseline game ? On indoor acrylic where the ball bounces higher, low shots arent as effective and you have to be able to play a bit from the back too, can he succeed ?

Great to see him back, think Marray will win though tomorow

Sheddie · administrator

Semis and Finals day costs 14 quid ! You'd think for that price you'd get access to the press rooms to see the post-match interviews but no ! I don't understand it either, given the LTA's huge annual income it seems unnecessary though given they somehow contrived to lose hundreds of thousands on their ATPs and WTAs last year I guess they need to recoup the cost somehow !

James wrote:

Gosh £8 seems rather steep, I can never understand such high prices, surely it would make sense to lower the price to a more reasonable level and in doing so encourage more people through the gates.. as per usual the greater good [encouraging more people to enjoy watching and then possibly playing tennis] is lost.

-- Edited by James at 00:39, 2008-06-02

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Here's a few comments on what I saw today.... whether I go again tomorrow depends on the weather and whether I can get up in time to get a train into Surbiton - if the weather looks terrible or I don't get up in time, I won't go but I'll let someone know tomorrow morning if I'm going or not.

Ward was very impressive today, although still could improve on faster surfaces as times he seemed reluctant to move up the court and try and kill the point at the net, and instead took a step backwards, but it seemed to work today so I cant really blame him.

First time Ive seen him play and I can see what the hype around his is all about very good serve and produced it under pressure as well, as the 3 serves to save the match points were world class, especially the first one which was a second serve ace that kicked up over Kleins head. Think he got all his 1st serves in during the TB as well so performance well under the pressure, other than the volley to lose the first set and a missed forehand at 6-4 in the TB.

Most impressive thing though is the backhand which is quality, and throughout the 3rd set he hit winner after winner with it, which goes well with a big serve and good forehand.

Ward should qualify as even though Eaton played well today, I feel that Wards return game is good enough and if Eatons serve drops then Ward will be able to outrally him from the back, and then he should get past Bamford (who should have lost the 2nd set today as Coupland served for it at 5-3 and had 2 set points at 6-5) or Gregorc.

Skupski was also good to watch as his match with Sijsling was a very impressive serve/volley affair. Skuspkis serve and volleys were good as usual, but very impressed by his return game today which was better than Ive seen before and whenever Sijsling missed a serve he took advantage of it (although Sijlsing did serve for the first set but threw in 2 double faults).

Fischer didnt look that impressive today, and while Okun won easily, his opponent wasnt up to much by all accounts, so if Skupski continues to play this well then he can qualify here... and I know this isnt too popular, but if he ever turns to a full time doubles career, then he will make the top 100 with ease.

Bloomfield though wasnt that impressive today and you can see why his ranking has slipped. Lucky to win really as Delgado blew all 13 break points he had, including 5 at 0-1, 3 and 1-2 and 2 at 4-5 in the first set, and then 3 at 1-0 in the second set... and Bloomers didnt do anything special to save them. He almost blew a 6-1 lead in the TB as well, which started with Delgado serving a double fault, only for the umpire to call let and reply the point, and Delgado to repeat the double fault. Would be very surprised on todays effort if Bloomers was to qualify, but then Amritraj struggled after a stunning first set, and Bopanna could have lost to Seator so theres hope

May was never going to lose to Van der Merwe who looked clueless on how to play on grass, and should have won in straights but blew a 3-1 lead in the first set, and his match with Marray will be good, but Marray should win if he stops serving at least 1, if not more, double faults a game. Shame they are in Dancevics section as they wont beat him as he looked very easy today and didnt appear to be giving it everything he has.

Thornely, Seator, Illingsworth and Kinsella were all unlucky and showed glimpses of talent in their matches. Thornley dominated the first set and a half against Nielsen, but didnt take his chances at 3-3 and 4-4, and Nielsen took his first chance which was the difference. Thornley looked the better player but the experience of Nielsen showed, although he double faulted on his first 2 match points.

Illingsworth and Seators game arent suited to grass, but played well. Illingworth had 1 set point in the tiebreak and was a break up in the second, but never believed hed win and was constantly complaining about how he cant play on grass... maybe true, but hes a good counterpuncher and hit some great passing shots.

Seators match had huge crowd involvement and recovered well from going an early break down in the 3rd. Unfortunately Bopanna stepped it up when Seator served to stay in the match, plus a bad bounce didnt help, but Seator returned really well and could pick all of Bopannas serves. He didnt quite have a big enough serve to get him out of trouble though, but a very encouraging performance from Edward whos shown he can play on the faster surfaces.

Kinsella is born in the wrong era with his big serve and volleys, streaky groundstrokes and very average returns, but when he connects with a return it was always a winner. Unlucky in this match as he got to 15-40 when Bubka served for it and hit a return winner on the baseline, but was overruled by the umpire and called out. Shame, as I think hed have turned it around and won the match if hed got the break back.

I'll give some more detail when I get time, and I'll leave Sheddie to mention some of the other events of the day, specifically Stakhovsky (who was watching Bubka) and his girlfriend....(TBC)

seagull · Hall of fame

Many thanks for all the reports - much appreciated from a very cloudy and rainy Cayman Islands!!

Sheddie · administrator

Freddy Nielsen (Den) bt Sean Thornley (GB) 3-6, 6-4, 6-1

Was very impressed with Thornley today, definately made a massive improvement from last summer when I saw him in futures. Can really see why he's starting to get the wins at 10K, shouldn't be long before he breaks through and makes a final somewhere. His coach told me his backhand is the best shot technically and that was very evident today on a challenging surface ! Served well, the grass suits his fast arm action and the way the ball then skids through. He had Nielsen rattled, the Dane's forehand wasn't as potent as when I saw him indoors in the autumn and for a set and a half he couldn't stay with Thornley in the rallies.

Dan and I felt that Thornley needed to put him away in 2 to win and that looked likely for a while, he had bps in set 2. However, serving at 4-5 he made a few errors, lost serve from 30-0 up and if was all Nielsen from then on. Nielsen comes into the net a lot more than Thornley and on these courts that proved decisive in the end, in the 3rd he upped his returning and Thornley could no longer make the spectacular running passes and grew increasing frustrated with the bounces.

Nielsen evidently likes the in-depth game analysis style, his coach had compiled a thesis comparable to "War and Peace" on the first two sets. Another strange unshaven Dane about 7 foot tall turned up randomly in set 2 and then vanished......

Ken Skupski (GB) bt Igor Sjisling (Ned) 7-5, 7-6(2)

Sjisling's a former top junior who hasn't really translated it yet to the senior game. However he was still a very tough draw, serve-volleyed well all match and should have taken the first set. Ken was unhappy with his serving on the practise courts with coach before play started, apparently his hips don't rotate very well. However, according to a group of courtside schoolgirls watching him intently, his hips are just fine as they are !

As it happened Ken was outserved for much of the set, his fine volleying and forehand just about keeping him in it but he was still 5-3 down. Sjisling though threw in a dire game to be broken and Ken reeled off 3 more

Saw only patches on set 2 but Ken was at a higher level, few chances for both but Sjisling missed some easy volleys at the start of the tiebreak and Ken ran away with it

Clement Reix (Fra) bt M Illingworth (GB) 7-6(7), 6-2

Reix is a big serve and little else, however on grass that can be more than sufficient. A pumped up Illingworth pushed him all the way and would probably have won on a slower surface. He came back from 5-3 to take it to the tiebreak and led 5-3 himself in that. He had 2 set points but Reix found good serves on both. As an entirely baseline hugging player, the poor bounces made life difficult for Illingworth, (his clay preferences given away by the liking for sliding into shots) and he was at his best when Reix attacked the net and particularly in set 1 the Sutton player found some sparkling backhands