i have to say i think its shcokign they called off play for the day, i dont know exactly the weatehr in surbs but it has rained for ages here in paddington. they call it off at around 3.45! i guess with decent light they could play on till 8pm without to much trouble.

Count Zero wrote:

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totally offtopic but i have just got some john west seared tuna fillets (they are precooked and flavoured etc, just have to microwave and tada - jobs a good'un), which has the following allergy advice on the back: 'contains fish'. i am thinking i bloody well hope so.

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Very Good...enjoy !

 

No word on any lucky loser spot around Surbiton today, as you'd have thought it would have gotten through to the coaches/players, so bit surprising to hear that - could be anyone really... just checked the draw and Kamke has pulled out, which means you could now get Kevin Anderson in the main draw...

Don't know why play was called off for the day - when I was at the station barely 15-20 minutes after abandoned the sun came out, and it had stopped raining so unless they knew there was serious rain coming, it is a terrible, terrible call as they could have been playing again by 4/430pm and got another 3 hours in.

Just to confirm what they did with covering the courts as well - court A and B covered almost immediately, some practice courts covered after about 20/25 minutes, but no covering at all for courts 4-7 which will be a problem if it rains a lot as you won't be able to use them really, while on one of the practice courts one of the girls just continued with her practice session and totally ignored the rain.

I'll start typing up some comments on the matches in a few moments...

Count Zero wrote:

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totally offtopic but i have just got some john west seared tuna fillets (they are precooked and flavoured etc, just have to microwave and tada - jobs a good'un), which has the following allergy advice on the back: 'contains fish'. i am thinking i bloody well hope so.

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Yeah that's like the sleeping tablets which say ``May cause drowiness`` on the back, or the milk carton in my fridge with ``contains milk`` written on it ... I suppose though, people will sue over anything these days so it's just as well.

 

-- Edited by StevoTG at 19:23, 2008-06-02

Skupski vs. Fischer great effort from Ken to push this so close, but he will be gutted about losing this match as he had it in the palm of his hand with the 2 match points. Fischer saved the first with a stunning backhand, but the 2nd will kill him as hed done everything right to set up the point, and pulled Fischer out of court with a backhand volley down the line, and just had to put the forehand volley in court to win the match.... but found the net. (it was just an easy volley that if he tried to put it in the net he couldnt)

First set Skupski was twice down a break, but got both of them back, including when Fischer served for the set at 5-5. Fischer had been the stronger player, but Skupski stepped it up to break again at 5-6 and was showing his form from yesterday with a big serve and his backhand was on fire.

2nd set was poor from Skupski with too many errors and his serve dropped away with fewer first serves in, and didnt seem to have the zip on it as well. His returns went as well, as he went from threatening to serve to barely winning a point and the match looked to be heading 1 way.

3rd started the same way with him saving a few early break points. By now a lot of the players are watching this (or were), and I was sitting a few seats away from what I presume was Bloomfields coach/father (not sure) who was chatting to him earlier and then offering Ken advice throughout the match. Skupski looked in trouble and almost as if you knew he would be broken, but didnt know when. Then at 3-4 Fischer made a couple of double faults from knowhere, and Skupski hit a couple of huge backhands to break to serve for the match.... and had the match won until THAT volley at 40-30. Fell away afterwards and the match was over as Skupksi couldnt get it out of his head, making lots of errors in a match which was a chance missed.

Marray vs. May pretty much an Echo of Bladetigers comments, with Marray never looking like hed lose the match saved the 0-40 at 5-5 with 2 huge aces and lovely volley winner, and he cut down on the double faults today which was good to see. Marrays game is so suited to grass, its just a huge shame hes got Dancevic in his section (although Dancevic should have lost the first set to Nielsen... trailed 0-40 on serve at 4-4, and 0-30 at 2-2, and there was Deuce at 5-5)

Bloomfield vs. Amritraj Very hit and miss performance from Bloomers here, but to be honest he probably should have won this as he was the better player. Missed some of the first set but he dropped serve to start the match, and then went 1-4 down after double faulting. He got the break back at 5-2 though, but Amritraj served it out the second time. Dont know what happened in the set, but Bloomers had 2 0-30 chances when he didnt break, so missed chances here.

Second start had a terrible start as he went 0-3 down with the double break, with his missing everything from the baseline and serving poorly, and dropped the second break with a double fault. At this point a load of school-children were brought from the adjacent school to watch the matches and sat down in the stands behind Bloomfields court, and this seemed to change the match. Bloomfield suddenly remembered how to return, and his groundstrokes started landing in the courts again and immediately got the first break back, and could have got the 2nd back at 3-2 if Amritraj hadnt found an ace on break point.

Bloomers saved a match point at 3-5 with a big forehand, and then saved 2 more match points at 5-4 as well, and had 3 chances to break back, but on all. Amritraj played well. 1 was saved with a unreturnable serve, 1 saved with a good volley, and the third saved when he got the very edge of the racquet to a passing shot and the good just crept over the net for a winner. He then found 2 big serves to close out the match, but was so close to breaking back. If it wasnt for poor starts to both sets hed have won the match, although on the big points Amritraj consistently got the first serve in while Bloomfield didnt.

Ward vs. Eaton the hype of Ward from yesterday disappeared here in what was a very average performance apart from a few games, and looked a different player to yesterday. He started well and got an early break, but although he held it until 5-4 he never looked comfortable as was under pressure as his serve looked nowhere near as good as it did yesterday. He got broken with a bad volley (no surprise) and was still thinking about when he threw the set away with an even worse volley error to go down 7-5.

Went 2-0 down in the 2nd and then found some form and played like he did yesterday with big serves, big forehand and brilliant backhands to get the break back and then another one, as he kept passing Eaton whenever he tried to come into the net, as Eaton got frustrated with this.

3rd set though changed the match as Eaton broke for 2-0 and let out a huge come on, and then saved 2 or 3 break back points in the next game. Ward almost gave up at that point as the next games went quite quickly (Id moved to watching Bloomers at this point) and gifted the second break with a tame double fault after some more errors. Ward is definitely a good player, but had no consistency at all today which was disappointing, and he needs to work at his net game if he is to be able to play on fast surfaces not only are his volleys not great, his positioning and anticipation arent quite right as more than once he left balls that were clearly going to land in.

Bamford vs. Gregorc how is Bamford ranked so low? Makes no sense as there is nothing about his game that looked weak at all today (although maybe he plays as poorly as he did yesterday more often which is the problem). Hes got a big serve, great touch at the net, looks very nice of both wings and returned well with great passing shots hes got the game to be top 400 at least if he can put it together consistently.

Better player in the first set and recovered from being broken at 3-3 to win 3 in a row to take the set with a forehand passing shot, followed by a huge roar from him. Second set was similar, only for him to be broken at 2-2, although not his fault at all. At deuce Gregorc hits a volley a good foot/foot and a half long and Bamford stops and doesnt attempt to hit the passing shot at all, only for the umpire to rule it good, leading Bamford to be less than impressed with the umpire and then makes the error to get broken.

Could have got broken at 2-4 as well but produced a huge clutch volley to save the break point, and then broke back for 4-4. Took his first match point with a lovely passing shot and definitely deserved the win. With his game you can easily see why hes a good doubles player and really should be ranked a lot higher than he is in both forms of the game.

Dancevic vs. Marray Good effort here from Marray and very unlucky to be in this section of the draw as I think he would have got through section 4 and maybe section 2, and would have had a shot at section 3. As it is hes got Dancevic who although not too impressive looks so easy on court and a class above the rest of the field, as hes got all the shots.

Marray is in this match though and had chances to win the long game where he was broken and was unlucky that his passing shot missed on the break point, but Dancevic doesnt look like hes going to lose and was in Marrays serve more often than Dancevic was. Marray isnt out of this but I cant see him winning this.

Okun is a strange player in the sense that he was very hit and miss, but went missing during the 2nd set and if Reix had taken his chance at the start of the 3rd hed have won the third as Okun would have lost it.

Bopanna never looked in trouble again Bubka, but didnt see a lot of the match, but did spot Stakhovsky and his girlfriend in the court again, which was probably the highlight of that match.

The news that Baghdatis is working with Lundgren with I read in the paper on the train this morning was apparently an exclusive, except for the fact Id spotted it yesterday when they were hanging around together.

Bogdanovic was here today, and stopped by to see some of Bloomers match in set 2, but no sign of Brad Gilbert. He turned up at the court on his own, talked to Bloomerss crew for a bit and watched a few games and then left in fact, no-one seems to have seen Gilbert all week, but maybe he didnt fancy sitting in the cold all day today and instead sat in the players area in the warm with the French open on TV, reminding him of better days....

Ill have to check the weather before deciding about tomorrow its supposed to be terrible and rain all day, but if the weather looks okay I may go as I want to see Bogdanovic play, and dont trust him to win tomorrow and then play again on Wednesday in better weather conditions.

Count Zero wrote:

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thx for the reports. disapoting for bloomers. wny didnt frank enter the main draw. thats such a shame for jonny. but its good that he seems to be playing well.

perhaps alex has a few days off from brad? (or more likley he was just chillin in the lounge) i know he is ment to be with him for the gras season, and possibly up to the uso.

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Maybe he thought he'd do better at the French or just wanted the extra practice on the grass with 3 more matches guarenteed and he wouldn't be losing to anyone in the draw, and given that he's had injuries this year it made sense for him to play qualifying to get some regular matches under his belt.

I'm sure Alex is with Gilbert, it's just no-one's seen him all week (unless the guy who looked like him was actually him, but then this guy was cheering on Fischer and talking in German so probably not)

Weather for tomorrow currently says showers until around 10/11 and then cloudy for the rest of the day so they should get some play, but the question is how much?

sorry sheddie one up on u, my gf is a quailfied solicitor! as you so eloquently put it

yes i should be there on sat depending on a) the weather (more likley) and b boggo being in the semis at surbs (less likley)