Week 21 - Futures F20 (10k) - Valldoreix, Spain

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Week 21 - Futures F20 (10k) - Valldoreix, Spain

XCW4EVA · County player

64 matches!!, Thats Nuts, but Diaz is obviously a quality player.
He's probably going to come back better next week!

XCW4EVA · County player

Just noticed that the 20th Spanish Futures event is on synthetic grass. That should be good for Ricey and Wardinator

-- Edited by XCW4EVA at 13:32, 2008-05-21

Count Zero · Tennis legend

thats an odd one, will it be good for them? if they train mainly in spain anyway i doubt they have the 'brit advantage' on grass.

does synth grass even play like normal grass btw? i know there is the irish challenger 2nd week of wimby on it

XCW4EVA · County player

I think it plays slower then actually grass because actually grass gets cut very short nowadays so it basically plays like a hard court, whereas synthetic grass blades can be quite long. Depends on how the tournament organisers have it laid i guess

James · Satellite level

It totally depends on the condition/type of the court. I play at a club with both synthetic and real grass and although the former is slightly faster, the ball skims off the surface at a lower trajectory on the latter. However the grass courts aren't cut extremely short so perhaps it is that is making all the difference. The synthetic grass will suit players with big/powerful groundstrokes whilst real grass suits those with flatter groundstrokes and those who like to mix and match power with spin.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Count Zero wrote:

thats an odd one, will it be good for them? if they train mainly in spain anyway i doubt they have the 'brit advantage' on grass.

does synth grass even play like normal grass btw? i know there is the irish challenger 2nd week of wimby on it

Rice is an out and out fast/semi fast surface player, although he's had a few good wins on clay in Juniors. He would have been far better off being based in GBR with the hard courts where he used to do quite well.

I guess that he'll welcome the sight of synthetic grass if it's anything like natural grass. He won a point on grass last year plus took 6 games off Wayne Arthurs who was one of the best 100 or so grass players in the world, I'm sure.

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 14:00, 2008-05-21

The Hoose · Satellite level

...although Arthurs was never one to thrash people (even on grass) as his receiving game fell a fair bit short of his serving game.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Ahh, okay. Unfortunately I never got to see the man play - he was well past his prime by the time I started following tennis.

steven · Tennis legend

Alex doesn't play again here until tomorrow of course, but two more seeds went out today - one w/o and one ret.!

Silver · County player

Greenleaf wrote:

Ahh, okay. Unfortunately I never got to see the man play - he was well past his prime by the time I started following tennis.

I pretty much saw him every year at Nottingham. Never really rated him all that much in all honesty. He had a good sharp serve but like Hoose said, his return game was... ropey at best. He's kinda like Karlovic and Phillippousis (sp.) - two other players I don't rate that highly, mainly cos they're so dull to watch. Here we go: SERVE, SERVE, SERVE, fumble shot, SERVE - followed by OUT, OUT, OUT, OUT (I exaggerate but you get the point) I'm not entirely convinced either of them can play the game THAT well... Mark's Wimby final notwithstanding... hmm

I sense a backlash... sorry in advance!

Drew · May 22, 2008

Ivo does have a decent return game...on hard courts.

I have emailed for the result...cant wait !

They started at 1.30 local time. Thats 12.30 here...so hope he has already won 1 & 1

steven · Tennis legend

You're obsessed, Drew!

Drew · May 22, 2008

steven wrote:

You're obsessed, Drew!

Oh thats just great so to go along with my 'nationalistic' chips which I am still recovering from my surgery, my addition the drink (still cant get that skimmed stuff) and my secret passion for Partick Thistle you tar me with the old 'obsession with tennis' tag....I have only posted 7,787 times here...who do you think I am David Cox !!!!!!

(make that 7,788)

-- Edited by Drew at 13:55, 2008-05-22

steven · Tennis legend

Hmmm have you and sheddie ever been seen in the same place at the same time?