Week 21 - Futures F1 (15k) - Meshref, Kuwait

steven · Tennis legend

Week 21 - Futures F1 (15k) - Meshref, Kuwait

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Henson lost 6-1 6-4

steven · Tennis legend

Doh! I really doubt he's ever going to have a better chance of making a main draw that. cry

Still, with a name like Henson (*), I guess he can be forgiven the odd muppety tendency. wink

(*) Jim Henson created the Muppet Show.

helki · Futures qualifying

steven wrote:

Doh! I really doubt he's ever going to have a better chance of making a main draw that.

Still, with a name like Henson (*), I guess he can be forgiven the odd muppety tendency.

(*) Jim Henson created the Muppet Show.

And there's me thinking you meant Gavin Henson.

* Statler and Waldorf rule!

-- Edited by helki at 16:36, 2008-05-17

steven · Tennis legend

I've just realised that Wolf set up a second thread for this tournament when the main draw came out, so I'm copying the posts in here before deleting the new thread to avoid (even more) confusion.

Wolf said

The Skupster hopes to continue his recent form and he is joined by Miles Kasiri.

Skupski is also the second seed in the doubles, with Rohan Gajjar.

Main draw (a collaborative post! ... and my comments on the matches)

L32: (5) Miles Kasiri WR 545 v (Q) Johan Ortegren (SWE) UNR
L32: (7) Ken Skupski WR 631 v Dayne Kelly (AUS) WR 1043

Kelly looks like a reasonably straightforward draw for Ken unless he's knackered after his efforts last week.

Kasiri's match is far more intriguing though because despite being unranked now, 30-year-old Ortegren has a career high of 295 which he set 7 years ago and his last win in a main draw was a 4 & 2 win against David Sherwood in the Edinburgh Future in September 2002! He beat Lee Childs in that tournament too and beat Andy Murray's coach Miles Maclagan that year too. He has a 13-7 record against Brits stretching back to 1996.

Ortegren is best known for setting an unwanted record in 2001, when he got triple bagelled by Todd Woodbridge in the final qualifying round at Wimbledon, the first time anyone had suffered that fate in a tournament for 8 years!

Since September 2002, the only times he has played were in qualifying for Stockholm ATP in October 2002 and 2004, where he lost in QR1 each time. I've no idea why he has played so infrequently, nor why he is playing again now.

Silver said

TRIPLE BAGELLED?! Oh man... that's harsh. I think even a pity game wouldn't be out of the question there, surely?

Ah well.

Edit: changed WRs to 19 May rankings.

-- Edited by steven at 06:20, 2008-05-19

The Hoose · Satellite level

Easy win in the first round of the doubles for Ken and his Indian partner Rohan Gajja, the second seeds. They beat a wildcard pairing from Kuwait 6-0 6-1 and next face Al Ghareeb and Eichenberger in the quarters.

If they win that, they could meet the amusingly-named pairing "Ghedin and Vukov" in the semis.

-- Edited by The Hoose at 16:56, 2008-05-19

steven · Tennis legend

Sadly, Miles seems to be in terminal decline (again) ... why oh why didn't he go back to Greece this year. cry

No sign of tiredness from Ken though. smile

L32: (5) Miles Kasiri WR 545 lost to (Q) Johan Ortegren (SWE) UNR by 2 & 2 bleh

L32: (7) Ken Skupski WR 631 beat Dayne Kelly (AUS) WR 1043 by 0 & 1 smile

L16: (7) Ken Skupski WR 631 v Stefano Vukov (CRO) WR 1838

-- Edited by steven at 17:12, 2008-05-20

gazzpash · Club Coach

What's happened to Miles this year

James · Satellite level

Well done to Ken but that is an absolutely shocking result for Miles, granted Ortegren was previously ranked inside the top 300 but this is his first tournament in over a year. It seems like Miles really struggles against players that are [or 'were' evidently] in the top 500, i.e ranked above himself.

steven · Tennis legend

R2 PREVIEW

Ken's next opponent, Vukov, had lost 12 of his previous 13 matches (mainly Futures qualifying in far-flung places, but including a 2 & 0 thrashing by Jagdev Sagoo in Bath) before qualifying this week.

Ah but, you say, he can't be that bad if he qualified, can he? Well, in qualifying, he faced a player from Bahrain whose previous experience in Futures was five staight-sets losses (though he had won some DC rubbers against players from Iraq, Myanmar, Brunei!) and then an unranked Swede who had a 3-12 record in Futures qualifying before this week and whose QR1 opponent's career also consisted of five straight sets losses.

Ah but, you say, he can't be that bad if he's already won a round in the main draw, can he? Well, in R1, he faced a fellow qualifier from Egypt who beat Ross Henson in QR1, then faced an opponent who got a w/o in QR1, has a 1(!)-5 record in Futures qualifying and once got double bagelled by Edward Seator!

In other words, I doubt Ken will be quaking in his boots!

Happycynic · Pro player

That's cool. Being a 15K, the next win would be worth an extra two points.

The Hoose · Satellite level

If it's going to be that veeing easy, perhaps we should be looking ahead to Ken's quarter-final match.

It'll probably be third seed Brydan Klein, whose hobbies include table tennis, squash and girls, according to the ever-helpful ITF site.

Yorkie · Lower Club Player

Kasiri is mid 600s at best

steven · Tennis legend

Not sure we should be putting a hex on Ken by previewing his QF match however easy his R2 match looks, but that is pretty funny. I can't believe a 20-year-old tennis player feels he has to list girls as one of his hobbies, as if we hadn't guessed. LOL

I couldn't believe Klein was no. 3 seed, given his results last year against Brits. it turns out that he has got to where he is by winning 3 Futures in AUS & NZL between October and February. Before that, i.e. last summer, he was losing to the links of Tim Hewitt, Ed Corrie and Ed Allinson in GB Futures, though he did beat Milton and Evans.

In fact, he only had to beat a winter coat in R1 here - Frank Wintermantel of Germany. (Mantel = coat in German for anyone who hadn't guessed)

-- Edited by steven at 19:07, 2008-05-20

Salmon · Tennis legend

Klein is a great player, though. He was going through a bad run last year during the summer - before that he won the Australian Open Juniors even though he was unseeded and qualified for a Challenger after beating Sijsling (was ranked around 300 then). Top 100 prospect, that boy is...