Brian Dabul ARG (8) v Miguel Angel Lopez Jaen ESP Alex Bogdanovic GBR v Mathieu Rodrigues FRA Daniel Munoz-De La Nava ESP v Thiago Alves BRA Adrian Menendez ESP v Dusan Vemic SRB (31)
Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR (15) v Andreas Haider-Maurer AUT Dawid Olejniczak POL v Joshua Goodall GBR Alex Kuznetsov USA v Franco Ferreiro BRA Guillaume Rufin FRA v Paul Capdeville CHI (22)
GB matches with comparative rankings
QR1: Alex Bogdanovic WR 243 v (WC) Mathieu Rodrigues (FRA) WR 536
The highlight of 2008 for 22-year-old Rodrigues so far was winning the Bressuire Future in February, beating Miles Kasiri 2 & 3 on the way. He was also the guy who thrashed Edward Seator 2 & 1 in Edinburgh before going out 2 & 2 to Olaso in the QFs and he is near his career high. Boggo couldn't have asked for a much nicer draw with QR2 points to defend though.
The top seed in Boggo's section, Dabul, is at home on clay, having reached one Challenger Final, three more semis and two more QFs on clay so far this year. However, his last match was a strange 6-0 5-7 6-0 defeat by a player outside the top 200 ...
Olejniczak beat Josh 3 & 3 on his way to winning the Mexico City Challenger on hard courts last month after Josh had beaten him in three sets two weeks earlier on his way to the Exmouth title. I'm not sure the Pole likes clay that much, but he has more experience on it than Josh and I'll be stunned if Josh comes through this one.
-- Edited by steven at 19:14, 2008-05-19
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Dabul's someone Alex will know very well, I'm sure! They were two of the best 1984 born Juniors out there. Alex even beat him on clay once and took him to three sets on two other occasions - but then in those days clay was Boggo's best surface.
i know al had 1 good event he won on clay as a junior, but was there more than that? i also remeber him reaching a uk clay future final, where he lost to monfils.
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
No, he only won one title but reached the latter rounds (finals and semis and quarters) of a few big tournaments. For a long period in Juniors, his records on clay were remarkably better than those on hard courts and grass.
is it just down to the fact that you need to be stronger on clay (as a senior) strange for him to drop so far behind, although i know he hardly practices on the surface.
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
I guess that it's hardly uncommon for people to have different "best surfaces" in their Junior and men's years (look at Murray!) but Boggo isn't even five percent of the clay player he once was, I think and that's surely not something which is normal. As you put it, it must be due to the lack of practice on it.
but at what % is boggo the adult of Boggo the junior, as a junior he was top 10, a gs semifinalist , usopen non the less, wich was very impressive till a certains cot came a long a few years later ;) and won titles on various surfaces.
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
Well his current ranking in the 250s is of course an insult to the player he once was but we all know that he'll be going up the rankings soon again.
I think we can say that he has realised his potentia (that is 100%) if he gets a career high in the 70s or better?? Anyway, that's a looong way off from him at the moment.
did Boggo once take a set off Gasquet on clay ? I know he lost to him in rd3 of Roland Garros juniors a few years back and it was a close match (possibly 2002/2003...same year Gasquet beat Squillari in Monte Carlo)