mjd wrote:

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Thanks Count

(For a brief moment I took it seriously)

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 lol, was it the 'great alex bogdanovic' bit that gave it away?

you think they could have least got their own photos!

Reading the bit from Nathii's site about Bastl putting his all into the match makes me think that maybe the REAL problem with Boggo having Brad as a coach is that all the other players put extra effort in because they want to beat the guy who's coached by Brad Gilbert ... and that to Alex's tendency to fold under pressure, and it's no wonder the last few weeks have been such a disaster.

Edit: sorry Count, everything gets rushed while pick 'em is on and I start doing posts like this without checking (or even thinking enough!) - corrected from Pless to Bastl.

-- Edited by steven at 01:17, 2008-05-29

According to Renaud, the only worthy performances by Boggo and Brad this year were the interviews in Cherbourg.

Quite correct - they were definitely NOT due to play today similarly they are not down for Thursday, which means a Friday semi-final match - if they are 'unable to lose ' the  semi it  would mean that Rich is unlikely to get to sign in for Surbiton singles - once again doubles screws up singles opportunity - I can understand why  some players refuse to play doubles.

Good win for Bloomers in doubles, and he's getting to the stage where it may be better for him to focus on doubles, dare I say it, given that his singles ranking is sliding out of the top 400 and he's back to having to play futures week in week out, or try challenger qualifying, but he doesn't look to have much success in qualifying at the moment.

If Bloomers can't make the quali sign in, then he has to be given a WC, as it would be unfair to penalise him for doing well in another country... although I'd rather he was in qualies than someone like Slabba or Ward, as I'd be sure of Bloomers qualifying, but not them.

Also the reason why I don't think Boggo should get a WC, even though I'm a huge fan of him. Having to qualify should give him a couple of extra points, a bit more confidence, and to be honest, if he can't beat the mainly futures level players in the draw then he shouldn't be in the main draw anyway.

steven wrote:

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ForeverDelayed wrote:

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Good win for Bloomers in doubles, and he's getting to the stage where it may be better for him to focus on doubles, dare I say it

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* hands FD some soap to wash his mouth out with *

We've got some good doubles specialists, and that's great, but it's singles specialists we're desperately short of, let's not lose another one who, though going through a bad patch, is actually pretty capable.

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I know... I should hang my head in shame for such a remark!

The point is based on the fact the last year Bloomers seems to be consistantly doing well in doubles at challenger level, reaching semi finals and finals, while struggling to win many matches in the singles.

In the last 12 months, he's reached just 2 challenger QF's, and one of them was in Surbiton a year ago, so since then he's won back to back matches at challenger level once, and has seen his ranking slip over 200 places, and will be ranked outside of the top 400 after RG, barring a good run at Surbiton.

While in doubles he's reached 4 finals, with a few other semi's to back that up, as well as a round of 16 result at Wimbledon, while rising over 200 places in the doubles rankings.

We all know that Bloomers has the talent to be a good solid top 200 singles player, but the last 12 months does not show the results of someone who looks as if they are going to stay at that level for long, and has dropped from regularly making challenger cuts and being seeded in them to having to qualify for challenger (and not being in the top 4 seeds) and having to play futures, where he may not be in the top 4 seeds.

That is not the form and the results of someone who looks like being a great threat in singles anymore, and is unlikely to ever break the top 100.

In doubles though he has made a lot of progress over the last year, and probably could make the top 100 if he gave it a go as a doubles specialist.

He shouldn't do a Murray/Delgado/Hutchins/Auckland and give up his singles career, but if things don't happen over the grass season then he has to think about focusing more on the doubles, and there would be more value in him choosing to play challenger qualies and doubles rather than singles at a futures event

i dont think alex will be going to newport this year.