When Count met the shedman, part 3


Udomchoke bt Slabinsky 3-6, 6-4, 6-3

Udomchoke may now be ranked 182 but he's been as high as 77 and has had a lot of grass success in the past. He beat Max Miryni easily in rd1 and Slabba was really unlucky to get this dude as on watching a number of the other players in rd2 action I think he would have beaten most. Watched by a very impressed John Lloyd, Slabba threw the kitchen sink at his opponent, pounding 12 aces and ripping numerous winners off both sides. There were a number of service games in the match where Slabba just hit 4 straight unreturnables, he must be serving at around 130mph at least. The contrast to the Jamie Murray match was immediately apparent in terms of the power both players were striking the ball.

However, Udomchoke is a ball machine, a wall to be more accurate. He just does not miss and I can't emphasize that enough. Slabba painted the lines but still the ball would be ripped right back often with interest. He doesn't have the power of Slabba when generating his own pace but is deadly accurate using all the angles and when in control of a point, he rarely relinquishes it.

Udomchoke didn't serve too well at first and Slabba took full advantage breaking for a 4-2 lead. He was serving bombs and at 71% in the first set. At 5-3 he had 40-0 but got pegged back to deuce and had to save several sps with huge ball striking before clinching a game lasting nearly 10 minutes.

However it was soon apparent that to go on to win, Slabba would need to keep serving at that level as from the back he had to work so hard to win every single point - needing to smash what would be 5 forehand winners against a normal opponent. Udomchoke was serving better, for a short guy he places the ball so well. You cannot attack the net against him, even on grass that's just not possible, Slabba tried it a few times, chipping slices right to the baseline but still the Thai's incredible wrist speed generated perfect passing angles.

Slabba missed too many first serves at 1-2 and was broken......he had 3 chances to break back in the next game but Udomchoke stayed rock solid. At 3-5 he saved 4 sps before breaking back but on his serve again he couldn't find the first serves and Udomchoke earned 30-40, getting the set on a dodgy call - Slabba was convinced the ball was wide.

In the decider it was a similar story, having gone for broke in the first 2 sets Slabba couldn't keep it up and a few more errors came....Udomchoke just requiring the 1 break to go through.

John Lloyd was hugely impressed (he was like "wow" at some of the serving at times) and spoke at length to Slabba afterwards saying he played a great match and was striking the ball so well, Udomchoke just made him play so many balls.

Ward saved BP to hold for 2-1

When the Count met the Shedman part 4

We saw the end of James Ward's dramatic win over Klec, a fantastic result and backing up what Dan and I said about the Klein win last week. He does need to come to the net more but has a great serve and moves the ball so well from corner to corner with little risk and can really up the pace on the backhand. He served for the match at 5-4 in the 3rd but Klec broke back with a primeval roar...trying to get in James' face. James held to take it to a breaker with a roar of his own. He looked to have lost it when Klec got the crucial minibreak to go 6-4 up but James saved 2 mps and went on to win it 8-6 with Annacone and Hutchins watching

Saw the final set of Bloomers' match too.....looked a lot better than in Surbiton, maybe it was the better quality grass courts ? Serving big - Stadler just could not handle the huge serving, and striking the ball smoothly from the back he took the decider taking advantage of 1 poor service game from Stadler. Richard wasn't serve-volleying but still making his way in after the 2nd shot

1 final observation.....does Udomchoke have an English grandmother ? Just that in the Slabba match we seemed to have found the 1 English Udomchoke fan......she looked about 60 and after every game she shouted out in this really posh voice "C'mon Dan, lets go"....or the Thai version of Vamos - "susi" ??

Amazed how well Ward's doing today, he's one heck of a fighter ....I must admit I thought Udomchoke would win in straights....Ward doesn't have as much power as Slabba but he presents different problems, the clay training means that his big shots are much higher percentage ones and although his serve isn't as good as Slabba's, his returning is probably better.

Ward saves bp to hold for 4-3 in the decider !

Strange stats for Bloomers:

In the set that he lost, he got 62% 1st serves in, winning 81% when he did so and just 31% when he didn't.

In the set he won, he got just 48% 1st serves in, winning 65% when he did so, but he managed to more than double his winning % on 2nd serve to 75%.

Anyway, it's going to be a tense next 30 minutes or so ...

Ack - Richard is 0-30 down on serve.