Excellent win for Slabba - I'd never have picked Slabba and Marray winning while Josh and Bloomers lost when the draw came out.
R1 recap
L32: (Q) Richard Bloomfield WR 383 lost to (Q) Ivo Klec (SVK) WR 360 by 3 & 2 L32: Alex Slabinsky WR 333 beat Conor Niland (IRL) WR 304 by 4 & 4 L32: (PR) Jonny Marray WR 1598 beat Harsh Mankad (IND) WR 674 by 3-6 6-3 6-4 L32: Josh Goodall WR 272 lost to Andrew Coelho (AUS) WR 309 by 6-3 6-7(3) 6-3
L16: Alex Slabinsky WR 333 v Bjorn Rehnquist (SWE) WR 236 L16: (PR) Jonny Marray WR 1598 v (4) Kristian Pless (DEN) WR 126
30-year-old Rehnquist had a career high of 146 in 2002 but has had a much leaner time of late. He has beaten all of the Brits he has played in the last three years (Bammy, Josh, Hutch, Del, Marray, Aucks) except Boggo, who edged him out in three sets on his way to the Valencia Challenger title last year.
Pless has been a double Boggo basher recently but did of course lose his last match against Jonny, who beat him 6-4 1-6 6-2 in qualifying for the Stockholm Challenger. Pless is 17-4 against Brits since the turn of the century, that loss, a loss to Boggo in 2005 and two losses to Muzza making up the four.
I've updated the top 25 table (which is quite busy this week on the men's side) with all today's results, points and next opponents.
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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!
Alex broke once in first set and twice in the 2nd.
"Its pretty fast out there, served well today, hit a lot of aces and he never really looked comfortable on the return. Was pretty aggressive out there so felt I deserved the win. Looking to enter the bigger events now and was a bit gutted about not being able to play Cordoba this week but was already on the way here when I found I'd got in there and coach is with me out here which is good."
NO LUCK FOR NILAND AS IRISH COME UNSTUCK AT SHELBOURNE IRISH OPEN
Having reached the Semi Finals at last year's Shelbourne Irish Open, Limerick's Conor Niland had high hopes as he stepped onto Centre Court at Fitzwilliam in Dublin this evening to play his first round match against Great Britain's Alexander Slabinsky. The 27-year-old Niland started well but a single break of serve was his undoing in a first set that ended 6-4 in favour of the big serving Slabinsky. Niland appeared set to level matters when he broke Slabinsky to lead 4-2 in the second set but a searing run of four straight games from Slabinsky gave the British player a deserved 6-4, 6-4 win over the home favourite.
Slabba's second round match is very winnable. If he takes it, he will have defended his 12 points from last year's Futures, plus will add 2 to his total.
wow what am amazing win! considering pless ranking thats a great result. perhaps the courts didnt suit pless's game who know who cares! what does that put jonny up to? come on slabba!
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
Jonny won 1&4 said he played pretty solid, but Pless wasnt on the money at all.
That's 14 points and E1800 this week, very nice, and a decent draw for a 75 in the quarters, lets hope its an all Brit affair this could be a very good week for someone.
Amazing - where did you get that result from though, there's nothing on the site, except to say that Klec beat Karanusic by w/o which adds insult to injury for Bloomers.
Edit: that was posted before I saw the Tiger's post, I realise he has an offline source.
-- Edited by steven at 13:41, 2008-07-02
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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!