The loss to Rhenquist was a little disappointing as other than his challenger title he hadn't done anything this year, and is the kind of match you need to win if you are going progress into the top 300, then 200 and so on... and Jonny's win today shows that he isn't unbeatable.

That said, Slabba is making progress and he's started to consistantly win matches at challenger level now (I think it's 4 or 5 successive round 2 appearances), but now is the time to follow one of them up and reach a QF, as he's doing the hard work with wins over players like Niland, Okun, Muller (at Queens), but hasn't followed any of them up.

Slabba does have a good game having seen his play, but even with the big serve and big forehand I still don't see him making the top 100 (sorry!), as almost everyone in the top 100 has that so you need something extra to reach that level which I haven't seen yet from him... but hope he does find it, and he's taking his time to reach his potential (I do think he'll be top 200 at some point though... maybe not this year though with all the points to defend at the end of the season, but with the improvement he's made over the last 12 months I think next year he'll kick on and have a big season)

Rehnquist hasn't had the best of season's after his challenger title but all his early losses have come on slow hard, as a player who relies a lot on a big serve he's going to struggle on slower courts. Artificial grass is a great surface for him so it was probably a harder match than people expected

fabulous win for jonny, I guess with his game he's got the ability to unsettle the rhythm of baseliners particularly on surfaces like this so a little different to Slabba

over the past month, the problem has been the next opponent after that good 1st win.......in surbiton he got Dancevic who then won the title and beat Nalbandian in straights........at queens he got Udomchoke who'd beaten Mirnyi, has been top 80 and very experienced, Alex came close but isn't quite ready yet to beat someone like that

i agree, sascha has been putting in some great performances recently, but its a shame that he hasnt bene able to back them up. i thought he was unlucky at queens not to get past danai (i reckon that lady shouting go danai on everypoint put him off!) then he would have had a good chnace vs wardy in the fqr.

as FD says it would be great of he could kick on in one of the upcoming events and get some back to back wins going.

btw where does he train now? at the globe?

go jonny today!!!1

any ideas on the weather forcast? have they played againt each other before?
looking ahead smeets/cakl in the final is not too bad. ok neither would be that easy but its not awfull cosidering there is 60 points on offer!

i wonder who jonny and frank will be in their dubs later 1 happy 1 sad.

i saw an article critiscisng boggo for not playing here (and of cousre making referene to how much he earnt at wimby - cant make a artcile with out rasing that!) i think he is being sensible. he has been getting some training in on hard courts etc and also fulfilling sponorship commitments, hitting with kids etc which is also important in its own way.
perhaps he is concerned that last year he over did it a bit at this time and doesnt want to risk another bad injury.

Oops, deleted my last post by mistake. Here it is again so the Count's post makes sense.

Dublin weather:

Google say mostly cloudy there right now, predominantly rainy there today

BBC weather says summy there right now, predominantly sunny there today

Met.ie says "A dry start. Rain and strong winds later."

... so take your pick!

Count Zero wrote:

---

go jonny today!!!1

---

Oh dear, that inspired the following, out of the Boggo's coming home stable ... with apologies to Chuck Berry, and most of all apologies to all of you ...

Deep down in outer Dublin, Fitzy LTC
At the Shelbourne Irish Open that's where you will see
Out on a tennis court of astroturf today
There plays a GB player called Jon-ny Mar-ray
Who never ever learned to play on clay so well
But he could serve and volley just like ringing a bell

Go go
Go Jonny go
Go
Go Jonny go
Go
Go Jonny go
Go
Go Jonny go
Go
Jonny be good

Bad news from http://www.tipex.cz/?page=forum&typ=chat&strana=1, though goodness knows where they are getting the info from:

Marray-Nielsen 7-6 6-7 2-5 ... last chance saloon.

-- Edited by steven at 15:55, 2008-07-04

It now says he lost 6-7, 7-6, 6-3....

Hope it's wrong, as they score sites are at times, and unless they are getting scores from someone at the courts, I've never understood how these bookies manage to find live scores from challengers that sometimes don't even have a website.