Week 28 - Challenger ($50k) - Ramat Hasharon, Israel

steven · Tennis legend

Week 28 - Challenger ($50k) - Ramat Hasharon, Israel

Yorkie · Lower Club Player

There's a qualifier Vs qualifier slot in the main draw which would see Wardy face a lesser ranked opponent, the other two are against seeded players.

would certainly hope he qualifies!

steven · Tennis legend

Yes, if he does get through, he doesn't want the slots against Elgin or Okun, that's for sure!

L32: Alex Slabinsky WR 333 v Gouichi Motomura (JPN) WR 380 (CH = 134)

Motomura won a Future in Japan in March but has lost his last four Challenger matches. However, he beat Slabba 4 & 1 in a Future in Korea last year.

The winner of this match is likely to play no. 2 seed Robert Smeets, who is in the Dublin Final today.

-- Edited by steven at 14:36, 2008-07-05

Yorkie · Lower Club Player

Wardy won his first two qualifying rounds

6-2 6-0 and 6-3 6-2

steven · Tennis legend

QR1: (q1) James Ward WR 476 beat Guy Goren (ISR) UNR by 2 & 0

QR2: (q1) James Ward WR 476 beat Nikita Soifer (ISR) by 3 & 2

FQR: (q1) James Ward WR 476 v (q5) Amit Inbar (ISR) WR 1598!

john · Top national player

Nice easy few points for Wardy by the looks of things. This should be another chance for Slabba to pick up a win here. Regularly winning on the challenger tour is the next step up for him and taking advantage of a winnable draw like the one he has here would be a good sign he's ready for it.

Sheddie · administrator

that's quite a decent draw for slabba.....they last played in april 07 when motomura was ranked 200ish and slabba had chances in that match, was a break up in the first set, leading 4-2 but lost a few close games and it turned the other way......He's improved a lot since then tho, much bigger serve and hitting that forehand a lot more consistently so should have a good shot

smeets is a tough rd2 but he's a bit of a nutcase at times so who knows

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Think Slabba should win this match, as he's the higher ranked player, and Motomura isn't anything special and isn't a better player than him.

Plus, anytime you're the higher ranked player of the two, you have to take advantage of it and make the second round.

Smeets in round 2? It's winnable, as I fail to understand how Smeets is ranked so high, as I've never been impressed with him at all, and after watching him at Surbiton I understood how he only got 1 game off Berdych at the French Open, but I wouldn't necessarily expect Slabba to beat him.

And Ward's picking up the easiest 2 points of his life, and hopefully he gets another qualifier in round 1 to add some more easy points to his tally.

steven · Tennis legend

FQR: (q1) James Ward WR 476 beat (q5) Amit Inbar (ISR) WR 1598 by 4 & 2

L32: Alex Slabinsky WR 333 v Gouichi Motomura (JPN) WR 380 (CH = 134, 2000 - now 34 years old)
L32: (Q) James Ward WR 476 v (8) Noam Okun (ISR) WR 289 (CH = 95, 2002)

James got through qualifying easily enough, but get one of the two worst draws available for qualifiers. Okun has a very good record against Brits at Challenger level, though Slabba did manage to beat him in Surbiton.

-- Edited by steven at 16:47, 2008-07-06

wolf · Tennis legend

Slabba & Wardy team up in the doubles, first round they play Marcel Felder & Samuel Groth.

Erlich & Ram, the Australian Open champions are the top seeds here. What the hell have they got to gain from playing such an event?

Just Wardy playing his singles tommorow.

-- Edited by wolf at 00:38, 2008-07-07

Josh · Challenger level

I guess they're playing because they don't get much of a chance to play in front of their home crowd.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Yeah. Israel is hosting an ATP event after eight years, I think.

Well done to James, although that's a terrible first round draw.

Shhh · Challenger level

I dont think the draws terrible at all. I am sure players dont enter challengers hoping to get through just one round, to make the quarters you have to beat a seeded player either 1st or 2nd round. Okay, so James has got the seed in the 1st round but, he's drawn the 8th seed, thats as good as he can hope for. Noam's tough, especially being a home player but far from being the worst. James has got 3 matches under his belt, he certainly wont be favourite but its the sort of challenge he should be looking to get past if he's serious about being top 100.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Ward should beat Okun.... I'm calling it now...

Why? Just look at Okun's record this year.... he's beat Alex Bogomolov Jr. (who retired during the match) and Marco Crugnola (who also retired during the match) in main draw matches this year...

Okun hasn't won a match in a main draw where his opponent has completed the match... and the last time he did was.... Binghamton last year.... which took place at the beginning of August!!! (he won a dead rubber in the Davis Cup as well, but Capdeville retired at 2-1 in the first set)

His ranking has dropped to 408 as well now, so this is a match that Ward should be looking at winning, and after seeing Okun's recent form, it would be a disaster if he lost (and to be honest, Slabba dropping a set to him looks quite poor now, but then Okun only won that set because of a horrific call from the umpire on set point that even people supporting Okun didn't agree with)

seagull · Hall of fame

According to MTF James leads 5-2 in the first set