Week 30 - Penza Challenger [50K] - 2008.

Salmon · Tennis legend

RE: Week 30 - Penza Challenger [50K] - 2008.

Vandenburg · Futures level

anyone know about live scoring for slabba tomoz?

Salmon · Tennis legend

No Livescores in Russian Challengers, I'm afraid.

Bladetiger · Pro player

Someone on MTF claims Slabba lost in 3. Not confirmed but people on there are 85% reliable. :(

Vandenburg · Futures level

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

The Hoose · Satellite level

Can't say I expected anything more. This is a particularly uninspiring week of tennis

Vandenburg · Futures level

well i keeps on picking up 5 points in challangers but needs a big tourny for his best 18 roll on india and now we know he is not at US open maybe he can enter some week challangers. your thoughts?

steven · Tennis legend

That's a pity, apart from Katie's win it hasn't been a great week has it.

Vandenburg · Futures level

the aussie who posted it on mtf has a rep of being a wind up, so lets hold out, though im 95% sure he lost. who cares he still going to win back to back titles in India lol

steven · Tennis legend

He might well end up scoring more ranking points by not being in USO Q than by being in it, so maybe it's not all bad. This seemed like a good chance for back to back wins though.

Bladetiger · Pro player

Slabba apparently lost 76 (5) 57 76(4) :( Gutting!!

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Vandenburg wrote:

well i keeps on picking up 5 points in challangers but needs a big tourny for his best 18 roll on india and now we know he is not at US open maybe he can enter some week challangers. your thoughts?

Nice idea in theory but a quick look at the Challenger calendar suggests that you need to be comfortable on the clay in order to take advantage. There's Karshi in Uzbekistan and that is the only Challenger event on hardcourt during the 3 weeks of the US Open qualifying and main draw.

http://www.atptennis.com/en/tournaments/fullcalendar/challengers2008.pdf

As for Slabba, he seems to have improved but he's going to have to improve a lot more if he is to get anywhere. Right now he is probably a 350-375 player (as opposed to his actual ranking close to 300) and he has yet to do anything this year to suggest he will defend the points he gained right at the end of last year.

Sure this is an unfortunate loss but he has had plenty of modest opponents in the 2nd round of Challengers and to date, just one QF this year. There have been understandable reasons for some of his losses, such as exhaustion in Israel and the change of surface in Manchester.

I really hope Slabba does get inside the top 250 by Wimbledon next year to earn himself a WC but I'm not confident that he'll achieve it. I guess we will see him playing deep into December in the hope of repeating his success last year.

-- Edited by kundalini at 16:51, 2008-07-23

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Disappointing loss if he did lose, especially in such a close match, as Ebden is the kind of player he shouldn't be having trouble with as there's not a lot that's special about his game, and hasn't done anything special this year.

Hope he can take advantage of a week draw in India and reach a couple of QF's at least, as although he keeps winning first round matches, he doesn't seem to back it up.

Think he'll stay around the 300 level for the rest of the year though, and probably get to 250 by Wimbledon next year to get his WC.

Vandenburg · Futures level

he seems to lose tie breaks, holds his serve very well though. Well shame hes not brazil bound next week the lazy good for nothing. lol a deserved brake!

Vandenburg · Futures level

and lets not forget his moments of magic this year beating muller and smeets two very good 150 opponent. he needs consistancy.