Week 34 - US Open Qualifying - 2008.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

RE: Week 34 - US Open Qualifying - 2008.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Slabba lost 6-4 6-3

Not a good day for the Brit men. :(

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Dire defeats for both Boggo and Slabba....

Boggo shouldn't be losing to Lacko really, as he's a far better player than him, and Lacko hasn't been in great form recently.

Yeah, Hippensteel's better than his ranking, but he's 1 won main draw match all season, and is one of the nicest draws you could get here, so Slabba to lose to him is a poor loss, especially after being a break up in the first set.

Yorkie · Lower Club Player

I have thought for a long time that Slabba is over ranked, but abit like Seator he can pull some suprises out of the hat on occasions but generally i see him as a top 500 player at best, if you look at his big points they are all from weak Challenger/future tourneys bar a quarter final appearance at Barnstable last year.

Gutted that he's lost today though! i can't doubt he's having a good year.

Sheddie · administrator

I disagree Yorkie....I think you have to admit that saying he's a top 500 player at best is bull**** !! You can't really compare him with Seator right now who's competing at a totally different level in futures

If you're thinking along those lines then you could also say James Ward is overranked which would also be rubbish

Top 300 is where Alex belongs right now if you look at his game and the type of tennis he can play against really good opponents

He's beaten Gilles Muller and Rob Smeets this year, both players well inside top 200 and he pushed Danai Udomchoke who's been top 75. To win the Nigerian 15k in December he had to beat Catalin Gard who was close to top 200 at the time.

There've been some disappointing losses in the challengers this year but its his first year at this level and its tough stuff, no easy draws....there've been a lot of close matches he could have won recently plus some bad luck (food poisoining before the Motomura match in Manchester, terrible scheduling in Israel)

When players are competing in far off countries like India and Uzbekhistan its really unfair to be too harsh and judgemental on results as there are so many off court factors which can affect things. In Delhi, the humidity was worse than Bejing

Sheddie · administrator

I was hoping for better from Alex but hopefully he can learn from the experience.

I don't think many of the Brits have won their first match in overseas slam qualies.....Baker, Bloomfield, Marray, Mackin all lost their 1st as I recall

Boggo losing is so disappointing after the great summer he's had, seeming to make real strides...this was such a huge opportunity. However Lacko's game does seem to match up extremely well and he can be tough on the US hard

If Goodall can win another round here that will probably cement the no 2 Davis Cup spot for him. John Lloyd rates him quite highly. My big worry is that he tends to freeze on the big stage, he's never done his talent justice on grass in the ATPs.

However from Boggo's perspective it's probably best for him to miss the DC as he can focuss instead on another couple of indoor tourneys and avoid probable bad press

-- Edited by The Shedman at 23:00, 2008-08-20

Count Zero · Tennis legend

wow what a bad day. what happened to alex, skimming through those posts her barely seemed to win a point on Lacko's serve. looks like the old inconsistency is back then. esp if you consdierng hard court wins over kendrick & beck abd loses to rosol and now Lacko.

i had a feeling it would be tough for alex, but thought he'd maybe he able to grind it out. i guess not.

doesnt look like we will get match stats either.

suprised by slabba's loss too.

right that's outdoor done for the year i guess (save for the dc) lets get moving indoors.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

I have great admiration for Slabba and I still think he's got a chance. But the key is going to be improving his game. His challenger results aren't that great. Of course there are understandable reasons but still he's had a lot of modest opponents in 2nd round.

I hope he gets a wimbledon wildcard next year but right now I don't fancy his chances of breaking into the top 250 in time. As for his natural level, I've no idea. Right now I think he's over-ranked by 50 places due to the points gained in Dec. If he can finish the year inside 300 then that would be a serious achievement.

Playing each week must be very tough but somehow he has to find the time to become a better player, otherwise he'll continue to lose to fairly ordinary challenger players.

-- Edited by kundalini at 23:08, 2008-08-20

steven · Tennis legend

Horrible defeats today, both in straights too, that's a shocker

For the record, Hippensteel stopped playing (I don't know why) in Feb 2005 shortly after reaching his career high of 150 (Nov 2004) and didn't play on the pro tour again for nearly 3 years.

Since starting to play again in January, he:

- got thrashed 1 & 3 by Istomin in R2 of the New Caledonia Challenger
- went out to Odesnik in the AO FQR
- went out in QR2 of the Waikoloa Challenger
- lost in R1 of the Dallas Challenger
- got thrashed 3 & 1 by Gremelmayr in the San Jose FQR
- had another 3-month break
- lost to Odesnik in QR2 of the Tunica Resorts Challenger
- got thrashed 1 & 2 by Rosol in RG QR1
- lost in QR2 of the Yuba City Challenger
- got bagelled in the 3rd by Minar in Wimby QR1
- lost 3 & 3 to Peya in Newport QR1
- lost 3 & 4 to Stoppini in R1 of the Aptos Challenger
- lost in Washington QR1

... spin that how you will wink

-- Edited by steven at 15:23, 2008-08-21

Salmon · Tennis legend

The best possible indication of whether a player's tennis is of a certain level or not is looking at his record against players of that level.

The top 300 players that Slabba has played in the last year -

Richard Bloomfield - 7-6(5) 7-6(5)
Matwe Middelkoop - 5-7 3-6
Catalin Gard - 6-4 6-3
Andrea Stoppini - 5-7 6-7(4)
Frank Dancevic - 2-6 1-6
Gilles Muller - 7-6(1) 7-6(8)
Danai Udomchoke - 6-3 4-6 3-6
Vince Spadea - 1-6 5-7
Bjorn Rehnquist - 6-7(2) 4-6
Robert Smeets - 3-6 6-3 7-6(4)
Tomas Cakl - 3-6 7-5 7-6(1)

That's a record of 5-6, with three of the losses coming against Spadea, Udomchoke and Dancevic on grass. Plus he didn't get thumped in any of the matches barring the one where he played Dancevic - hardly shameful as Dancevic is top 50 on grass.

If that's the record of the 500 at best player, I don't know what to say!

Sheddie · administrator

I don't understand why you're so harsh on him Kundalini, compared to other Brits......have you ever watched slabba play ?

In June 2007 he was ranked 800ish. Now he's closing in on top 250 and given that a couple of challenger quarter-finals will pretty much defend his pts this autumn I reckon he'll be there by end of year.

When he's on form, serve + forehand + volleys are great weapons, he's got good court coverage....lots of weapons. The backhand still needs improving and he's got to get better at converting chances but personally I reckon he's got a better chance of making top 100 than Bloomers or Baker eg as he has more to his game and more scope for improvement. He's one of the hardest workers out there and if you compare his game now to 12 months ago he's almost a different player

ok he's had some modest opponents in rd2 of challengers but its still a big step up from futures and there are a lot of underanked guys in these draws. He had 4 mps against Ebden in Russia and sps against Ysern in Delhi, if he'd won those matches he'd already be top 250 right now easy

Sheddie · administrator

Thank you Salmon

Re Hippensteel: The result which really stands out to me in that list is reaching the final round of Aussie Open qualifying. That shows his true calibre.

Plus he beat Kei Nishikori (remember how good he was against Nadal at Queens) in straight sets

Losing that heavily to Gremelmayr is hardly shameful, he took a 6-2 set against the Fed. Plus Odesnik has been top 100 as has Peya and Stoppini should be so much higher than he is

Count Zero · Tennis legend

i think we should forget wednesday 20th august 2008 ever happened

whta i worry for boggo is that he could have a really good tennis career and all the benefits that would come of the back off it. but he is letting it slip away for some reason. he needs to figure out why its not working. is his diet wonrg, is he not getting enough rest between matches, is he playing too many events or travelling badly arrnaged schedules. Something must be causing these problems. he has beaten quite a few top 100 players and loads of top 150 players.he has got to find a solution.

lets hope he has a decent indoor season. i also wonder how this will impact the dc. maybe they will look at the perfoamce at grenoble of alex and josh, i guess jl should travek over too see.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Odesnik is one American who loves clay and 7 games off him is quite good for someone who seems to favour faster surfaces. This year he made the semfinal of Houston MM and reached the third round of Roland Garros.

Hip hasn't lost to anyone of Slabba's level this year barring Minar and Lester Cook, and has beaten the likes of Petzschner and Nishikori. Losing to him is hardly shameful!

mjd · Challenger qualifying

while there is not much else to discuss - I noticed that Bloomer's opponent Cuevos has, according to ATP stats
Year to date prize money for singles: $132,193
Year to date prize money for doubles: $264,532
I am well aware of the taxes and travel and living expenses to be deducted but it seems to to be a 'pretty reasonable sum' for a player at his ranking.
(this compares to Bloomers
Year to date prize money for singles: $29,680
Year to date prize money for doubles: $8,522 hmm