Week 34 - US Open Qualifying - 2008.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

RE: Week 34 - US Open Qualifying - 2008.

Salmon · Tennis legend

One good thing about Slabba losing is that now he'll get around 18 days off from tennis and travel.

This man seriously needs some rest! He has played 40 tournaments all over Asia, Europe and Africa (and one in the US) in the last year, which is way more than you should be playing. I am moderately surprised that he hasn't picked up some semi-serious injury, although you have to admire his fitness at the same time.

Hopefully he'll play less from now on and go for more quality tournaments like the bigger Challengers and Tour qualies. He doesn't have much experience of the bigger stage.

-- Edited by Salmon at 02:34, 2008-08-21

Salmon · Tennis legend

But that assumes he won't have club matches to play somewhere!

Count Zero · Tennis legend

i have found the reason Alex lost - John Lloyd was there!

according to someone eho was there it was a 'fun match'

Akhenaten · Pro player

Salmon wrote:

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!

The 301-400 ranked players that Slabba has played in the last year -

Olejniczak, Dawid (POL)	301	L	6-7(4) 4-6
Snobel, Pavel (CZE)	314	L	3-6 3-6
Motomura, Gouichi (JPN)	321	W	6-1 6-3
Klec, Ivo (SVK)	345	L	1-6 3-6
Niland, Conor (IRL)	353	L	1-6 3-6
Iwabuchi, Satoshi (JPN)	353	L	3-6 2-6
Kirillov, Evgeniy (RUS)	364	L	1-6 2-6
Mannarino, Adrian (FRA)	364	L	3-6 1-6
King-Turner, Daniel (NZL)	375	W	7-6(7) 6-2
Ebden, Matthew (AUS)	379	L	7-6(5) 5-7 6-7(4)
Motomura, Gouichi (JPN)	380	L	3-6 4-6
Motomura, Gouichi (JPN)	380	W	6-2 6-4
Ouanna, Josselin (FRA)	389	L	2-6 4-6
Biasella, Adriano (ITA)	392	L	6-7(11) 6-1 6-7(2)

That's a record of 3-11.

If that's the record of a Top 250 player, I don't know what to say!

Akhenaten · Pro player

Sorry Arka. Not mocking (well maybe a bit ). It's just you can prove anything with statistics.

Personally, I think Slabba is overranked, but I so so want to be proved wrong by him.

Bladetiger · Pro player

It seems to me that we all encourage our players to seek out the 'easier' points that are on offer because that will boost their ranking. This involves them travelling to pretty inhospitable places and generally not enjoying the full fruits of the touring pro's existence.

Then once they have done that and boosted their ranking we slam them for not 'playing to their ranking'!! Think maybe we're being a bit unfair?

Slabba has done really well to get his ranking to where he is, he is a tremendously hard working player without massive natural talent who is making very much more of himself than many people (me included) thought he was capable of, and when he loses, as he will on occasions, he doesnt deserve everyone jumping on the bandwagon.

RANKINGS ARE BASED ON A) HOW GOOD YOU ARE, B) HOW INJURY PRONE YOU ARE C) HOW MUCH YOU ARE WILLING TO TRAVEL.
He is ranked where he is because that's how good a tennis player he is on that basis, end of story!

Count Zero · Tennis legend

dont forgot a bit of D) how lucky your draws are

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Count Zero wrote:

once gaian loosk like clay is the way to make a living out of tennis

And of our players, only Murray (11-14 ATP record), Boggo (dead rubber win over Todd Woodbridge), Baker (dead rubber over Calleri which is a dodgy match, and 1 challenger win over an unranked player), and Bloomers (1 win back in 2006 over someone ranked 700) have ever won matches in a main draw on clay at ATP or Challenger level

It's a pathetic record on clay from British players really, as surely we can produce someone who if not great on clay, can at least win the odd match on it (James Ward will do, but has never played a challenger match on clay).

And Slabba? The ranking's don't lie, unless you have been injured (or just coming onto the circuit and haven't played many events)

He may be losing to players ranked lower than him, and his points have come from weaker tournaments, but he's been smart with the schedule and chosen to play weaker events to build up his ranking.

He may not currently look like a top 300 player (although I think it is around his level at the moment, with potential to go higher), but he is according to the rankings, so over the last 12 months, he has been one of the best 300 players in the world

Akhenaten · Pro player

Bladetiger wrote:

RANKINGS ARE BASED ON A) HOW GOOD YOU ARE, B) HOW INJURY PRONE YOU ARE C) HOW MUCH YOU ARE WILLING TO TRAVEL.
He is ranked where he is because that's how good a tennis player he is on that basis, end of story!

That's not the basis I would say he's overranked on though.
My basis is just A) HOW GOOD YOU ARE. ie. A player ranked 300 has 299 regular players on the circuit who would beat him more often than he'd beat them.

I think players ranked around 300 would beat (and do beat) Slabba more often than he beat them. Hence he's overranked in my eyes.

I don't even think saying he's overranked is 'bashing' him. He has done brilliantly to get to his ranking to where he is by going to far-off places, and I support him all the way. And he's improving, which is superb - that's what we all want surely - improving "How Good You Are" is far more important than improving your ranking.

...but er... I think he's overranked (sorry)...

Vandenburg · Futures level

slabba is overanked by about 100 places i think, certainly not 260 in the world
from what i and other people have seen i dont think he ever be top 100 and top 200 if hes lucky.

Salmon · Tennis legend

My post was meant more in the likes of "Slabba can compete with top 300 players".

It's probably not possible to calculate someone's ranking by looking at the results, but it can give you and idea about how good a player can be. We know that Murray can be top 3, Boggo can be top 100 etc.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Although to be fair, he is slightly overranked because he plays more tournaments than most players in this world.

But the inflation is probably no more than 5-10%.

Drew · Aug 21, 2008

QR2 :

2nd on Court 16....in about 30 mins perhaps ?

Diego Hartfield (ARG) v. Joshua Goodall (GBR)

Drew · Aug 21, 2008

Perhaps not...the girl that was 4-2 up lost 6 games in a row !

Maybe on in an hour.