Week 32 - Futures F3 (15k) - Tehran, Iran

steven · Tennis legend

Week 32 - Futures F3 (15k) - Tehran, Iran

Salmon · Tennis legend

Further strengthens my belief that Howe is based in the Middle East!

Good luck to both guys.

Drew · Aug 3, 2008

15K event !!!

Some nice pts for someone who can go deep.

Vandenburg · Futures level

how old is howe?

steven · Tennis legend

36 if I remember right

steven · Tennis legend

Well, the danger 'of being arrested and held as a spy was worth it:

L32: Gregory Howe WR 1472 beat (WC) Omid Souri (IRI) UNR by 6-3 7-6(3)

L32: (7) Myles Blake WR 854 beat Karim Alayli (LIB) WR 964 by 7-6(5) 6-3

L16: Gregory Howe WR 1472 v (8) Jiri Krkoska (CZE) WR 904
L16: (7) Myles Blake WR 854 v (Q) Markus Kanellos (AUT) UNR

Three points up for grabs for Myles here ...

freerider · Futures level

finally things seem to be improving fotr blake. well done howe too

Salmon · Tennis legend

Yay! Another point for Howe.

Good to see Myles get a win. At last...

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Well done to boys for getting wins, and hopefully this tournament can re-start Blake's career as it's gone backwards this year... a QF or better here will do nicely though.

Howe gets another point as well, although unranked Iranian WC's are the kind of draw you dream about is 15K events

Vandenburg · Futures level

lol so whats the crack with Howe, is he some old man trying live the dream that he should have done in his missspent youth?

Happycynic · Pro player

Vandenburg wrote:

lol so whats the crack with Howe, is he some old man trying live the dream that he should have done in his missspent youth?

36 = old man? Makes me positively geriatric at 39....

Approaching middle age, perhaps. One can't quite be 'old' when statistically still in the first half of one's life.....

Hell, lets face it, 21 is quite late in the day as a pro sports person getting established in futures, old man! Andy was in the top 10 ATP by then. biggrin

Anyhow, I am very happy for him. Live the dream. His money,his life.

nicknack222 · Junior player

Im pleased for howe, he seems to be a true work horse, going to all these slightly mysterious countires. I do agree with salmon, that he must live out there, or know people or something.

freerider · Futures level

my theory is that he is an oil executive or something wwho just works on a laptop tim to time. hence why hes in middle east. but thats just my theory

steven · Tennis legend

No, he's what you might call a 'late bloomer'! It took him 14 years of trying before he got his first ranking point.

He:

- played his first Satellite (more or less equivalent to Futures) qualifying event 15 years ago when he was 21

- got into his first Futures main draw 6 years and 40 tournaments later when he was 27 (when he got thrashed 1 & 1 in the only qualifying round in Turkey then got a LL place)

- first qualified for a Future properly in 2006 at his 70th attempt, when he beat fellow Brit Joe Cooper 1 & 2 in the only qualifying round to get into Namibia F1. (he'd taken a set off Edward Seator in qualifying earlier this year, and throughout those 13 years, he won a qualifying round or two reasonably frequently)

- gained his first ranking point in 2007 at his 75th attempt when he beat Kevin Bentrechit of France 6-4 4-6 6-0 in Tunisia and his second a few weeks later (it came off on Monday)

- the only one of his three ranking points that he had left was from when George Barth retired against him in Pakistan last November, so today's point will have come as a big relief to him

Howe also plays on the UAE Tennis Ranking Circuit, where he is one of the top players - see http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?section=sports&xfile=data/sports/2008/may/sports_may725.xml and http://business.maktoob.com/NewsDetails-20070423145879-Get_Ready_for_the_Action_Packed_Coral_Beach_Resort_Open_Tennis_Championship_2008.htm - (that's probably why he likes to have a ranking point or two, to maintain that status), but he goes for Futures in the Middle East when he gets the chance and gets the odd Qualifying WC into the bigger events there, e.g. Doha (L 1 & 2 to Stakhovskiy) and Dubai (L 2 & 1 to Minar) this year.

Nice work if you can get it! wink

-- Edited by steven at 20:19, 2008-08-05

nicknack222 · Junior player

That is a pretty good theory. Would explain why he does have the money to travel to other counrtries outside of that area. I did hear somewhere, that he was a coach for a long time, back in derby, but im not 100% sure.