Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive.... those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience
Josh & Wardy are in the same quarter of the draw this time and Slabba & Eaton are both in the same quarter too.
L32: (3) Josh Goodall WR v (WC) Vishnu Vardhan (IND) WR L32: James Ward WR v (WC) Rohan Gajjar (IND) WR L32: (6) Alex Slabinsky WR v Tomas Cakl (CZE) WR L32: Chris Eaton WR v (2) Prakash Amritraj (IND) WR
I'll add the rankings a bit later.
Overall, not a good draw, with Slabba playing Cakl who beat Josh in the semis this week, Chris facing the no. 2 seed and Josh & Wardy due to meet in R2.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Not one of the better draws, but they all got good draws last week, so it evens itself out I suppose in the long run.
Eaton has a tough task against Amritraj, but has a chance as they are similar players in the way they play, and Amritraj's run to the Newport final has left him vastly overranked - if Chris plays as well as he can, he can push Amritraj and maybe steal a couple of tiebreaks, as Amritraj lost to Motumora last week, who isn't a special player at all.
Slabba has a toughie against Cakl judging by his form last week, but I think this would be the first bad opening draw Slabba has had in challengers this year, so he can't complain about it... he can win it if he plays well, but may have to up his level a little to get the win.
Ward and Goodall, although they have to meet in round 2 have lovely opening matches, and both should have no trouble winning them, and they are in a reasonably weak Quarter (not as weak as the top quarter though), so Goodall has a good chance of repeating his semi final run.
After winning the title last week, Goodall and Ward choose not to compete in the doubles this time, which seems a strange decision, but I guess they want to concentrate on singles/Goodall wants to get to the US as soon as he can if he does lose.
Eaton and Slabba get a pair of Indian WC's in round 1, although I have no desire to type out the name of one of them as I'll be here all day!
Goodall, Ward, and the doubles are on the OOP for tomorrow.
Wardy's opponent lost to Alistair Felton 6-0 6-3 back in May so surely Wardy will cruise through on that one, I'd fancy him against Goodall if they do meet.