sky sports reporting eatons win in their news ticker

Friday's matches

Josh Goodall (2-0, WR 196) v Chris Eaton (2-0, WR 390) - the winner is sure of a place in the team

James Ward (1-1, WR 288) v Colin Fleming (1-1, WR 585) - both have a 1-1 record, and the most likely scenario in which JL could justify giving the winner of this match the remaining spot on the team would be if the player who beat him (Chris in Wardy's case, Josh in Colin's case) wins the other what you might call 'live' match, though how he factors in the effects of the marathon match today is anybody's guess!

Alex Slabinsky (0-2, WR 340)  v Dan Evans (0-2, WR 455) - neither have won a match yet, so this is the equivalent of a dead rubber

P.S. Is this the first time a tennis tournament has been played using the Swiss system to decide pairings?



-- Edited by steven at 18:44, 2009-02-25

thank you so much for the updates josh and count, much appreciated. I'm a little disappointed that I was only able to read through it after it was all over.

I think that whatever the outcome on Friday, all six players should have proven to Lloyd that they do have stamina, they do have commitment and they can all play well. grr that they needed to prove it.

Whilst Eaton has undoubtedly proven that he can bring his best tennis to the big occasion, I do wish he could translate that to the lesser events and prove that he deserves to be in the big events more often by merit (ie ranking).

According to Wiki-answers -

The longest competitive singles match lasted 25 hr 25 min and was played between Christian Albrecht Barschel and Hauke Daene (both from Germany) on September 12-13 2003 at Molln Tennis Club, Molln, Germany.

and confirmed HERE

But Guiness Records have same match even longer

WHO:

Albrecht Barschel and Hauke Daene (both Germany)

WHAT:

30 hr 30 min 30 sec

WHERE:

Molln Tennis Club, Molln, Germany

WHEN:

11-12 July 2008 (? Guess when Guiness approved)

-- Edited by mjd at 19:11, 2009-02-25

What the dickens was the score in a match lasting that long?

It was a little over 6 hours 40 I think. I got there at 11 am when it was 2 all and they finished just before half 5.

I didn't really see too much of Evans v Fleming, I was only watching the occasional point when there was a change of ends in the other two matches. I remember someone wrote about Evo smashing a plant pot when he lost at a Futures a couple of months ago, and he certainly doesn't seem to be the best at coping with defeats. He smashed his racket against the curtains which separate the court when he was broken and when he lost the 2nd set kicked an empty water bottle right onto another court, luckily they weren't in the middle of a point. When Evo was broken at the start of the 4th he screamed 'for f*** sake' really loud for the whole hall to hear. This was the first time I'd seen either of them play singles, and on today's form neither were that impressive and probably don't deserve a singles spot. Fleming as a doubles partner for Hutchins is a possibility though. I expect Ward will win on Friday, given how he recovers from today's marathon.

Slabinsky v Goodall was definitely the match of the day, with most points won by strong groundstrokes and lots of long rallies (or as long they get on a fast indoor court.) I was standing next to Slabba's dad for most of the match, and while Slabba seemed to be on top at the beginning of most of the sets he just wasn't consistent enough at the business end. Goodall didn't seem best pleased about how Slabba was celerating his errors, shouting at him 'that isn't helping.' I'm not sure why Slabba would want to help his opponent and why he shouldn't be pleased about earning a break point. Goodall told Jeremy Bates that he was 100% sure this was the best match Slabba had ever played and he couldn't believe how loose Slabba was. I think he was just annoyed that Slabba kept coming back at him, but I think the right man won in the end. Alex was really disappointed at the end, dropping his racket and his sweat band on the floor and sitting in his chair for quite a while. He is a little unlucky to have lost both his matches, but he has had a pretty tough draw. Bates asked Lloyd if Goodall was in, to which he replied 'probably' and later Goodall went to have a chat with JL, presumably making sure he was virtually in the team, be it the 2nd singles player if he wins or as the back-up if he loses on Friday. Any bad blood between the players was certainly not there after the match as they were having a laugh together on the balcony watching the final match.