One of those horrendous Friday start, four rounds of qualifying on clay affairs, and to make it worse the main draw is so strong that even Matt Illingworth has to play in qualifying this week. All the Brits have avoided section 1, where the top Q seed in a ringer WC ranked 254, but look who Matt's drawn in QR1
QR1: (q14) David Rice WR 886 v Jaime Sanchez-Canamares Rios (ESP) UNR - the top seed in this section is (q2) Gerard Granollers-Pujol (ESP) WR 606
QR1: (q6) Matt Illingworth WR 702 v Morgan Phillips WR 1359 - the other seed in this section is (q15) Marco Simoni (ITA) WR 904, Morgan is the next highest-ranked after that
QR1: (q16) Alexander Ward WR 950 v Santos Sanchez-Patino (ESP) WR 1799 - the top seed in this section is (q8) Oscar Sabate-Bretos (ESP) WR 715
-- Edited by steven at 01:58, 2009-02-27
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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!
I thought Morgan might win that one, but amazed at the scoreline. Hopefully it's confirmation that Morgan is getting close to his old form rather than Matt having a really bad day! He must be cursing the draw he got anyway!
Shock of the day has to be Dr No losing to J S-C Rios though - the Wardinator beat him 2 & 1 a couple of weeks ago!
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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!
FQR: (q16) Alexander Ward WR 950 beat (q8) Oscar Sabate-Bretos (ESP) WR 715 by 6-1 4-6 6-2
Another excellent win for Alex and as good a R1 draw as he could have hoped for as he tries to extend his 4-week ranking points-scoring streak - an unranked WC in R1, who has won some qualifying matches recently but is looking for his firt win over a player in the top 1000:
L32: (Q) Alexander Ward WR 950 v (WC) Gerard Gallego Bertran (ESP) UNR
-- Edited by steven at 18:11, 2009-03-01
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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!
Alex & Ricey were in the doubles (WR 1732). They played an unranked pair today, Victor Anagnastopol (Alex's partner last week, if memory serves) & Xavier Morera, & lost 6-2 2-6 [8-10]. Close, but as usual, not quite close enough!
* Two seeds out of the singles already, both retirements: the fourth, José Checa, beaten by Leandro Migani (ARG) 0-6 1-2 rtd & the eighth, Gabriel Trujillo, beaten 0-6 2-3 rtd by the Spanish LL, Marc Giner!
L32: (Q) Alexander Ward WR 926 beat (WC) Gerard Gallego Bertran (ESP) UNR by 3-6 6-2 6-2
L16: (Q) Alexander Ward WR 926 v John Millman (AUS) WR 456
Just as I'd hoped, five scoring weeks in a row for the Wardinator (who suddenly seems to have turned from out most mercurial player to our most consistent!) and Millman, whom he thrashed 2 & 2 last week, took out the no. 5 seed a faces him again in R2, as freerider pointed out. I'm sure the Australian will be up for revenge, but hopefully the margin of the win last week means that Alex has his number.
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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!
Having only ever reached one Futures QF before (in the midst of his wonder run to the Balaguer Final last May), 9 months later three more have come along at once!
Reaching those three QFs has entailed winning 6 matches in qualifying as well - he's 19-7 on the year overall.
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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!
having spoken to alex i can infrom you.. that he pulled out due to a slight foot injury nothing to serious but he will be resting next week adn not playing the futures.