That's a timely article, I think - 500 is beginning to look like a bit of a barrier again.

I hope Colin doesn't decide to concentrate solely on Challenger level doubles until he's got his singles ranking up high enough to get into a few Challengers too. I guess if he does start playing only Challengers for doubles purposes, he might be able to bridge the gap in the singles rankings by playing Challenger qualifying and getting into main draws that way. However, it's tough to gain points quickly that way when you're at his level and luck of the draw becomes excessively important.

I seem to remember that at the start of 2008, the Skupster was the player voted by us to be most likely Brit to create waves last year ... not a great prediction as it turned out. He doesn't seem to have regained his singles form this year either, so it's hard to see him breaking through now.

I would guess that Bam Bam has retired, though I don't know that for certain and I wouldn't be surprised to see him playing again in the grass season.

I think Kinsella may have returned to uni, despite the fact he made yet another career high last week, while Blake, Feaver and the long-time semi-retired Flan haven't played this year either.

Morgan Phillips may yet make it, but I can't see it happening soon - the Futures he tends to play in are so tough that it's likely to take him at least a few weeks before he can start getting direct entry and then many months more before he has any chance of being seeded in them.

Apart from Fleming, I agree with you that the main hopes for breaking the top 500 are those in the 18/19 age range.

Before the start of this year, I'd have tipped Marcus Willis to make an Evo kind of breakthrough this year (impressive in the few senior events he played last year, hardly any PTDs until the summer) but he's the only Brit in the top 1000 not to have scored a ranking point so far this year out of those who have actually played Then again, Evo didn't even begin to get going until his ban last summer, so there's still time!

What is perhaps most worrying is that I'm projecting (http://www.britishtennis.net/stats/20092008.htm) that about 80 points will be needed for a top 500 place by the end of the year, which means those with designs on the top 500 should be looking to have about 16 points so far this year. The actual points scored by the GB top 25 + Phillips so far this year are:

1065 Andy Murray
47 Alex Bogdanovic
25 Richard Bloomfield
18 Josh Goodall
18 Colin Fleming
16 Dan Evans
-----------------------
15 Jonny Marray
13 Alex Slabinsky
8 James Ward
8 Alexander Ward
6 Chris Eaton
6 Joshua Milton
4 Ken Skupski
4 Morgan Phillips
3 Matthew Illingworth
2 Sean Thornley
2 Dan Cox
1 Jamie Baker
1 Burnham Arlidge
1 David Rice
0 Neil Bamford
0 Myles Blake
0 James Feaver
0 Jonathan Kinsella
0 Ian Flanagan
0 Marcus Willis

Obviously Brits tend to score more heavily in the grass court season and in the autumn indoor season, but they don't tend to score that heavily in late March to late May, so that list gives plenty of cause for concern.

P.S. That list reminds me that I'd expect Jamie B to break back into the top 500 if he recovers before too long.

-- Edited by steven on Sunday 15th of March 2009 03:02:04 PM

Though he had a shocker this week, maybe chris Priddle? Did ok against Yani, pushed Obradovic, and started getting few wins as well