Wardy going for clay. lets see how this turns out.
Start of the hard ct swing. lets see if Boggo can find his summer game here, last year i think he lost to Smeets 1st rd. but he could do with picking up some ranking points before we hit the grass season.
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
Big British contingent in Turkey (thankfully 64 qualifying on hard not 128 on clay) looks like all the youngsters are going. Arlidge, Bains, Brassington, Bull, Cox, Evans, Illingworth, James, Leahy, Milton, Modebe, Pauffley, Priddle, Rice, Smethurst, Thornley, A Ward, M Ward and Willis all have it down as priority one.
Feaver is back and is down on a number of events with Egypt as priority one. Bradshaw, Baxendine, Jones and Coupland (taking time off from uni) are in the States, Cavaday and Farquharson are in Croatia while Pritchard is down for everywhere with Russia as priority one.
Note: Many of the players have entered many different events but I just put down where they have got for priority one.
-- Edited by wolf on Wednesday 18th of March 2009 11:24:25 AM
bloomers and slabba's are 6th & 7th alts. Top seed here is reynolds, whose current ranking of 66 makes him way above the next best Spadea at 111. should boggo pull the short straw and draw reynolds he can take comfort that he has a 2-1 h2h over him.
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
Not a bad list in Baton Rouge, but other than a handful of players it is full of challenger level players who Boggo can beat on his day and there wouldn't be many players who you would desperately hope to avoid in round one (and with a couple of withdrawals he could even sneak a seeding)
Bloomers and Slabba should be very close to getting in as well, but if not, will be highly seeded in qualifying and coming from it might help Slabba get into form as well - Eaton and Fleming are also on the list but much further down, but may well come and give qualifying a go anyway.
And good see Ward remember that he can play on the clay courts which will help him during this part of the season - not that I'm expecting much though as the Mexico event is full of out and out clay court specialists.
apparently the courts in baton rouge are about the slowest hard cts possible. not and ideal jump from jersey, but at least Alex and the others will have a week break between the 2 (more if he doesn't make the final at jersey of course)
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
Will the points won by Evo and others today be counted in time to be used at the Futures event in Turkey? Am I correct to assume as Miami is a two week event, that points from this weeks challenger will not be added till the end of Miami, i.e. 6th April?
I was just wondering it the points Evo has won this week will affect his seeding in Turkey.
Thanks for the quick reply. I suppose it might not matter if Pierre Metenier who's 3rd on the entry list for Turkey pulls out. He's listed this as priority 2 for him. Then Evans would become the 4th seed, just as if the points had been counted.
I believe Evans has a very good shot at winning the title in Turkey. Hopefully with his improved ranking he can find some 15k futures to enter where he gets seeded. I think it's a bit too early to focus on challengers for him. Better to build up some points on the futures circuit and throw in the occasional challenger now and then.
Vandenburg wrote:when was the last time a brit made a QF of a clay challanger?? ive no idea..
May 2006 at the Telde Challenger in the Canaries, I think - Martin Lee thrashed a WC in R1 then upset no. 2 seed Lars Burgsmuller in R2 before going out to eventual winner Marc Lopez 7-6(0) 7-5 in the QFs.
It's best remembered though as the tournament where Adam Lownsbrough beat Michael Ryderstedt in qualifying. Of course he didn't really - Ryderstedt got moved up to the main draw and he got handed a w/o.
Adam then got walloped 6-0 3-0 ret. by Oscar Burrieza, who then drew Bloomers in R1, leading to the third Brit-related thing this tournament is memorable for - Bloomers thrashed Burrieza 3 & 0 to record what I believe is his only victory in a clay court Challenger main draw match!