Week 18 - Challenger ($100K) - Ramat Hasharon, Israel

steven · Tennis legend

Week 18 - Challenger ($100K) - Ramat Hasharon, Israel

freerider · Futures level

should get at least one of them into the main draw. be good if we got the other a s a ll too!

steven · Tennis legend

L32: Josh Goodall WR 232 v Marinko Matosevic (AUS) WR 213

Matosevic was the player who beat Boggo 4 & 2 in a wind-affected match in Baton Rouge last month, going on to beat Fischer and Bachinger as well before going out to Ben Becker in the semis. He has won his last 10 sets against Brits, the last to take a set off him being Edward Seator, who won a tiebreak set against him in 2006 before being double bagelled in the next two. However, Slabba beat him in 2006 and Boggo really should have beaten him last month, so while Josh won't be the favourite to win this match, he should have a chance.

The plum qualifier spot is against Israeli WC Amir Hadad (Chris is 1-0 against him, Jonny 0-2 but they were a long time ago - a 3-set loss in the Bristol Challenger in 2001 and a 7-6(14!) 7-6(2) loss in Queen's qualifying in 2002), while the other Q slots are against Stadler (Jonny leads 1-0, 2006), Rajeev Ram and no. 3 seed Bobby Reynolds.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Dimitrov gets his weekly wild card.

Nice life!! I guess he has wild cards at Izmir, Rosmalen, Wimbledon and maybe even Queen's coming. While we're at it, Bastad organisers want him to play there, too.

steven · Tennis legend

I see what you mean - that's his 20th wild card and his 15th in the last 12 months!

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Salmon wrote:

Dimitrov gets his weekly wild card.

Nice life!! I guess he has wild cards at Izmir, Rosmalen, Wimbledon and maybe even Queen's coming. While we're at it, Bastad organisers want him to play there, too.

The Bulgarian Federation must be greasing a few palms... cry

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

QR1: (q4) Chris Eaton WR 380 beat Artem Sitak (RUS) WR 592 by 5 & 4 smile

QR1: (q7) Jonny Marray WR 417 beat Gilad Ben Zvi (ISR) WR 1871 by 1 & 4 smile

QR2: (q4) Chris Eaton WR 380 beat WC Bar Botzer (ISR) [not found on the ATP site] smile

QR2: (q7) Jonny Marray WR 417 lost to Noam Behr (ISR) UNR by 6-7(1) 4-6 cry

FQR: (q4) Chris Eaton WR 380 v Noam Behr (ISR) UNR

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Saturday 2nd of May 2009 05:46:41 PM

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

The other top 3 seeds have made the FQR, so Chris will be hoping they all win to open up the LL spot

-- Edited by The Knight on Saturday 2nd of May 2009 05:41:50 PM

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

damn, beat me to it!

Silver · County player

The Knight wrote:

The other top 3 seeds have made the FQR, so Chris will be hoping they all win to open up the LL spot

-- Edited by The Knight on Saturday 2nd of May 2009 05:41:50 PM

I hope he isn't personally. I hope he goes out there and wins! I'm not a fan of this suspicious tanking that goes on in some matches. Fes this week was an example in qualifying. Top seed lost atrociously in the last round but somehow managed to make it into the main draw.

Although some main draws have a habit of opening up very late in the game. I'm sure there was one event last year where the final round of qualies was utterly pointless because in the end the main draw had four extra spots so the last eight players got in regardless.

Go out there and win win win Chris! I sure hope none of our players rely upon LL spots at all. Not a good way to go about things.

Smidster · Challenger level

But don't LL's only get points if they win in the MD?

In the MD I don't see a slot for an LL anyway?

steven · Tennis legend

Yes they do and there are 5 points on offer for qualifying here. I'm amazed Jonny didn't beat Behr, but well done to Chris.

Vandenburg · Futures level

yeh eaton is coming into form prior to his top 100 grass form.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

Eaton is like a grass-court geiger counter...the closerhe gets to the grass the more wins he starts to accumulate

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Meanwhile, in the doubles ( wink ), the top seeds, unsurprisingly, are Jonathan Erlich & Andy Ram. Brit interest (seeds avoided for now, thank God!):

R1: Brendan Evans (US) & Jonnny Marray vs Michael Berrer (GER) & the dreaded Bulgarian & WC-winning brat, Dimitrov

R1: Josh Goodall & Brydan Klein (AUS) vs Sebastian Rieschick & Prakash Amritraj (GER/IND)

Given the tendency of both Josh & Klein to implode/explode on occasion, they should be on much the same wavelength in terms of temperament! It'll be interesting to see how they fare together...