Not all the Brits have 'escaped' Mexico yet, and there have been so many w/ds that there are only two qualifying rounds.
QR1: Richard Brooks UNR v Graco Morlan (MEX) UNR QR1: Philip Barlow UNR v Adolfo Guerrero Contreras (MEX) WR
32-year-old Morlan played his first Futures qualifying match since 1999 last weekend, losing 2 & 4 to an unranked Mexican. When he was younger, his record in Futures/Satellites (mainly qualifying rounds) was W 10 L 50, including a 1 & 2 loss to a Brit, Hamid Hejazi.
If Richard can get past Morlan, which you would hope he would, he will play Mozart's one-time doubles partner (q3) Maximiliano Estevez (ARG) WR 1898, who reached a career high of 1364 in 2007. That was the only year he has played a Brit before, losing to Timothy Bradshaw.
Guerrero Contreras has never played in a Future before and if Philip beats him, he will play another Mexican who has never played in a Future before or an unranked Togolese player, so sticking around in Mexico could prove to have been a good plan.
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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: Richard Brooks UNR lost to (q3) Maximiliano Estevez (ARG) WR 1898 by 6-1 1-6 7-5 FQR: Philip Barlow UNR beat Ernesto Hernandez Romero (MEX) UNR by 2 & 1
L32: (Q) Philip Barlow UNR v (Q) Marc Rigal-Perez (MEX) UNR
I've just noticed on ITF that Richard (aged 27, CH 1036 back in 2003) is Philip's coach (Philip is 20, CH 1179 last April) and Richard's mother's name is Ma Pilar Ruiz, which could well be Mexican. I wonder if that's why they are here, maybe able to stay with Richard's relatives. This may also explain their more proportionate response to the swine flu scare, which is beginning to look more and more like it was massively overdone.
Anyway, it seems quite cool to be able to have your coach travelling with you because he wants to play in the tournaments as well!
More importantly, Rigal-Perez has a career high of 1466 from 2005, so this is a huge chance for Philip to get back on the rankings. The last time he played a Brit in singles was way back in 2004, when he beat Charles Crisp 3 & 1, though he did lose a doubles match against Mozart and partner in 2007.
-- Edited by steven on Sunday 3rd of May 2009 11:03:51 PM
-- Edited by steven on Monday 4th of May 2009 10:19:12 AM
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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!
This may also explain their more proportionate response to the swine flu scare, which is beginning to look more and more like it was massively overdone.
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18 cases out of 60+ million people? Blame ITV's hilariously appalling scaremongering. There are thousands of different strains of cold and flu viruses and here's another one.
Good luck to Philip though, definite chance of a point here!
Yes, but 'swine flu' has such a scary/dirty ring to it, it was obvious the media were going to run with it for as long as they could.
I'm not saying it's not a danger, just that it seemed to me from the start to be massively overhyped compared with seasonal flu, which itself kills thousands of people every year, and nothing I've seen since has changed that view.
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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!
steven wrote: I've just noticed on ITF that Richard (aged 27, CH 1036 back in 2003) is Philip's coach (Philip is 20, CH 1179 last April) and Richard's mother's name is Ma Pilar Ruiz, which could well be Mexican. I wonder if that's why they are here, maybe able to stay with Richard's relatives. This may also explain their more proportionate response to the swine flu scare, which is beginning to look more and more like it was massively overdone.
I pointed out that Richard was Philip's coach a month or so back.
With the swine flu it does seem that it was just the media causing a massive panic, it seems to have effected Mexico badly because it is a thrid world country with poor medical supplies and their medical structure didn't cope. It's just flu, people die from flu (or the after effects from flu) every day in countries all over the world.
I'm not suggesting it isn't dangerous. I just don't like the overblown nature of the media reporting it like it's a massive plague by using PANDEMIC all the time. It's like "STAY INDOORS!" everyday. It's another strain of the flu and as such every other strain of flu should get equal airtime, the flu-ist media b*****ds.
"Mexico canceled its biggest celebration of the Cinco de Mayo holiday Tuesday, a re-enactment of the May 5, 1862 victory over French forces in the central state of Puebla. Other holiday events also were canceled.
And experts inside Mexico's swine flu crisis center warned that the virus remains active throughout Mexico and could bounce back once millions return to work and school. "