Lucky losers shall be selected as follows: The order of the ranked players shall be randonly drawn thereafter the order of the unranked players shall be draw.
i.e. Hewitt and Knights will be 7th and 8th in line (in random order), the other 6 FQR losers will be 1st-6th in line, also in random order.
__________________
GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
The singles MD has been posted on the LTA site. Evo's the only British seed (3), while Kyle B was one of the two LLs... No doubt I can leave it to Steven to do the rest!
P.S. Fitzy's drawn Illy in R1!
-- Edited by Stircrazy on Monday 4th of May 2009 06:12:55 PM
I was worried driving to Edinburgh that the rain would spoil the day...I was so wrong...it was the wind that tried its best to test the players power of concentration. Of all the matches I caught Maniel Bains handled the conditions least best. He seemed to relie on errors from Fitzy rather than going for winners...not the best idea in such windy conditions.
Fitzy dropped his opening service game but that was it for his quota of 'bad play'. After breaking back he settled into hitting consistantly especially on his backhand...which Bains thought was the best side to hit to. He cruised to a 6-3 6-0. Not much of a contest in the end. Hope Andrew gets a nice draw.
Evans made a bit of a meal of it against Ashley Hewitt. Ashley has a nice forehand and was trading well with Evans but the experience of the 'Highest ranked 18 year old on the tour' came through and it was Hewitt who made more UFE's than Evo. Evans won in 3. 2-6 6-2 6-2
Saw little of Brassington against Marsalek but it Kyle started the quickest taking the first set and I think he was up in the second. Tried to bully young James on some line calls I felt but it was the youngster who broke Kyle at 6-5 to win 7-5 in the third. (2-6 6-4 7-5). Kyle seemed to have better ground strokes and Marsalek had to hang in there at times but his patience paid off. They played on the centre court which is down in a bowl so was less wind affected.
Pritchard v Mugabe was a real battle with so many changes in fortune. Ben seems to have a good way of getting rid of his frustrations...he smiles and laughs a bit ! The young guy from Uganda was quick on his feet and lightweight and possess good shotmaking skills. I really thought he would have too much for Ben...so credit to Ben for fighting back. Never giving up on points and quick to the net. Good first serve to. Ben won 7-6(0) 3-6 3-6
Pauffley strolled the first set against Cavaday and looked like he could wrap it up in under an hour but Nick just kept getting the ball back and it was Neil that started to miss-fire. Good use of the drop shot caught out Neil and the third set went quickly the way of Cavaday. Final score 1-6 6-4 6-2
Saw the last set of Smethurst...he was on the farthest away court...the German had no answer for his good solid strokes...when Dan broke at 5-6 to take the second set 5-7 the writing was on the wall. Dan strolled the 3rd with a nice bagel to keep his watching coach happy.
The singles MD has been posted on the LTA site. Evo's the only British seed (3), while Kyle B was one of the two LLs... No doubt I can leave it to Steven to do the rest!
P.S. Fitzy's drawn Illy in R1!
-- Edited by Stircrazy on Monday 4th of May 2009 06:12:55 PM
Not a bad draw...if Nick Cavaday had not reminded Kyle of the LL spot he may have missed out.
Great reward for Pritchard getting Carpenter the WC.
How far can Evans realistically climb by playing Futures? Surely he should be trying to qualify for a few Challenger tournaments instead to try and improve his ranking significantly? And why is he, along with other Brits, attempting to start the clay-court season now? Surely he'd be better off playing hard-court events, improving his ranking in the run-up to the grass-court season and making the transition to grass easier?
-- Edited by Guid007 on Monday 4th of May 2009 06:34:27 PM
I don't know about the hard court thing. Evans really enjoys clay (or at least enjoyed clay) and I suppose the plan before the injury was to try his luck at getting into FO qualies. Also, the only hard court events in this week are in Israel and Mexico, so there was no way to avoid clay.
R1 Bains/Evans WR 1574 vs Smethurst/Willis WR 2244 R1 Carpenter/Marsalek UNR vs Goransson/McGee (SWE/IRL) WR 1713 R1 Angus/Pauffley WR 2896 vs Cox/Milton WR 1872 R1 Fitzpatrick/Knights UNR vs (3) Alcaide/Olaso (ESP/ESP) WR 993 R1 Arlidge/Brassington WR2663 vs Cavaday/Pritchard UNR R1 Gabb/Hewitt UNR vs (2) Grassi/Piccari F (ITA/ITA) WR 617
Not looking very promising...
No, it ain't but there must be three pairs who will get through to the quarter-finals. You never know Gabb & Hewitt just might repeat their heroics of last week.
Stircrazy wrote:The singles MD has been posted on the LTA site. Evo's the only British seed (3), while Kyle B was one of the two LLs... No doubt I can leave it to Steven to do the rest!
P.S. Fitzy's drawn Illy in R1!
I've been out for a few hours, but the usual rundown of the R1 matches is coming in a few minutes.
I imagine you would have preferred Ben's draw here, Fitzy, but you've done really well to come through qualifying here and you've had a chance to get used to the challenging conditions, while Matt hasn't exactly been setting the world alight recently. Obviously if he finds some of his 2008 form, it'll be tough, but it's the kind of draw where you've got a chance - much better than getting one of the Spaniards or Evo! We need a pic of a that racket btw, I can't imagine quite what Drew means!
> Ben seems to have a good way of getting rid of his frustrations...he smiles and laughs a bit !
good for him - I fear I'd be more likely to turn the air blue and kick the flowerpots (or maybe not, because it's not fair to the organisers, but I'd want to! )
__________________
GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Guid007 wrote:How far can Evans realistically climb by playing Futures? Surely he should be trying to qualify for a few Challenger tournaments instead to try and improve his ranking significantly? And why is he, along with other Brits, attempting to start the clay-court season now? Surely he'd be better off playing hard-court events, improving his ranking in the run-up to the grass-court season and making the transition to grass easier?
I agree with this too, but only up to a point. He did play on the devil dust in Ostrava last week (albeit unsuccessfully), so he's not just starting now, he's not old enough to know that he's rubbish on clay yet (and he might not be) and he's still at the level where you'd expect him to be mixing Challengers and Futures - if he was avoiding Challengers altogether or intending to play less Challengers than Futures this year, then I'd be worried.
__________________
GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
I don't know about the hard court thing. Evans really enjoys clay (or at least enjoyed clay) and I suppose the plan before the injury was to try his luck at getting into FO qualies. Also, the only hard court events in this week are in Israel and Mexico, so there was no way to avoid clay.
Exactly. If Evans does enjoy clay, surely he should be attempting to qualify for a clay Challenger rather than a Futures?