Has your informant thrown their phone up in the air because Slabba's won or smashed it to smithereens on the ground cos he's lost?

safin in the sf's on grass, yeah right

what kind of from are muller and baggy in? do our boys have a chance?

Gilles got Mullered by ERV in straight sets this week before Josh put ERV out in R2, so what more can he ask for!

Baggy wouldn't need a WC if he was in good form.

Qualy results are awful :( Not a single win! Better luck in the MD lads...

here's a short clip of boggo against Frankie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlNNfzRABp4

and of Slabinsky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KVvFkX0Un8

-- Edited by The Knight on Saturday 6th of June 2009 07:47:11 PM

This is what I mean by the unique 'stands' they had.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6RIBvIEjgA

I may as well type up a few thoughts on the matches from yesterday.

By the time me and the Count returned to Queens and managed to get in, play was obviously already underway. Unfortunately they hadn't managed to put up a revised order of play anywhere in the building (I eventually managed to find one but now until about 12, thus leaving us no knowledge of who was playing where).

We tried to find our way around the building to find some of the courts, and found the signs giving directions to courts 3-8. But instead of actually being tennis courts, they'd all been carperted over and turned into the players lounge/restaurant area etc. Quite how anyone was supposed to work out you get to courts 7-8 by going up a narrow staircase and then another one before you find the signs to the viewing gallery - the only reason I managed to find this out was because I got lost on my way back to court 1 and 2 and went up the staircase by mistake!

When we first got to courts 1 and 2, the viewing gallery was very narrow and it was like IKEA has decided to open a store on the viewing gallery. Evans was playing Falla at the time and when we got there, Evans had 15-40 on the Falla serve. Unfortunately he played a couple of poor points and Falla hit a couple of big first serves to hold, and then the umpire announced GSM Falla, so we didn't get to see any of that match.

By the time I had managed to find courts 7 and 8, when I got to them, I saw Boggo walking off court to a lot of applause from those watching on that court, while Dancevic was sitting in the chair with his head in his hands. And the order of play I had managed to find had Bogdanovic having won the first set 7-5 written on it, so given the reactions around the court, it was natural to assume that Boggo had won. Unfortunately this wasn't the case, but it did seem like Boggo played a good match speaking to someone who had seen it.

With Cox playing on a court that doesn't exist and Eaton having already lost, it was just Slabba who could have a chance for the Brits. And the start of his match with Giraldo was perhaps the strangest I've seen for a while. When both men had got to the court and were sitting in their chair for a while, I began to wonder why they were just sitting there...until I noticed that the umpire hadn't shown up! Then Steve Ulrich, who was just a few metres away from us, got a message on his walkie-talkie that they couldn't find the umpire. Eventually he managed to show up though.

Slabba started well and had the first chance to break at 3-3 when he had 0-40 on Giraldo's serve, but never really had a chance in any of the points. And then when he was serving at 4-5, he played a sloppy game, missing too many easy balls and gave away the set.

Giraldo though went through a period of 5 or 6 games where he just didn't miss a ball, and it wasn't like he was just pushing to the middle of the court. He was just going for his shots and making a lot of them, and the points where either ending with a winner from Slabba or a winner from Giraldo.

Slabba was serving brilliantly and time and time again he would manage to produce a massive serve when under pressure, and his volleying was excellent as well, but just couldn't win a point on Giraldo's serve. Other than the game he had break points in, I think he may have got to 30 once in the opening two sets. Somehow though he managed to win three points on Giraldo's serve in the tiebreak and took it to a final set.

He saved one break point at 1-1 with another huge serve and was gradually getting more into Giraldo's service games... getting to 30 on a couple of occasions, then to deuce, before finally getting his break point at 5-6, while at the same time not being under kind of pressure on his own serve.

On the match point Slabba hit a good return and looked to be the aggressor, but Giraldo hit a massive backhand down the line to switch the momentum and then eventually forced Slabba to hit a forehand on the run long.

Giraldo though was getting more and more annoyed at how the match was going, screaming out every time that Slabba managed to get out of a tight occasion with a big serve, and I don't think he could believe that a WC who had barely won a match all year was pushing him so close.

Slabba got the first minibreak in the tiebreak with a forehand winner, but snatched at a forehand the following point and netted it to give it straight back. And from then on it went with serve.

At 5-5, in the middle of a long rally, Giraldo hit a backhand that looked to have landed just long (I thought it was long, Slabba thought it was long, as did one of his support team, but the other one thought it had just clipped the edge of the line). All day though Slabba had been getting no luck with the line calls - it seemed that every tight call was going Giraldo's way - maybe this is the new method the LTA are using to make it harder for their players.

Slabba took a long time to compose himself before he served a massive ace to save the match point, and then had another of his own at 6-7, but Giraldo served an ace to save it. Giraldo then hit a backhand down the line winner to have another match point at 7-8, but Slabba served another ace to save it.

But Slabba missed the first set at 8-8, and his second serve looked to be out as well (he at last got a line call in his favour), but missed the forehand (can't remember whether he hit it long or into the net).

And on the match point at 9-8, Giraldo's serve was clearly long (and maybe wide as well), but it was called in, which no-one watching the match could believe. Even Giraldo possibly thought it was out because after hitting the serve he stood on the baseline like he was preparing for a second serve.

Quite how Slabba has lost so many matches this year to the players he has makes no sense as on the faster courts his game looks so good. He has a massive serve (which looks better than last year), although it was helped by the lightening quick indoor court, while his forehand, backhand and the volleys all look better than they did at Surbiton last year. Hopefully he can build on this win and take the confidence of pushing a top 120 player all the way and only losing because of the line judges.

Speaking of whom...it's safe to say that the umpires and line judges didn't have the best day and pretty much every player had managed to have a problem with them at some point during the day.

Malisse in particular had a nice run-in with the umpire in his second round match with Dancevic. Serving at 3-4 in the final set, with the score at 15-30, Malisse serves what is clearly an ace, only for the umpire to overrule it. Cue the typical Malisse tantrum after finding out it had been overruled, and called the umpire a loser. As he walked off, he muttered something about "if i see you in the street then you're..." as the umpire gave him a warning for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Malisse immediately replied by telling him that "being blind was unsportsmanlike". It may have worked as when he served for the match at 6-5, he hit two serves that were clearly long (I was directly above the line) and neither were called out.

The following point would have killed him off had he lost it at 15-40. Malisse plays an approach shot and Dancevic's backhand pass hits the net and drops dead as Malisse is already on the stretch, but somehow manages to complete the spin and get to the ball before the second bounce and win the point.

Marinko Matosevic was another who was screwed out of his match by an umpire. Serving at 3-4 down in the second set and at 40-30, he serves a second serve ace that looks in, only for the umpire to overrule it and call it out. And then the next point, Stakhovsky goes for a winner and his shot is just wide, but the umpire overrules it and calls it a winner. This being a shot on the far baseline and sideline from where he was, and worse still, gives the point to Stakhovsky even though Matosevic could have reached the shot!

When I was waiting to get the train to Victoria, Matosevic was waiting for the same train so I spoke to him for a while, and he was not happy about it. He said that that kind of umpiring would be seen at challengers or event futures events, so to get it at an ATP event was just a complete joke. And his day got even better when he realised that he'd managed to lose to his train ticket back to where he was staying, and would have to buy a new one at Victoria!!!

Malisse, Mahut, Anderson and Stakhovsky should win the 4 matches today based on what I saw.