Well battled Alex. Pleased he made it through that one and nice to see him pulling through a close one like that. MORE PLEASE.

Thanks Spud, my scoreboard was playing up, so really appreciate the updates.

Well done Boggo. Lets hope he can avoid Andreev in the main draw.

If Boggo got Goodall in the MD, I'd say Goodall to be the favourite on grass and with his form at Notts, but Boggos had about 4 hours qualifying matchplay here so he has the feel now for Eastbourne's courts.

-- Edited by spud on Sunday 14th of June 2009 01:28:48 PM

Serving well...I am almost wishing more for a Boggo win at Wimbledon than Andy to win the title !!!

Hope he has a good week !

Well done, Alex! Now carry on from there, please!

yoshi has to see that as a much he SHOULD win.

Does Boggo know how to win a match easily? At least he got there in the end and delighted the huge crowd that had gathered around the court for his match, especially as it went deep into the third set.

He started off poorly as he couldn't find a first serve and Knowle took advantage of that by chip-charging and getting to the net (where he spent most of the match and didn't win many points from the baseline all match) and got the break, but Boggo found his returning game and broke straight back with a series of great low passing shots. And then he got the second break with some more good returns before serving out the set nicely.

Second set was pretty much all with serve although Boggo will be disappointed with his returning and time and time again he had a second serve to look at and couldn't get it in the court. In the tiebreak Boggo was twice a break down but on both occasions Knowle served an immediate double fault to give it back, and then gave Boggo the break for 5-4 when he missed a volley. But he hit a forehand return winner to get it to 5-5. Boggo served an ace for 6-5. On the match point, Boggo didn't quite do enough for the backhand approach and Knowle hit a backhand pass on the run for a winner. Unreturnable serve for 7-6, and then the DF from Boggo.

Third set followed a similar pattern on serve until 4-4 with no-one looking like being broken. Boggo though played two sloppy points to go 0-30 down and then the backhand winner he hit at 0-30 clipped the edge of the line. But he managed to hold and then had 0-30 at 5-6, but Knowle hit 4 huge serves to take it to a tiebreak.

Boggo got the early minibreak when Knowle pushed a forehand volley long and then had a huge slice of luck to get the second. Knowle's serve out wide sees Alex completely mis-hit a forehand return, but it turns out to be a perfect lob and goes over Knowle and lands on the baseline. And then he gets more luck at 5-1 when his forehand pass hits the tape and goes over Knowle's racket when he was ready to put the volley away. He finished it off with a forehand down the line to get a massive win for him and to delight the crowd, and the little kids who all wanted his autograph afterwards.

Massive win as it would have been hard to take if he had lost another close match having held a match point, and against someone with no singles pedigree. He got some luck in the tiebreak but sometimes that it all you need to turn it around.

Good draw to face Minar who hasn't exactly been in great form recently and has an awful record on grass, winning just twice. Once was against Michal Tabara back in 2005 at Wimbledon, who himself never won a match on grass and the other was against Bobby Reynolds who isn't exactly a top player. And perhaps a more telling statistic is that he lost to Vassallo at Wimbledon last year and that takes some effort on a grass court. Boggo should win... but that is always a dangerous thing to say. I'll be there to cheer him on anyway on centre court... just hope the rest of the crowd will be getting behind him as well.

Great draw for Josh as well as Ito is the weakest of the qualifiers and is a match that he really should be looking to win. If he is ever going to win an ATP match, then it surely has to be this one.

And with Ward playing a complete mug on a grass court and Fleming having someone who is out of form and not great on a grass court anyway, there's a slight possibility that we'll get four in round two!!!

I'd be surprised if all four got through though... think Fleming may miss out in the end. Good to see the organisers have spread them out as well so I'll try and catch all of their matches tomorrow.