Quite a good attendance at Devonshire Park today - certainly more than I was expecting there to be, but the good weather probably managed to bring a few more in and it definately got busier as the day wore on.

I'll start with my comments at the top of draw and then work downwards as that seems a sensible as any way of doing things.

Didn't see much really of Broady vs. Thomson other than just going over to the court to check the score, but caught the last set and a half of his match against Spadea (who when practicing beforehand must have been the only player in the world who would do so wearing a 50 Cent hockey jersey. How anyone can dislike this guy is beyond me?). Broady played a decent little match and looks to be a good prospect but on the day just found that Spadea had too much power for him and he couldn't deal with the length that Spadea was putting on the ball. Broady though has a good lefty serve and he used it well in the second set to trouble Spadea and he was getting frustrated that he couldn't break as easily as in the first set, but never really looked like dropping serve himself (or dropping a few pounds - when I first saw Spadea walking to the court I thought it must have been him, but was confused for a bit as he looks like he's carrying a bit of excess weight...) Shame the match finished with a double fault, but Broady is a good prospect if he can continue to play like he did today. Needs to add some more power to his shots but that will come with age and the backhand isn't as strong as the forehand, but he was the pick of the youngsters on show.

Just how small is Josh Milton? I had heard he was small, but didn't expect him to be as tiny as he was. He's a good little player though and was too solid for Golding in their first match, who just never got going and couldn't find any rythym on his serve at all. And he was getting frustrated with the line calls as well, which wasn't helping him.

I joined Milton's match against Ito when he was a break down in the 2nd set and he didn't look as if he was going to be able to get it back as Ito was playing solidly enough, but the pressue told at 5-4 and eventually he got the break back. He saved a match point when Ito put a forehand long and hit a lovely backhand down the line to get the break. Just a shame that he threw in a poor game at 5-5 to give the break away. Not sure whether the grass really suited Milton too much as it didn't help him get a lot of pace on the serve and his game looked a lot more suited to the slower courts with the good defensive groundstrokes and the quick movement around the court.

Dan Evans is a very strange player to watch. At times he produces some excellent shots but other times he just looks so average. In his first match he started so badly and couldn't put two shots together for the first couple of games, and it was only El Menshawy letting him back in with errors that gave him the break back. And then he found form and ran away with the match.

Against Dancevic, he was the better player for a set and a bit, but as soon as he lost the break in the second, he fell away very quickly. He should really have broken at the start of the second set but missed a very makeable backhand pass that a club player would be disappointed not to have made. And then when he was broken in the next game when Dancevic totally mis-hit a lob that ended up being perfect that was it for the match really. His performance can be summed up by the game at 1-5, where he started it with a great point and finished with a wrongfooting forehand that caused Dancevic to slip (which is what was the long break on the scoreboard) and for a few minutes it did look as if that would be it for the match as he didn't get up, and when he did, he was struggling to walk. But after treatment, the match continued, and Evans began with a double fault, then Dancevic hit a return winner off a serve that was in the middle of the box, Evans then hit a great drop-volley to get to 30-30, before putting two balls in the middle of the net. He's got talent, but just could not put it together.

Didn't see much of Hutchins but Jarryd Bant looked about 12. Sure he must have been older than that, but he never stopped a chance against a top doubles player.

Morgan vs. Carpenter was the worst men's match of the day (save for Smeets vs. Klaasen, but that was because Smeets could not put the ball in the court ans won most of his points with mis-hits or net cords). Both of them obviously have talent, but consistancy was a massive problem for them and they'd hit a great forehand winner one point, and then follow it up by threatening the ball wall with the same shot. Almost every game seemed to be going to deuce and both men saved a lot of break points, but on all of the break points, I can't really remember either of them hitting a great return. Neither of their serves was particularly good, but that will hopefully improve with age.

Bogdanovic vs. Morgan had a massive crowd around the court when it started. Not sure entirely why everyone had decided to watch this match, but there were no chairs available to sit on and there were two or three rows of people standing up. Unfortunately though the crowd was disappointed and within a few minutes the crowd wad dead as Boggo just ran away with the match. He didn't have to do a lot as Morgan just made a lot of errors, although did mix in some good play. Of the three games he won, one was a game where Boggo had 0-40 and should have broken but got an iffy line-call on one shot, and another was when Boggo served for the match and just let his concentration slip as well as Morgan just swinging from the hip. I see no reason why Boggo won't qualify, while Morgan still has a way to go to be a top player.

Klein vs. Smethurst was a nice little match and it's a shame that Smethurst didn't take any of the two set points, but he never had a chance on either of them. The first was saved with an unreturnable serve and the second he netted a difficult backhand pass on the run. Once Klein had managed to save them and hold for 5-5, he returned to a more stable state and stopped bouncing his racket off the ground every point and it was his mental breakdown that got Smethurst into the match anyway. Should have won the tiebreak more easily than he did as at 3-0 he hit a forehand that was easily on the line but was called wide...by the same line judge who made a couple of really bad errors last week at Queens...

Boggo, Spadea, Dancevic and Klein should qualify, although Klein partially depends on whether or not he wants to play Wimbledon qualies and partly on whether he can avoid losing the plot.

I'll be there again tomorrow (and for most of the week as well)

In the main draw, it's not a bad set of draws for the British WC's.

Lu is a good player on his day, but has had a set of awful results recently, as well as some injury problems, so Fleming has a chance of catching him a bit cold. And his career record on grass is not very good at all, so he has a good chance if he can play to his best.

Crivoi may be at a career high ranking, but for Ward, it's exactly the kind of draw that he would be looking for and he has a great chance of getting a win. He actually retired in his last match so he may not be 100% fit and he has never played a match on grass before, so if Ward doesn't win this, then it will be a disappointment.

Goodall gets a qualifier which isn't ideal given that they will be decent on the grass. He'd do well to beat Spadea or Dancevic, and Boggo would probably get the better of him as well, so he'll probably be hoping for either Klein or Klaasen to draw.

Boggo will be hoping for either Goodall or Minar, given that Minar has a career 2-7 record on grass and actually managed to lose to Vassallo at Wimbledon last year. Given Gabashvilli's season as well, drawing him wouldn't be the worst thing, while with it being Andreev's first match on grass, it would be winnable as well, so not a bad draw for the qualifiers.

Count Zero wrote:

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ForeverDelayed wrote:

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Boggo will be hoping for either Goodall or Minar, given that Minar has a career 2-7 record on grass and actually managed to lose to Vassallo at Wimbledon last year. Given Gabashvilli's season as well, drawing him wouldn't be the worst thing, while with it being Andreev's first match on grass, it would be winnable as well, so not a bad draw for the qualifiers.

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lets not get ahead of ourselves here, boggo's got to beat knowle 1st. i know he should, but its not a given. however 12pts would go down nicely.

as for the draws Bash spanked boggo last year i think, and Andreev is still a top 30 player. but a 1st rd win is now worth 20 pts so combined with the 12 from qualies it could be a decent haul, and help cover most of the 40 he is defending from last year. 

 

 

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Of course Andreev would be a tough draw and he'd be the big favourite to win that match but it's probably Boggo's best chance of beating him would be first up and Andreev does lose some strange matches in 250 events at times. Not that I'd expect Boggo to win the match, if he did get that far.

I don't see Boggo losing tomorrow, but that doesn't mean he won't do so of course. As long as he serves well and hits some good returns, he'll should get enough chances to break Knowle, especially as the courts don't look particularly fast, and given the Knowle will serve/volley on everything, it is a very winnable match and probably would be the player Boggo would have picked to face if he could choose his opponent from the last round of qualies.

I'll text the score through to you tomorrow.

Come on Goodall, lets put at least one win together here at a Tour event. A very good chance of a quarter final as well, if you can play a good match against Ljubicic or Seppi.
Goodall has now changed the type of rackets hes using going from Wilson to Head rackets which he really likes so heres hoping they can change his fortune at ATP level.

*1-1

-- Edited by spud on Sunday 14th of June 2009 10:57:17 AM

spud wrote:

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Goodall has now changed the type of rackets hes using going from Wilson to Head rackets which he really likes so heres hoping they can change his fortune at ATP level.

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HA yeah I remember him muttering under his breath at Notts "I can't wait to change rackets".

Boggo 1-3* Knowle

 

-- Edited by wolf on Sunday 14th of June 2009 10:56:14 AM

but break points back for boggo