Eaton has good chance of a quarterfinal here in my view, Amritraj is a class grass court player with a lot of pedigree on the surface (doing well in Newport a lot). But this is only because he does what Chris does but much more consistently. Having seen him play a lot, Prakash tends to come at you a lot whenever possible, coming into the net and closing down any volleys with ease. What Chris has to do is serve as well as he can as Amritraj doesnt have the best of returns, but also just make as many returns as he can to the feet of the incoming Prakash as he isnt going to hit half-volley winners all the time. Like Josh did against him in Nottingham, just made a lot of returns and used the two shot pass effectively.
I would go with Eaton to win this one, purely on being the better returner and hopefully making his opponent play a lot of low volleys. He destroyed Amritraj in New Dehli on a slower hardcourt last year 7-6 6-1 so heres hoping for a deja vu.
If he were to win this match, he is obviously in good form and i would go with him to also beat Niland of Fischer on grass. Both very solid players on a hard court i would say but dont get come up the court enough to be effective on grass.

-- Edited by spud on Saturday 11th of July 2009 03:49:24 PM

(7) Andrew Anderson (RSA) def. (WC) Callum Lloyd (GBR) 6-3 6-1
(8) Artur Romanowski (POL) def. (WC) Josh Bolt (GBR) 6-2 6-2
(4) Jonathan Marray (GBR) def. Neal Skupski (GBR) 6-3 6-1
(5) Alexandre Renard (FRA) def. (WC) Michael Ward (GBR) 6-0 6-0

-- Edited by Guid007 on Saturday 11th of July 2009 05:57:42 PM

steven wrote:

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I assume this means that if Ken and Colin are coming to Manchester to play doubles, then they've also been given singles WCs ... other possibilities among the GB Top 25 are:

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just to let you guys know, The doubles do start on Monday or tuesday, and Ken has said to me on Facebook that he will be back Sunday(tommorow) and then he is going straight to manchester with Colin to sign in, they are definatley playing in it, from what Skuppers has told me

-- Edited by Flemski on Sunday 12th of July 2009 06:19:18 AM

so he's banned from ATP and challengers. Is this not a challenger? Does the ban just not start yet or something?

steven wrote:

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ForeverDelayed wrote:

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It's not the worst draw that the Brits could have had, but it's nowhere near as good as it could have been.

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Not the worst draw they could have had, perhaps, but not far off!

When you look at it compared with last year (which is a reasonable comparison given the points that need to be defended here, which require players to go a round further than last year in the first place), it's even more of a nightmare.

Last year, Smeets WR 153 was the top seed (he was beaten by Bloomers in the QFs on his way to the Final) and Boggo & Josh would have been the nos 2 and 3 seeds with the rankings they have now, whereas this year the top seed is in the top 100, all of other seeds are in the top 186 and neither Boggo nor Josh get a look in.

Also last year, the only British DAs or WCs who drew a seed in R1 were Bloomers, who drew no. 8 seed Chekhov and beat him, and Wardy, who lost to (3) Karol Beck in three sets, whereas this year they have drawn seed 3, 4, 5 & 7, with Boggo due to meet the no. 1 seed in R2.

Here are the GB matches with comparative rankings and H2Hs:

L32: Alex Bogdanovic WR 191 v Robert Smeets (AUS) WR 363 (H2H: 2-3, Smeets have won the last three)
L32: Dan Evans WR 292 v Qualifier

L32: (WC) Colin Fleming WR 479 v (3) Karol Beck WR 125
L32: Josh Goodall WR 192 v Qualifier

L32: (WC) Dan Smethurst WR 825 v (7) Lukas Lacko (SVK) WR 185
L32: (WC) Ashley Hewitt WR 1776 v Pierre-Ludovic Duclos WR 259
L32: (WC) Dan Cox WR 496 (4) Nicolas Mahut (FRA) WR 146

L32: Chris Eaton WR 533 v (5) Prakash Amritraj (IND) WR 159 (H2H: 1-0, 7-6(5) 6-1, New Delhi Ch 2008)

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I suppose so, but the three best players in Evans, Goodall and Boggo have drawn two qualifiers (and there is no-one in qualies to fear) and a guy who is one of the lowest ranked players in the draw and in his last 6 events has beaten one player, that being George Coupland, so in that respect, it's a very good draw for those three players.

Then Eaton has drawn a seed who is good on grass, but a guy who he beat easily the last time they met and will drop a lot in the rankings on Monday now his Newport points have dropped off, so that's not a bad draw either.

Yes Cox, Smethurst, Fleming and Hewitt have got bad draws, but it would have been hard to see Smethurst and Hewitt beating anyone in the draw so perhaps it's better than they have a tough opener than Evans/Goodall/Boggo who could potentially win the event.

Yes, I'm going on Monday and Tuesday or Wednesday.

If anyone knows that they'll be able to post throughought Monday give me a pm and Ill send you my mob number to keep everyone updated.

FQR: (q4) Jonny Marray WR 518 beat (q5) Alexandre Renard (FRA) WR 592 by 6-4 2-6 7-6(5)

Updated main draw with OoP details

L32: Alex Bogdanovic WR 191 v Robert Smeets (AUS) WR 363 (H2H: 2-3, Smeets have won the last three) - Tuesday
L32: Dan Evans WR 292 v (Q) Jonny Marray WR 518 (H2H: 0-1, Nottingham ATP Q 2007) - Monday 1st on Centre @ 12.00

L32: (WC) Colin Fleming WR 479 v (3) Karol Beck WR 125 - Tuesday
L32: Josh Goodall WR 192 v (Q) Andrew Anderson (RSA) WR 975 - Tuesday

L32: (WC) Dan Smethurst WR 825 v (7) Lukas Lacko (SVK) WR 185 - Monday 2nd on Centre
L32: (WC) Ashley Hewitt WR 1776 v Pierre-Ludovic Duclos WR 259 - Monday 2nd on Court 2
L32: (WC) Dan Cox WR 496 (4) Nicolas Mahut (FRA) WR 146 - Tuesday

L32: Chris Eaton WR 533 v (5) Prakash Amritraj (IND) WR 159 (H2H: 1-0, 7-6(5) 6-1, New Delhi Ch 2008) - Tuesday

Lots of Brits playing doubles tomorrow too.

-- Edited by steven on Sunday 12th of July 2009 07:04:19 PM