Week 29 - Penza Challenger [50K] - 2009

steven · Tennis legend

Week 29 - Penza Challenger [50K] - 2009

spud · Challenger qualifying

If they can get in , I would like to see them both team up for the doubles, they have been quite a force on the same side of the net before.
Good luck to both of them.
Need the draw first but, good chance of a quarter final from either of them with such a weak field, presuming no slip ups from Cox in quals.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

hopefully these courts are quick and low, and the weather really hot

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Wasn't convinced that Cox would actually come out to Russia to play this but it looks like it is going to be worth it now he's the 3rd seed in qualies.

Should qualify from the draw he has, and hopefully he and Eaton can be rewarded with a good draw.

spud · Challenger qualifying

The Knight wrote:

hopefully these courts are quick and low, and the weather really hot

Yeh definitely, for Eaton to have any effect in this event, they have to be like lightning. Really hope he can do well, he really needs some points to stay around the 400-500 mark so he can scrape into ATP qualys in the winter where he can do the damage. 30 points including Manchester from last year are coming off soon, so with this being his last shot at a challenger MD for a while probably he needs a quarter or semi just to help the sting of the 30 points coming off not as bad. He should win/do very well in the Ilkley future next week being on grass. So a good warm up here would be very good for him.
After the two British futures- (week 30-31). He should try qualifying in the weaker challengers in Turkey, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. I think this is the best option for a chance of cheap points. His ranking will be to low to get directly into them but thats an easy 3 points for qualifying for 3 straight weeks.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Dan, we want double bagels.

I remember that Chernov did well here last year. But looks like he has done very little in the last few months.

steven · Tennis legend

L32: Chris Eaton WR 519 v (WC) Anton Manegin (RUS) WR 1762

Chris couldn't have really asked for a nicer R1 draw here

but unfortunately the winner will probably face the no. 2 seed Kukushkin WR 174 in R2. cry

Edit: not so bad after all, at least not if the courts play very fast - Kukushkin plays mainly on clay and, much better than that, he was the player Chris beat in QR1 at the start of him Wimbledon run last year, so good memories there! biggrin

Edit: more about Manegin - His record in Futures (mainly in qualifying) is 6-30. In his last tournament, he lost to an unranked player in qualifying, got in as a lucky loser and then got thrashed 1 & 1 by Stian Boretti WR 967 (which I'm sure Vandenburg will confirm means he must be really bad!) and his record against Brits includes losses to Sean Thornley 3 & 2 and Orion Modebe (yes, really!), with a lone win against Giuseppe Moeri-Delgado who has never won a match in Futures qualifying.

-- Edited by steven on Saturday 18th of July 2009 09:52:20 AM

spud · Challenger qualifying

A must win here for Chris. Play a consistent match and look to attack Kukushkin in the second round. Hopefully Eaton doesnt play a silly match like he has done in the past against the players he should beat.

spud · Challenger qualifying

It says this tournament is a $50,000 +H on the ATP website. Wouldnt that mean the same points as a $75,000. Meaning 8 points for a second round instead of 5? 80 points instead of 75 for the winner?

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

steven wrote:

L32: Chris Eaton WR 519 v (WC) Anton Manegin (RUS) WR 1762

Chris couldn't have really asked for a nicer R1 draw here but unfortunately the winner will probably face the no. 2 seed Kukushkin WR 174 in R2.

Edit: not so bad after all, at least not if the courts play very fast - Kukushkin plays mainly on clay and, much better than that, he was the player Chris beat in QR1 at the start of him Wimbledon run last year, so good memories there!

Edit: more about Manegin - His record in Futures (mainly in qualifying) is 6-30. In his last tournament, he lost to an unranked player in qualifying, got in as a lucky loser and then got thrashed 1 & 1 by Stian Boretti WR 967 (which I'm sure Vandenburg will confirm means he must be really bad!) and his record against Brits includes losses to Sean Thornley 3 & 2 and Orion Modebe (yes, really!), with a lone win against Giuseppe Moeri-Delgado who has never won a match in Futures qualifying.

-- Edited by steven on Saturday 18th of July 2009 09:52:20 AM

So it's not just the LTA who give wild cards to completely hopeless players then!

Not sure what this bloke has done to earn a wild card, but I'm not going to complain as that is one of the easiest first round matches you could get, so Eaton should definately make the second round here.

Qualifiers get 4th seed Kudryavtsev, Juska, 7th seed Cervantes-Huegun and wild card Basilashvili, so reasonable draws if Cox does qualify.

steven · Tennis legend

spud wrote:
It says this tournament is a $50,000 +H on the ATP website. Wouldnt that mean the same points as a $75,000. Meaning 8 points for a second round instead of 5? 80 points instead of 75 for the winner?

I think the +H on the ATP Challengers page is a mistake - the drawsheet says it's a plain 50K and the points given on the drawsheet suggest it is too, while on the ATP Challengers page (where the tournaments are usually listed highest level first), Penza is below Lexington which is a plain 50K.

Penza was also a plain 50K in 2008. There's a remote possibility that it's been upgraded to a 50K+H this year and they've forgotten to change the drawsheet (though it's unusual for tournaments to switch from plain to +H status - most countries tend to have all +H tournaments or all no H tournaments), but until the 27 July rankings come out and say otherwise, I'm going to assume it's a plain 50K.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Cox lost in the second round to Aleksander Vasin, wow!

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Pretty dire loss for Cox against Vasin. The guy is 23, ranked in the 1700's, and when he picked up his sole ranking points he beat a player ranked 1800+ at the time.

Unless he was injured, then there's no way to explain how Cox could possibly lose to Vasin, other than a horrible performance.

steven · Tennis legend

Ugh, an early contender for rubbish result of the week, which hopefully won't be beaten. That's a long way to go to lose to a WR 17xx cry

spud · Challenger qualifying

Cox top seed in doubles qualifying.
Eaton in MD doubles against the second seeds.