Thought we needed to start a new thread after a lot of talk about it recently.
At the moment its still early days for team selection for both sides. We know it will be played in Liverpool at the Echo Arena. Im not sure if anyone knows the speed of the court they will put down but they must get it right this time, unlike at the Braehead arena where it was way too slow for our guys. I would look to go with a very fast court and have the following team:
With Murray-
Andy Murray Josh Goodall Ross Hutchins 4th place being up for grabs out of:
James Ward - On a fast court would suffer.
Boggo - Best tennis player after Murray for GB, but cant cope under these matches.
Dan Evans - Challenging with the big lads now at a very encouraging age.
Chris Eaton - Of course has to be a very fastcourt, but has to show improvement from now on, is playing good doubles at the moment but his singles just isn't there.
Without Murray-
Josh Goodall Dan Evans Ross Hutchins Chris Eaton
Would like to hear other opinions from any others please.
Edit: corrected the dates in the thread title
-- Edited by steven on Sunday 16th of August 2009 01:17:00 PM
I would not like to put the pressure on any player (Andy Murray) to play 3 potential 5 setters in 3 days. Therefore I would be looking to come up with a doubles team without him. With Ross suffering a bit of late, and Flemski flying high, my team (if picked for tomorrow) would be
Andy Murray Colin Fleming Ken Skupski Boggo/Josh/Dan
For me, on current form and my sentiments above, the first three pick themselves. The fourth spot, the 2nd singles spot is awkward. How sad is it we do not really have a 2nd choice singles player at the moment. Boggo still pips it for me on form, Dan if we are considering the future.
Leaving Boggo out at the request of Jak my line up would be...
Andy Murray(1) Goodall or Evans(2) Fleming or Hutchins(3) for the dubs along with Andy.
1 - Must play ! 2 - Depending on who is ranked higher & form 3 weeks from the tie. Will more than likely be a fast indoor court so that would discount Wardy IMO. 3 - Depending on form not just ranking. If Colin could win a major Challenger or make a SF of an ATP then it would make the selection very interesting.
the difficulty is we dont have any indoor events prior to the tie to assess.
i agree that Wardy has not really shown us much on an indoor cts so far, even if he is GB no2 at the time of the tie. If Murray plays i'd be tempted to stick Evo in there. Josh, for me, will never be good enough long term.
i think he'll go with Hutch for the dubs to be honest. he knows Murray has a good relationship with him.
My Team:
Murray Evans Hutchins Goodall (Back up for both dubs & singles)
As an aside we always jump to choose quick surfaces for our ties, but maybe we should think twice b4 the next one. i am not talking about clay but maybe a outdoor hard. Murray's best surface we'd assume. Boggo (if he's ever back in contention) has had plenty of good results on the surface and now its tough to say what his best is - but we'll need to play the tie in North America. Evans also showing some hard Ct form and Wardy too.
However do we have a venue that can host an outdoor hard ct tie?
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
Murray Evans - the only potential 2nd choice. All others have tried and failed and Evo is the future. Flemski - because they are a double's pairing and not a scratch pair. Probably won't win but they are our best shot. Murray could play with Fleming but by a narrow margin I side with Flemski.
Hutchins shouldn't be chosen as it stands, you should pick the players in form. And Flemski are in form and given a choice between Fleming and Skupski I would pick Skpuski.
The dates in the thread title are wrong, now corrected.
Well the 20th-22nd is what the bbc site has on televised coverage so they must have it wrong. I didnt put 20th-22nd for no reason when starting the thread haha, nevermind, its right now.
-- Edited by spud on Sunday 16th of August 2009 08:44:42 PM
-- Edited by spud on Sunday 16th of August 2009 08:45:00 PM
I am surprised that so many of above have omitted GBR number 2 James Ward. How can the 2nd highest ranked British player next to Andy be left out and not given the chance to prove himself?