Week 37 - Futures F14 (10k) - Nottingham, GB - Hard

steven · Tennis legend

Week 37 - Futures F14 (10k) - Nottingham, GB - Hard

alex03maccy · Grand Slam Champion

from josh's twitter "is playing Nottingham Futures this week. i feel ready to play..."

Josh · Challenger level

Probably a WC of some sort then for Illingworth.

spud · Challenger qualifying

Ive heard Josh Goodall might turn up here, whether that is a wildcard into the main draw or trys the qualifying, either way he will be top seed by far.

Smidster · Challenger level

Qualifying Draw

http://lta.org.uk/Global/Downloads/Results/2009/AEGON%20Pro%20Series/Nottingham%20SEP/Mens%20singles%20qualifying%20draw.pdf

The Magician Santoro · Top national player

8 qualifiers? is that normally the case?

mjd · Challenger qualifying

So Josh did turn up for qualies and at 249 is indeed top seed to No 2 Illingworth's 782

baxi2 · Lower Club Player

Josh is supposedly too ill to play Davis Cup according to John Lloyd

steven · Tennis legend

From twitter:

joshuagoodall: "is playing Nottingham Futures this week. i feel ready to play..."

I think that's a message to a certain JL.

TMS - 8 qualifiers is normal in Futures, c.f. 4 at Challenger & ATP level.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

seeing as Josh has broken down twice in his last two tournaments, im sure JL didn't want to take any risks

Silver · County player

I knew I should have entered this for the hell of it. Too bad, cos I'd have been able to get there and most likely go down in flames...

Ah well. I could always make a jaunt down on Monday if my car will take it...

steven · Tennis legend

The Knight wrote:
seeing as Josh has broken down twice in his last two tournaments, im sure JL didn't want to take any risks

I'm sure that's right, and I'm not suggesting that JL made the wrong decision here, but I wonder if Josh's comment backs up OEM's claim that there is more to this than meets the eye. I don't know why there has to be though, if you look at the points scored so far this year, Josh with 109 is behind Boggo 209, Wardy 162 and Evo 125 -add that to the breakdowns in the last two tournaments and what happened against UKR, and I wouldn't risk playing him either.

steven · Tennis legend

All GBR and/or unranked unless stated.

QR1: Oliver Evans v Jiri Sunkovsky (CZE)
QR1: Matthew Short v Bobby Saraby
QR1: Christopher Harrison v James Whike
QR1: Rogan Egerton v Nicolas Rosenzweig (FRA)
QR1: Chris Priddle v Riccardo Maiga (SUI)
QR1: Matthew Brooklyn v John Rambotas
QR1: Dominic Ross-Hurst v Fares Ghasya (LBA)
QR1: Craig Cox v Adam Thornton-Brown
QR1: Gavin Davison v Attlia Balogh (HUN)
*no Brit* Carl-Gustav Brottenberg (SWE) v Alain Nkouatcha (CMR)
QR1: Joshua Gledden v Geoffrey Gehrke (USA)
QR1: David O'Leary v Christopher Simpson
QR1: Robert Carter v Ben Hawker
QR1: Nikolai Snapes v Alan Bevan
QR1: Scott Dickson v Dario Pizzato (ITA)

QR2: (q1) Josh Goodall WR 249 v Marc Beckles
QR2: Daniel Sidaway v Evans or Sunkovsky
QR2: (q2) Matt Illingworth WR 782 v Short or Saraby
QR2: Jarryd Bant v Harrison or Whike
QR2: (q3) Max Jones WR 1129 v Egerton or Rosenzweig
QR2: David Baxendine v Priddle or Maiga
QR2: (q4) Andrew Fitzpatrick WR 1445 v Brooklyn or Rambotas
QR2: Ross-Hurst or Ghasya v Peter Piric (SVK)
QR2: Cox or Thornton-Brown v (q5) Yannick Jankovits (FRA) WR 1451
QR2: Daniel Pethig v Davison or Balogh
QR2: (q6) Paul Bishop WR 1596 v Brottenberg or Nkouatcha
QR2: Jonathan Brooklyn v Gehrke or Gledden
QR2: (q7) Ben Pritchard WR 1632 v O'Leary or Simpson
QR2: Carter or Hawker v Daniel Smith (RSA)
QR2: Snapes or Bevan v (q8) Daniel Glancy (IRL) WR 1744
QR2: Nikki Roenn v Dickson or Pizzato

e ou nose · Newbie

Goodall has only been picked for the Davis cup once and that he had to play a tournament for. Look back at his record over the last 5 years ,does that seem fair,ie one year he qualified for 2 grand slams reached a final of a challenger and won a futures then 1 month later was not selected for the Davis cup match !!

steven · Tennis legend

Are you talking about the 2006 tie away to the Ukraine when JL picked Muzza, Greg, Jamie B and Del? In which case, yes, you've got a good point.

I assume Del was ranked well above Josh in doubles at that point and that's why he was picked, but Jamie B was ranked lower than Josh in singles and doubles, Josh's slam qualifying record was excellent and he'd have made a good back up doubles player too.

Maybe the surface (clay) influenced JL's pick, because I remember that there was a perception at the time that Jamie B was one of our better up-and-coming players on slower surfaces and Josh's game is certainly better suited to faster courts ... or maybe there were 'dark forces' at work of the kind Neil Harman alluded to.