Week 2 - Australian Open men's qualifying

steven · Tennis legend

Week 2 - Australian Open men's qualifying

seagull · Hall of fame

So Boggo not seeded then - even though Golubev pulled out??

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Steven, who is Eco?

gjr · Club Coach

Going to keep an eye on whats happening tomorrow. I may leave work early and give EVO some support.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

not a bad draw really, Boggo's section looks manageable, although tough 2nd rd as Polansky has improved recently. he was struggling with a little bit of a shin problem at the turn of the year, fingers crossed he's over that. how did slanar get in without a WC? massive ranking drop since the draw closed i guess?

Wardy and EVO both get good opening rounds, tough 2nd rd's for both

gjr · Club Coach

I think the forecast is for a little bit of rain tomorrow. Not much has it's been roasting last couple of days but we may get some.

steven · Tennis legend

No, Zemlja WR 168 was the last seed, Boggo WR 171 was the second highest-ranked player to miss out behind Ryan Sweeting WR 169 since Brzezicki WR 170 isn't playing.

Opponent details

Evo - Berman is listed as USA not AUS by ITF, which is intriguing, especially since he was playing for New Zealand earlier in his junior career! He turned 17 last week, CH 1338, currently junior no. 261 (JCH 132) has been qualifying for Futures for the last 6 months but not really getting anywhere - one of his 2 ranking points came when his opponent retired at 5-5 in the 1st set, 3-0 against Brits in juniors, though el Menshawy and Turbervill both took a set off him. No idea how he got a WC here!

Wardy - Reid is 19, CH 490, tends to go deep in Futures but fail to qualify for Challengers. He had a good time in Brisbane ATP qualifying last week, beating Stoppini WR 212 before falling to Reister WR 172, 7-5 in the 3rd. His junior CH was 18 in 2008, a year in which he lost to Dan Smethurst (the only Brit he seems to have played before) in both RG juniors and Roehampton juniors.

Boggo - Slanar is 28, CH 198 in April last year, 1.92 m tall. He must be in with a protected ranking, having not played between April and mid-October and slumped in the rankings as a result. He got thrashed 0 & 2 by Matt Reid (see above) soon after coming back in October and has won 4 matches since then, all in Challenger qualifying, with Benoit Paire (now WR 345) being his only scalp inside the top 700. He lost 6 & 3 to Ouanna WR 129 in the Nouméa Challenger last week. His last match against a Brit was a 3 & 6 win against Josh Goodall in the New Delhi Challenger in 2007. He lost to a 16-year-old Andy Murray in a GB Future back in 2003.

steven · Tennis legend

Count Zero wrote:

Steven, who is Eco?

That'll be Dan after a dodgy curry! (Evo gone green ... geddit?! ashamed

)

Count Zero · Tennis legend

thanks for the round up Stecen

i saw some rain predicated too, but also temps maxing out at around 20 degrees, a bit more manageable for our guys than the 40+ it was hitting at the weekend.

gjr · Club Coach

And the rain has finally come.

Temp dropping I think also. If the rain stays away it could be a nice day to play tennis tomorrow.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Gir, are you in Melbourne?

-- Edited by Count Zero on Tuesday 12th of January 2010 10:57:28 AM

gjr · Club Coach

Count Zero wrote:

Gir, are you in Melbourne?

-- Edited by Count Zero on Tuesday 12th of January 2010 10:57:28 AM

Yeah! Almost 10 years now. This is my favourite part of the year.

Been to the AO the every year for the last 4years. Was at the final when Nole won.

Watched the Andy - Tsonga match the other year and all Andy's matches last year.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

ok cool (well it is in London!), are you going to the qualies at all?

gjr · Club Coach

Count Zero wrote:

ok cool (well it is in London!), are you going to the qualies at all?

Never been to the qualies before but I have to work for the next 3 weeks which makes things difficult. I should be able to leave early tomorrow and catch Evos match. Depends on the weather really.

The last 2 years I have taken the 2 weeks of the AO off and gone almost every day, mainly with tickets to Rod Laver but this year I have decided to give that a miss. The prices this year are disgraceful and up until to SF I think I can get tickets.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

For the first round, you couldn't really ask for a better draw for the Brits than two wild cards and a player with a protected ranking and I would expect all three of them to get into the second round, especially after the way that they have started the year.

Probably a decent overall draw in terms of getting a qualifier into the main draw with Boggo in one of the easiest sections and the seeds is Evo's sections being clay-courters, so hopefully they can take advantage of that and reach the main draw.