Disappointing to hear of Jamie's defeat, especially the first set. Galvani was favourite to win. At 31 he has bags of experience and a higher ranking. He reached a peak early in 2007 with a ranking of 99 and got to the second round of several big tournaments. He has been sliding down since then but he was the guy who beat Baker in the Wimbledon first round in 2008 6-4 6-2 6-3. He lost in 5 sets to Youzhny in the second. So a good test for Baker but sadly he will have to resit later!

It is probably a good thing Josh won the all British battle. He has the talent to develop further and needs to regain his confidence and fitness. Dom's relience on serve and volley has a more limited usefulness in the current game, although it is great when everything clicks.

I detect a note of discouraging realism in looking at the British guys and where they are at the moment. Painful truth is countries like France, Italy and Spain would not be bothering two hoots about futures tours and the players in them. But mostly they are all we have to interest us. True many have had illness or injury, so are better than their current rankings. Even so we will be hard pushed to get out of this DC level without Andy. At the moment we have no obvious form players who would definately beat the Liths. And the tie is looming near. If we do win, Ireland would be difficult and Monaco on clay does not bear thinking about. If we go down any further we will not even get single ties at the next level. But look on the bright side....supposing we didn't have Andy!

SF:  (1) Uladzimir Ignatik (BLR) WR 191 beat (4) Josh Goodall WR 309 by 6-4 3-6 6-3

Ignatik's obviously got his eye back in this week!