LOL, I can trump that!

De Bakker played the Solihull U14 and U16 in July 2001, when he was not quite 13. He went out in the round of 16 in the under 14's to a Brit called Tom Kisiel, but I don't know how he got on in the U16s.

There were several Dutch players, and I vaguely remember TdB being a c*cky so-and-so.

The Solihull U14 was a huge tournament in those days - there were about 200 entries for the Boys U14.

.... mumble mumble .... good old days ... mumble mumble ... bring back the rope ....



-- Edited by Ratty on Saturday 24th of April 2010 11:53:40 AM

Yeah, because the point of that post was not to talk about de Bakker but to have a forum-wide competition of who-can-trump-who.

-- Edited by LadyTigress on Saturday 24th of April 2010 04:20:34 PM

Quite so, irony and self-deprecation always seem to miss the mark on message boards unless sign-posted with lots of  

-- Edited by Ratty on Sunday 25th of April 2010 08:31:30 AM

So I'm glad we're cool, one should always be wary of arguing with a karate champion ... 

-- Edited by Ratty on Tuesday 27th of April 2010 06:03:25 AM

Olek's match against Rafa has just started, if anyone's interested. He's now ranked 62 in the world and defeated Seppi in round one to get this match up against Rafa.

Olek has served first and held, now Rafa's serving. Olek looks pretty calm out there so far, good serving from him but his shots need to be more precise. He cuts a slight figure next to Rafa - definitely slighter build and as for height all I know is that he's shorter than 6'3" tall, SS estimated him at 6'0" dead on. There was one shot so far where Olek was in a really good position, but the ball bounced really slow off the clay and gave Rafa time to move and respond as Olek hit his shot... he needs to put more speed into proceedings, either by moving up to the ball faster or working on his strength and power in those shots. Probably a bit of both.

Rafa's just broken him in the third game. 1-2 so far, Rafa to serve next.

3-1 and Olek serving. Olek seems to favour using the drop shot to try and win cheap shots, but against Rafa it's not working for him. He's doing much better on his service games than his returns. Peter Fleming is reserving judgement but Millns is praising Olek's groundstrokes.

5-3, Olek serving to stay in. Millns points out that Olek is now ranked high enough that he will be playing in Roland Garros. Fleming doubts Olek's ability to sustain his high energy levels over 5 sets. 5-4 now, Olek holds with a ridiculous lob-dropshot.

6-4, Rafa takesthe first set. Only the one break of serve though, and a pretty decent contest, given that some commentators and experts suggested that Olek might go down 6-0 6-0 against Rafa.

SS commentators have at last mentioned the fact that Olek is the youngest player in the top 100. They reckon he'll soon crack the top 50. That tbh would not surprise me, from what I've seen of Olek. I can't remember where I said it now, maybe earlier on this thread, but for certain he'll crack top 50 by the end of this year, and possibly the top 40 as well. Dunno about top 30, that may be a task for next year. Fleming thinks Olek's approach to this match is great. He's getting in some solid winners now, and I'm really liking his serving style, its quite swift and fluid and it's doing the job for him here. SS commentators said "speaking of lookalikes, could this be Martina Hingis in disguise?" Well... he has the same lustrous locks as Hingis, and is wearing a hair band and a ponytail to boot. LOL, an amusing comparison from the SS team.

Whao! Crazy good point from Olek! Drop shotted Nadal and whacked a passing winner on the return. Nice one. All on serve in the second set so far, 2-1 and Rafa about to serve. Fleming now comparing Olek to Tipsarevic, a quirky and tricky kind of player who can create his own chances and opportunities, and then go for broke on his shots. Also saying he has a really good sense of when to add top spin and when to flatten out. This service game of Rafa's now 8 minutes long... real struggle at deuce for control of the game. Olek got the ADV now, using the flat angled cross-court winner, seems to be a fave shot fo his. Break point. Deuce. Ten minute game now. Rafa pulls through.

Umpire just incorrectly called the score as "two games to one", but Rafa's hold makes it 2-2 with Olek next to serve. And he got him again! Drop shot combo'ed with a lob, and Rafa just can't seem to get to it in time! Fleming says Olek is reading Rafa well. 60 SECOND GAME! NICE. Olek lays down two aces and two quick winners! 3-2. Peter Fleming says that Olek "has a forehand and a half". Also praising his calm demeanour on court.

Gah, broken! 4-3 now to Nadal and to serve next. 5-3, could be over very quickly now. Brilliant effort from Olek though. He'll have enjoyed the experience that going up against Rafa has given him, and he certainly proved himself no 6-0 6-0 pushover.


-- Edited by LadyTigress on Wednesday 12th of May 2010 03:35:29 PM

Belated Happy Birthday, LT!

Kudos to Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr, who just defeated Arnaud Clement to reach the second round of Roland Garros!