Eaton vs Inglot. Shame its happened in the 1st round.

I think Eaton will take it this time.

I can see the courts being a bit slower than the ones in Bosnia. Its down to whos the better returner.

I have a good feeling they will can do well in the doubles, maybe win it. But it will be hard to win the 1st round after your partner just beat you.

FQR: (q16) Oliver Golding WR 1704 beat (wc) Ahmed el-Menshawy by 7-6(7) 3-6 6-4
FQR: (q2) Matt Illingworth WR 768 beat (q10) Alex Miotto WR 1481 by 2 & 3
FQR: (q3) Dovydas Sakinis (LTU) WR 857 beat (q9) Olivier Charroin (FRA) WR 1152 by 3-6 6-1 6-4
FQR: (q15) Richard Gabb WR 1652 lost to (q4) Frederic de Fays (BEL) WR 947 by 6-4 2-6 7-6(6)
FQR: (q13) Chris Priddle WR 1576 beat (q5) Maniel Bains WR 982 by 5-7 6-2 6-4
FQR: (q6) Tim Bradshaw WR 1015 beat (q14) Liam Broady WR 1576 by 4 & 2
FQR: Tom Farquharson lost to (q7) Lazare Kukhalashvili (GEO) WR 1076 by 4-6 6-3 6-2
FQR: (q8) Burnham Arlidge WR 1078 beat (q12) Ben Davis WR 1481 by 1 & 1

L32: (1) Igor Sijsling WR 186 v Kamil Capkovic (SVK) WR 360
L32: Dan Smethurst WR 399 v James Lemke (AUS) WR 383
L32: Marcus Willis WR 571 v John Millman (AUS) WR 280
L32: Josh Milton WR 563 v (8) Frederik Nielsen (DEN) WR 275

L32: (WC) Sean Thornley WR 798 v (3) Roberto Bautista-Agut (ESP) WR 237
L32: Chris Eaton WR 408 v (WC) Dominic Inglot WR 631
L32: (Q) Burnham Arlidge WR 1078 v Dovydas Sakinis (LTU) WR 857
L32: (Q) Oliver Golding WR 1704 v (7) Samuel Groth (AUS) WR 272

L32: (6) Henri Kontinen (FIN) WR 257 v Barry King (IRL) WR 601
L32: (Q) Tim Bradshaw WR 1015 v (Q) Chris Priddle WR 1576
L32: Dan Cox WR 454 v (Q) Lazare Kukhalashvili (GEO) WR 1076
L32: (4/WC) James Ward WR 249 v (WC) Alex Ward WR 637

L32: (5) Dan Evans WR 252 v (Q) Frederic de Fays (BEL) WR 947
L32: Josh Goodall WR 311 v James McGee (IRL) WR 499
L32: Andrej Martin (SVK) WR 342 v Ludovic Walter (FRA) WR 480
L32: (Q) Matt Illingworth WR 768 v (2) Jan Minar (CZE) WR 221

Golding v el-Menshawy was pretty evenly matched and the first break wasn't until 4-3 in the 2nd set, over an hour and a half into the match.  Golding broke in the second game of the first set and held the advantage right through to 5-3 where he played a very dodgy game to give the advantage away, ending in a DF that wasn't even close.  Fortunately he managed to get his act together in the next game and won on about his 4th match point, but Menshawy had quite a few chances to win that game, which would probably have then been a lottery in a 3rd set TB.

Illingworth won pretty comfortably.  I heard someone say Miotto only practices once every two weeks or so and decided to enter for the fun of it since he still had a world ranking.

There was no way Gabb shoulod have lost his match.  He had about 6 or 7 match points and I think he led 6-3 in the TB.  De Fays won on his first match point and Gabb was distraught, just sat on the baseline for about 20 seconds while de Fays was waiting to shake hands at the net.  I think he is based at Bath so he had quite a lot of support.  De Fays was pretty crazy, chucking his racket all over the place and looking up at the balcony with a puzzled expression on his face after every close call but Gabb did well to keep his composure, just couldn't win the last point.

Not too sure what was going on in Bains v Priddle, but Bains was making a lot of noise whether it be cheering in Priddle's face after a winner or swearing at himself after a UE.  At the end of the 2nd set there was at least a 10 minute gap while Bains complained to the umpire about something who then got out of his chair and went to talk to Priddle who was ready to start.  Then the tournament supervisor came down and all 4 seemed in a pretty heated discussion about something or other.  Don't know how Bains managed to collapse from 4-0 up, wasn't watching it closely enough, but he refused to shake the umpire's hand after the match.

Didn't see too much of Bradshaw v Broady but Bradshaw just seemed to have a little too much power in the end.  Not a fan of Broady's haircut though, pretty shocking.  Saw virtually none whatsoever of Farquharson's match.

Arlidge completely dominated his match but I have never seen someone complain as much as he did whilst winning so easily.  Every time I went over there he seemed to be shouting at the umpire about something despite being comfortably ahead.  Didn't make much sense and I guess he was just getting a little bored or something.  Don't know how Davis has a WR while people like Priddle only just got his first point and someone like Matt Short (not playing here) or el-Menshawy is still unranked.


Before the draw was made Eaton and Inglot were playing points against each other, but I wasn't watching closely enough to see who was winning most of them.  I'd still fancy Inglot tomorrow though. Smethurst didn't turn up till pretty late on but since he's played well and had quite a few matches in Tipton I doubt he'll play very well here too.  Milton should be at least competitive if he plays to what he can do, though I don't think Golding is mentally storng enough to hold on if he finds himself ahead in his match.  Battle of Wards should be a close match and Arlidge can definitely beat Sakinis.  Evo should be fine but Mcgee could trouble Goodall if Josh's serve is slightly off or Mcgee gets a good read of it.

Well its like he's grown it quite long over a few months, but then cut it all to a more a standard length except at the back. So the top and the front is just normal and the back is really long. Having never seen him before I didn't even realise he was a Brit, assumed he was a Spaniard. Thornley's got a bit of a dodgy mohican going on and James Ward is certainly a bit balder than in Lithuania.

Evo to get back onto a winning steak here.

Frederik Nielsen (Den) bt Joshua Milton (Gbr) 2-6 6-3 6-2

Roberto Bautista-Agut (Spa) bt Sean Thornley (Gbr) 7-6 (12-10) 6-3

Chris Eaton (Gbr) bt Dominic Inglot (Gbr) 5-1 ret

Joshua Goodall (Gbr) bt James McGee (Irl) 6-3 6-3

good effort from Milton and Sean, with a confidence booster for Josh

James really needs to get some points next week