Week 15 - Challenger ($100,000+H) - Johannesburg, South Africa - Hard

spud · Challenger qualifying

Week 15 - Challenger ($100,000+H) - Johannesburg, South Africa - Hard

The Magician Santoro · Top national player

Wow really weak draw for a 100k. I have a feeling Inglot will qualify, while Chris should qualify I wouldn't be surprised if he manages to find a way not to

steven · Tennis legend

The events in SA always seem to have very weak qualifying competitions - Ross Hutchins got 12 points from the quaifying competition for the ATP event here last year, the only singles points he got all year.

Silver · County player

Jeez, perhaps I shoulda turned up. I would be disappointed if Chris failed to qualify. Okun's very "when he wants to" about his playing at times now. I'd suspect Dom to outpower him.

indiana · Tennis legend

Wow, a 100K + H Challenger and can't even make up 8 qualifying seeds from ranked players. Certainly SA offers a cost / benefit conundrum with certainly quite a lot of possible benefit. I hope it works out for Chris and and Dom. Chris in particular is slightly unluckky he even has another ranked player in his section.

Shhh · Challenger level

spud wrote:

I had a feeling this pair would turn up here before they move on to Korea and I'm really glad they did.

The qualifying field is really weak here especially for a $100,000 torny and Chris should definitely qualify.
Inglot has it a bit harder with Okun lingering in the final round, but Inglot can just about beat anyone with his huge hitting if its on song.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2010/5055/qs.pdf

I also hope they make the cut for the doubles together as well, as i guess thats what their hoping for. If they do, they're a serious threat for the title in my opinion if they play well. What a jump it would be for the pair if they did, from winning futures to a $100,000 challenger. But i could be wrong, they may not even make the cut.

-- Edited by spud on Friday 9th of April 2010 08:06:01 PM

-- Edited by spud on Friday 9th of April 2010 08:08:27 PM

I think Murray/Marray are out here for doubles as well. Jamie D perhaps?

clayfan · Lower Club Player

I had a look at their website. This is in fact "the Soweto Open." It explains that the ground is "difficult to find" and anyone interested in going there should gather at the official tournament hotel and be taken there in a "shuttle bus". All the tournament formalities like signing in and financial dealings are dealt with at the hotel!

They never mention safety and security but it seems players have to be ferried to the courts for their own protection (with armed escorts?) and then back as soon as their matches are finished. The hotel serves as the tournament office. This may explain the low quality of entrants. Oh well, no one will mess with BBD and big Chris I am sure. Bodes well for the World Cup!

steven · Tennis legend

Elena Baltacha reported earlier on twitter that she had a police escort from the hotel to the grounds.

spud · Challenger qualifying

Straight forward wins for the guys today

Eaton won 6-1 6-3

Inglot won 6-0 6-1

Harper · Junior player

I guess there wont be a live stream

steven · Tennis legend

QR1: (q6) Dominic Inglot WR 594 beat Marcel Grobbelaar (RSA) UNR by 0 & 1

QR1: (q3) Chris Eaton WR 407 beat Michael Jonathan Hills (RSA) UNR by 1 & 3

QR2: (q6) Dominic Inglot WR 594 v Hilton Nyakabau (RSA) UNR
QR2: (q3) Chris Eaton WR 407 v Clayton Gilbertson (RSA) UNR

All 16 QR1 matches were won in straight sets with 9 bagels and 15 breadsticks!

SMC1809 · All-time great

It looks like it was a very one-sided set of qualifying round matches.

None of them went to 3 sets, 11 of the 16 matches were won with the loss of 2 games or fewer, including 2 x double-bagels. Chris' next opponent was one of these.

spud · Challenger qualifying

Looks like Gilbertson is a talented 15 year old, hasn't done much in the way of mens tennis though with just the one futures qualifying.

steven · Tennis legend

spud wrote:

Looks like Gilbertson is a talented 15 year old, hasn't done much in the way of mens tennis though with just the one futures qualifying.

Are you trying to prepare us for a potential Eaton mess? wink

spud · Challenger qualifying

Harper wrote:

I guess there wont be a live stream

I doubt it. Tbh im quite dissapointed, for a 100K which is a very big challenger the website doesnt have anything and i cant see anything like livescores being given, i dont know if any of the betting sites will do anything?