Nice win there boys Secured the tie for us. Wonder if Alex will get a game tomorrow?
is that possible once the tie has started?
Since it's already won (& the so-called "dead" rubbers will be reduced to best of three), yes, I think it is. The Beeb seems to think Leon will stick with James & Jamie, though.
Only the four nominated players can play, so Alex Ward won't be able to play tomorrow.
Good win for Flemski to get the job done, although it perhaps wasn't their best performance and against a better pair may have struggled. Missed too many returns, especially from Fleming, but against the Turks were never going to lose the match regardless of what they did.
Not 100% sure where Baker and Ward are playing next week but I'd imagine they'd both play again tomorrow just to get more experience of playing DC and to get some more wins under their belt ahead of future matches. Ilhan is playing on clay in Italy next week, so I can't imagine he'll play tomorrow, so it should be two more wins and a 5-0 result.
Just got back from Eastbourne! Lovely day at the tennis, and, of course, our first win since 2007!
To clarify our position for Mad and anyone else wondering - This tie against Turkey was to avoid relegation to the Europe/Africa Zone III (where it's a round robin format). Turkey having been defeated will now suffer that fate and next year will be in Group III. By winning, we have avoided that fate and simply retain our spot in EAII. We have no further ties for the rest of this year. Next year, we will begin in exactly the same position we began this year - in EAII, facing a March tie with the losers going on to a relegation match this time next year and the winners going on to another match also this time next year, which if they also win will set up a September promotion match back up to Europe/Africa Zone I.
In 2011 - If we lose our first tie but win the next one, we stay in Group II again (this scenario is what has just happened to us this year). If we win our first but lose our second, or win our first and second but lose the third, same thing happens. If we win all three ties, we get promoted to Group I for 2012. If we lose our first and second tie we get relegated to Group III for 2012.
And the only sign I saw of Tuna Altuna, Mad, was just before the doubles match began, when the full teams were presented once again to the crowd. If Ilhan is injured, the Turks may well decide to play our fishy friend for the dead rubber against Baker.
-- Edited by LadyTigress on Saturday 10th of July 2010 08:08:31 PM
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King of Slice "He's on a one-man mission to bring the slice back to tennis." Inverdale
Morocco, Tunisia, Luxembourg and Greece will be joining us from Group III.
Turkey, Norway and Egypt will be leaving the group and dropping down to Group III - the other team who will be relegated is not yet decided as Hungary are 2-1 up against Macedonia, all the other relegation ties like us managed to pull out a 3-0 win today.
Denmark and Monaco have seen off Egypt and Norway respectively, so they'll also be in Group II next year.
Cyprus, Ireland and Bulgaria have all gone 0-3 behind today and so like us will remain in Group II for another year. Estonia and Bosnia Herzegovina are still duking it out but the losing team will also remain with us.
Lithuania will face Slovenia in September, and Portugal will face the winners of Estonia vs Bosnia Herzegovina. The winners of these respective ties will move up to Group I whilst the losers will also stay with us.
Two teams will also be joining us having been relegated from Group I. Poland will face Latvia to decide this outcome, whilst the Slovak Republic faces either Belarus or the Netherlands to decide the same fate.
So, with the information available to hand at the moment, this is how Group II will shape up next year, and these will be our possible ties:
Great Britain Greece Luxembourg Morocco Tunisia Hungary Denmark Monaco Cyprus Ireland Bulgaria Estonia Lithuania OR Slovenia Portugal OR Bosnia Herzegovina Poland OR Latvia Slovak Republic OR Belarus
-- Edited by LadyTigress on Sunday 11th of July 2010 04:32:30 PM
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King of Slice "He's on a one-man mission to bring the slice back to tennis." Inverdale
So that's 2 men's titles, 1 women's title, 7 junior's titles, 3 Davis Cup wins, Bloomers in an ATP SF and Liam Broady still to play his junior's final tomorrow. Not a bad week, especially given most of the women weren't playing.
-- Edited by RBBOT on Saturday 10th of July 2010 08:37:53 PM
British Eurosport 2 isn't showing coverage of this today, presumably because they're dead rubbers and the outcome of the tie is already decided.
Yep, it seemed likely in a dead rubber situation that the captain would give the fourth man a go. Put on top of that Ilhan seemingly having sustained some kind of injury and Tuna Altuna was a cert for playing Baker today. Baker's win is not surprising.
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King of Slice "He's on a one-man mission to bring the slice back to tennis." Inverdale