Was that infamous Gabash run in 08 or 07?

So first two matches on Monday were Arlidge v Ward and Milton v Millman (Aus).  Ward - Arlidge stayed only had the one break in the first set, at 4-3 and then Ward served it out.  Arlidge was serve volleying most of his first serves, stayed back quite a lot more on his 2nd.  In the game he got broken he just didn't get enough first serves in and missed a few volleys.  Ward was as solid as usual from the back of the court and was serving really well, Arlidge never came close to breaking serve.  Didn't watch the 2nd set quite as closely but would imagine it went mostly the same way, both guys quite dominant when serving but Burnham not consistent enough to hold 5 or 6 times in a row.

Milton looked to be playing really well and was cruising through, I think up 6-1 3-1.  Not too sure what wrong but he was getting ever more frustrated, arguing quite a few calls.  There was an epic game with Millman serving at 4-3 down, must have been at least 10 deuces and lasted nearly 15 minutes.  One player would play a great point but then miss an easy shot the next and vice versa.  When Millman eventually did win to level up the scores it was basically inevitable that Milts would be broken next game.  On breakpoint Millman hit a shot right on the baseline which the umpire ruled in because she thought she could see chalk come up.  Milts was adament it came from the 'mud', the patch of dirt right on the baselineand ended up losing the 2nd in pretty bad frame of mind.  However he did well to recover in the 3rd and found the same  level of play that dominated the 1st set.

Willis v Evo was played in pretty good spirits, both guys obviously good mates.  I missed the whole of the 1st set and when I started watching Evo was a break up in the 2nd set.  I'm not certain but I think throughout the match Willis was referring to Evo as Amir in an attempt to re-create the atmosphere from his Wimby qualies win over Delic last year?  Not out loud, just like when Evo would hit a winner he'd say nice shot Amir to himself.  Evo served out the 2nd set but started the 3rd very poorly, making loads of errors.  In the game where Willis took a double break Evo tried to smash up a racket.  He's not a big lad and took quite a trough smashes to make it slightly disfigured, still he decided it needed to be replaced.  He could definitely take a few lessons from Gonzo and Safin in that skill, still at least there weren't any plant pots around.  Evo was serving at 5-1 down , 15-40 when he finally picked up his level, hitting 4 first serves to get himself out of trouble.  After racing through the next two games it looked like he might get back into the match, although Willis managed to scrape through when serving for it the 2nd time around.

Didn't see too much of Rice's match, but unsurprisingly there weren't many breaks.  Rice had a mp in the Tie-Break but couldn't get the first serve back in play.  I missed the end of the match so wasn't too sure who had won for a few hours until they came out for their next match.  The last time I checked the score I think it was 4-3 on serve so D K-T either broke to win the match or broke then served it out.

Sears was no match for Tomic and until he won a game at 6-0 4-0 I don't think there had been a single deuce and I doubt his points tally was in double figures.  Pretty hard to gauge how good Tomic was since that match was a no-contest but having watched a bit of his 2nd match he had improved a fair bit from when I saw him against George Morgan at Wimbledon last year. 

Eaton's match was a pretty typical performance.  When the serve goes in and he hits a solid first volley then it's an easy match but if the serve doesn't work or he cant hit a volley then it's going to be a long day.  Fortunately Ghedin wasn't the greatest returner on show and even though Chris gave away the 1st set with an early break due to a number of missed volleys he ended up a relatively comfortable winner.

Stadler was very good against Milton, who was in a better mood than his first round match.  Probably because he knew he was playing well but Stadler was just too good for him.  A single break in each set was a fair scoreline, although Milts never really threatened the Stadler serve. Wouldn't be surprised if Stadler won a few rounds or won a couple of matches at Roehampton either.

Ward v Amritraj was very tight.  Amritraj took the first with a break at 5-4, although Ward was very competitive throughout, both guys hitting well.  The difference in end proved to be a break in the first game of the 3rd set where Amritraj just started off a bit slow.  I thought Ward might show a few nerves but he stayed solid and was rightfully very pleased with his victory.

I overheard Willis talking about his draw to a couple of the British Tour guys (Piers Herfet-Jones and Sundeep Ubhi) whilst watching Ward-Amritraj.  He seemed pretty pleased to be playing Eaton rather than Amritraj or Stadler even though Eaton prefers the grass.  Marcus dealt with Eaton's serve a lot better than Ghedin did, giving Eaton either tough volleys at his feet or just hitting a winner of his first serve.  There were even a couple of returns he didn't really time that managed to find the corner of the court out of Eaton's reach, so not much really went right for him.


Sorry the quantity for each match gradually decreases throughout! My enthusiasm and memory are gradually decreasing making it difficult to find worthwile stuff to write about.  I was very tempted but managed to resist asking Goodall about Vandenburg, but hopefully he can introduce himself tomorrow.

airsmashers wrote:

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steven wrote:

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Do we have an 'East Anglia' to beat that, or is south-west the final offer? arrrrrrr ....

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 yes we do, but thankfully I don't live out really far in the countryside

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I come from the south-west, but was also a townie.

To answer Josh, it was 2006 - the fun starts at post 9 at http://britishtennis.activeboard.com/index.spark?aBID=61841&p=3&topicID=8958147

Knight - SE1 - *envy* - love the South Bank ... or are you in some mysterious rubbish part of SE1 that I'm not aware of?

Sounds like Nottingham is going to be invaded by BT.netters on Wednesday - Wolf, LT, Hoss, Vandenburg. Anyone else? Is the Vandenburg v Goodall match the main attraction?

steven wrote:

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I come from the south-west, but was also a townie.

To answer Josh, it was 2006 - the fun starts at post 9 at http://britishtennis.activeboard.com/index.spark?aBID=61841&p=3&topicID=8958147

Knight - SE1 - *envy* - love the South Bank ... or are you in some mysterious rubbish part of SE1 that I'm not aware of?

Sounds like Nottingham is going to be invaded by BT.netters on Wednesday - Wolf, LT, Hoss, Vandenburg. Anyone else? Is the Vandenburg v Goodall match the main attraction?

 

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Well, I'm Hertfordshire born and bred, if anyone's wondering. Also, I'm not going on Wednesday. I have a Ukrainian lecture this afternoon. I'm going on Thursday. Gonna catch me some of the doubles action!

Anyone else going on Thursday other than me and Hoss?

 

a friend of mine lives over that way, in Bermondsy i think. when i was a uni i lived on Great Dover street (just off Borough) although apparently the area is much improved now

Kings, yeah the GDS halls were pretty nice, had a tiny room, but at least you had your own shower room too. they had only been open for 1 year before i moved in as well so still in good nick. also was walkable to the strand campus where i studied which was a bonus too.

i think they were building more and more halls around there so i'm not surprised the area picked up; 1st year students, access to cash in terms of loans probably for the 1st time in their life etc.

my only advice would be don't move too far east:

so far i have lived in Borough, Holloway, Leyton, Paddingtion and now Chiswick. Leyton was by far and away the worst place and i'd never care to repeat that.