Week 42 - Futures F16 ($15K) - Glasgow, UK - Indoor Hard

Stuart Fraser · Lower Club Player

RE: Week 42 - Futures F16 ($15K) - Glasgow, UK - Indoor Hard

SMC1809 · All-time great

Milton has saved my Groats!

indiana · Tennis legend

Jeff Stelling wrote:

Hard to see Cox winning today. Has amazed me with his recent excellent form which I hope he can keep up, but if he can only beat the desperately poor Garanganga in 3 sets then something's not quite working. How Garanganga maintains his semi respectable ranking is a mysery - he's easily the worst player with a top 1,000 ranking that I've ever seen.

Ah Coxy, that was the guy that you said in July was one of the worst players in the top 1000 at the time, which even then was kind of difficult to reconcile at all with the facts.

Can your latest declaration have a similar effect on Garanganga as it seemed to spookily do to such effect with Cox. It's certainly some feat to get himself currently ranked WR 671 if easily being the worst player with a top 1000 ranking. you've ever seen. Guess he should avoid doing slly things like beating Middelkoop ( WR 289 ) and the other top 1000 players he beat on the way to a recent futures final appearance in Uganda.

Still, yes I did expect Dan to beat Garanganga easier than he did, though whether the apparent really fast courts in Glasgow really help him is doubtful. And it would be hard to see him beating Ebden today, if he gets close I'd say it would be doing very well.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 20th of October 2010 03:13:28 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

SMC1809 wrote:

Milton has saved my Groats!

Yes, for the moment with me too though rather worryingly my Groats have him going on further

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 20th of October 2010 02:55:52 PM

Stuart Fraser · Lower Club Player

Latest:

Ebden leads Cox 6-3

Stuart Fraser · Lower Club Player

Result:

Ebden beat Cox 6-3 6-3

RJA · Hall of fame

Defeats for Cox, Slabinsky, Martin and Bugby were all expected but it is pretty disappointing to only have two brits reach the QFs of a home futures.

clayfan · Lower Club Player

Oh dear, results going as expected.

Jeff, I can only say Garangana must have improved a lot since you saw him. He looked a useful player yesterday. Quite composed and professional until he threw away the last game and the match! The courts are fast in that, like all indoor courts, the ball flies through the air with no wind resistance and the ball bounces fast. However it does not skid through but sits up at a fairly uniform height so it still permits longish rallies. From what I saw Dan was allowing himself to be put on the back foot by not getting enough depth to his shots and surrendering the advantage to the powerful hitting African. That said, of course he won! But Ebden today would have been too crafty for him I suspect.

It is pleasing to note that there were a good number of young players at the tournament. There seems to be a good spirit among them and some have played very well. Notably Miles Bugby and Dan Cochrane with his battling win yesterday and making Milton work overtime today. I also thought Toby Martin and Eamon Soulsby played well. I hope this is a sign there will be a group of players who will quickly blossom to give us something to cheer about.

steven · Tennis legend

RJA wrote:

Defeats for Cox, Slabinsky, Martin and Bugby were all expected but it is pretty disappointing to only have two brits reach the QFs of a home futures.

It's been mainly the 10Ks that the Brits have been doing well in recently - there seems to be a bigger gap between GB 10Ks and GB 15Ks in terms of the strength of the fields this year than I remember there being in the past.

However, whoever thought it was a good idea to donate a WC to an Aussie Challenger-level player has a lot to answer for in this case.

That said, 2 QF-ists isn't too bad when we only had one seed - and he was seeded no. 8!

-- Edited by steven on Wednesday 20th of October 2010 03:56:50 PM

Stuart Fraser · Lower Club Player

Result:

Evans beat Farquharson 6-3 6-4

Yoda · Improver

Good efforts today from Cochrane and Bugby but other results much expected. Anyone know what's been happening with Goodall? Tough draw this week but he shouldn't be ranked where he is, where's he training now?

Milts is continuing to get the results from the summer, might have to lay some groats down on him vs Evans tomorrow!!

Shhh · Challenger level

steven wrote:

RJA wrote:

Defeats for Cox, Slabinsky, Martin and Bugby were all expected but it is pretty disappointing to only have two brits reach the QFs of a home futures.
It's been mainly the 10Ks that the Brits have been doing well in recently - there seems to be a bigger gap between GB 10Ks and GB 15Ks in terms of the strength of the fields this year than I remember there being in the past.

However, whoever thought it was a good idea to donate a WC to an Aussie Challenger-level player has a lot to answer for in this case.

That said, 2 QF-ists isn't too bad when we only had one seed - and he was seeded no. 8!

-- Edited by steven on Wednesday 20th of October 2010 03:56:50 PM

I think this is a stronger line up than the 15k in France which has hospitality isn't it?

steven · Tennis legend

Yes, every seed in Glasgow is ranked around 50 or more places higher than the corresponding seed in La Roche sur Yon. The Nigerian 15K+H is even weaker of course, but the fact that a 15K in the UK has a much stronger entry than even a 15K+H in France (which you would expect to be more popular even without the +H given the number of pros in France) once again shows how crazy it is to have a ranking system based solely on available prize money.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

steven wrote:

However, whoever thought it was a good idea to donate a WC to an Aussie Challenger-level player has a lot to answer for in this case.

I think one of TPTB at the LTA should be made to explain (away) that one!

Doubt anyone will bother, though. The b*ggers clearly couldn't give a tinker's about the potential effect on the morale of young Brits struggling to scratch a lving at the bottom of the professional heap of such an ill-thought-out "policy" in their home country! furious

clayfan · Lower Club Player

The LTA have dumbed down quite a lot of tournaments to get to a level where British players at last shine. There is only so much milage in that before you hit the floor! Just as some of our players are travelling the world trying to nab the prize money from other Associations, we can hardly complain if some foreigners keep on nabbing ours!

The field for Glasgow is not much different to what it is normally. It is a good test for our 300 plus ranked players to pit themselves against some 200 rankers. The last 2 finals have been contested by 3 Brits out of the 4. I think British tournaments tend to attract more people because of the lack of language problems and the well run tournaments the LTA put on. (No jokes about understanding Glaswegian please!)

It is not usual for WCs to be given to foreigners at this level. There is probably a reason why Ebden is over here at the last minute and has asked to compete in a local tournament while he is here. Most tournament directors would jump at the chance to have a high ranking player in the line up, and here there is usually some spectator interest at the weekend and there are spectating facilities. So it's just up to Dan or Josh to beat him in the final!