Week 23 - Challenger - Nottingham - €64,000 +H - grass

RJA · Hall of fame

RE: Week 23 - Challenger - Nottingham - €64,000 +H - grass

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
First set to Bloomers by 6-3.

And Bloomers takes the second set by the same score - & with it the match! smile

steven · Tennis legend

So, a 'past it' 27-year-old has the best GB qualifying performance at Queen's and a 'past it' 28-year-old is the lone GB qualifier in Nottingham. And the GB top two women (2 of the top 3 from tomorrow) are 'past it' 27-year-olds too.

Anyone think the LTA might just give up on players a bit too young?

mjd · Challenger qualifying

First Round
(1)Jeremy Chardy (FRA) vs (WC)Daniel Smethurst (GBR)
Robert Farah (COL) vs (q)Richard Bloomfield (GBR)
Karol Beck (SVK) vs (WC)Daniel Evans (GBR)
Steve Darcis (BEL) vs (7)Gilles Muller (LUX)
(3)Jesse Huta Galung (NED) vs Marc Gicquel (FRA)
Uladzimir Ignatik (BLR) vs Izak Van Der Merwe (RSA)
(q)Evgeny Kirillov (RUS) vs Grega Zemlja (SLO)
Stephane Bohli (SUI) vs (6)Alejandro Falla (COL)
(8)Simone Bolelli (ITA) vs Flavio Cipolla (ITA)
Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) vs (WC)Richard Gabb (GBR)
(SE)Bernard Tomic (AUS) vs (q)Carsten Ball (AUS)
(WC)Alexander Ward (GBR) vs (4)(ALT)Tatsuma Ito (JPN)
(5)Lukas Lacko (SVK) vs Rik De Voest (RSA)
Alexander Kudryavtsev (RUS) vs (q)Frederik Nielsen (DEN)
Andreas Beck (GER) vs Rogerio Dutra Da Silva (BRA)
Martin Fischer (AUT) vs (2)Dudi Sela (ISR)

Order of Play

seagull · Hall of fame

Gotta fancy Bloomers to win that one...not sure can see another winner though

steven · Tennis legend

Farah (WR 167) is at a career high and beat Jamie Baker 3 & 3 in Brasilia last year but has not played on any surface other than clay since Miami qualifying and, as far as I can tell, this will be his first ever proper match on grass!

RJA · Hall of fame

Al 5 Brits in action tomorrow.

Keyser Soze · Social player

tough match for smethurst should be a good experience though. hopefully evans and ward can pull off upsets and bloomers can play a good grass court game to defeat the columbian clay courter. also doesnt ward have lots of points to defend from last year here? i dont know if i remember correctly but i thought he did quite well last year

steven · Tennis legend

Keyser Soze wrote:
also doesnt ward have lots of points to defend from last year here? i dont know if i remember correctly but i thought he did quite well last year

You're thinking of last year's first (and in that case, only) Nottingham Challenger, where Alex qualified and reached the QFs. Those 18 points came off today, but he virtually covered them with the two lots of 8 points that went on today for his back to back semis in Durban.

Keyser Soze · Social player

cool thanks for the information steven

steven · Tennis legend

Gabb 4-4* - very decent start against ERV, he didn't face a bp in any of his first four service games, winning 17/21 points. He has only won 2/18 points on ERV's serves, but given the ranking difference, we'll skate over that!

-- Edited by steven on Monday 6th of June 2011 12:32:48 PM

steven · Tennis legend

... and the 19yo GB no 32 takes the 1st set into a tiebreak without facing a bp

- now won 25/33 points on serve, 3/27 on return.

mjd · Challenger qualifying

6-7(3) That was tough hope it doesn't break his spirit

*0-2 hmm

7 aces each so he is not out of place

indiana · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
Keyser Soze wrote:
also doesnt ward have lots of points to defend from last year here? i dont know if i remember correctly but i thought he did quite well last year
You're thinking of last year's first (and in that case, only) Nottingham Challenger, where Alex qualified and reached the QFs. Those 18 points came off today, but he virtually covered them with the two lots of 8 points that went on today for his back to back semis in Durban.

The most relevant ( and encouraging ) thing to me is that Alex played well here last year ( beating Taylor Dent for one ) and is in reasonable form ( although South Africa is often a bit "wanna travel, here's some points !" smile )

I think it is possible to get a bit too obsessed with "defending points" on a week to week basis, and I probably like many do keep a close look at points coming off and going on each week. To the player. it must be a much more long term thing than that, you want to cover points over a period, indeed exceed them to keep your ranking steady / moving up.

For instance someone suggested Bally may have taken last week off because she had more than covered her points from last year for the 2 week period while Roland Garros was on. I don't buy that at all, I am sure it was purely because she felt that it was a good time to take a week off, for a bit of recovery. grass court practice and whatever before playing this week.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 6th of June 2011 03:11:29 PM

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

^^^^^^

Looks as though his resistance has crumbled: 1-4*. cry