Week 24 - ATP 250 - AEGON Championships, Eastbourne - Main draw

Count Zero · Tennis legend

RE: Week 24 - ATP 250 - AEGON Championships, Eastbourne - Main draw

steven · Tennis legend

So close - break points in all four games so far - Tipsy has saved 3/3, James 6/7 - unfortunately he's now 0-30 down again.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

another bp goes begging :(

3-1*

uh oh 0-40
15-40

*4-1

there have been BP's in every game so far, so it's not over. it's a a big ask tho.

S&V · Club Coach

Going a bit pear shaped here

Count Zero · Tennis legend

*5-2 now.

assuming this is the end of the line it's still going to be a very successful period for James, a net gain of 45 points over the 2 weeks was something none of us were really expecting last Monday given James' form so far in the year. and should leave him in the top 200.

S&V · Club Coach

He is so close to these guys

steven · Tennis legend

Yes, it's great to see him follow up on last week's by being extremely competitive with another top 30 player even if he didn't manage to win this time. Let's just hope he doesn't draw a top seed in R1 at Wimbledon! All the apparent confidence problems from earlier in the year hopefully well and truly gone now.

Ratty · County player

S&V wrote:
He is so close to these guys

Sorry, but NO HE ISN'T!!!

Tipsarevic is ranked 30 with 1,305 points, and James is ranked 176 with 324 points. That's because Tipsarevic performs at this level week-in week-out, not just every now and then.

Let's hope that IN A YEAR'S TIME we can truthfully say that James is "so close to these guys". But saying it now is surely just wish-fulfilment.

smile

RJA · Hall of fame

As much as I hope that James does well at Wimbledon the next few months will be more telling. For last week to mean anything he needs to perform consistently well on the Challenger tour.

indiana · Tennis legend

Ratty wrote:
S&V wrote:
He is so close to these guys
Sorry, but NO HE ISN'T!!!
Tipsarevic is ranked 30 with 1,305 points, and James is ranked 176 with 324 points. That's because Tipsarevic performs at this level week-in week-out, not just every now and then.
Let's hope that IN A YEAR'S TIME we can truthfully say that James is "so close to these guys". But saying it now is surely just wish-fulfilment.

I largely agree with that, Ratty. There are players throughout the top 200 who on a given day produce performances against top players, say in Grand Slams ( guess most folk could think of a few there ) that have folk saying where did that come from, how on earth can they be ranked so low. And then if you look many months, maybe a year or more later, they are quite liable to be ranked just around where they were at the time.

It is that consistency of performance that really takes players into the the top 100 and beyond and that linked with sheer class that takes players to the very top.

James has shown from what I saw at Queens last week ( and he appears to have played well again against Tipsarevic ) to have the ability, if produced on a regular basis, to be ranked much higher. And of course that is a kind of necessary initial ingredent. But that in itself doesn't distincly mark him out from so many other wannabes.

Lets hope he can work hard, learn from the positives and negatives of his recent experiences, and start producing better performances on a hugely more consistent basis than before. As RJA says, let's have some good consistent challenger results.

I have, yes, been encouraged by the last couple of weeks, but now so much is down to James.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 15th of June 2011 10:36:09 PM

greatunclebulgaria · Lower Club Player

Have to say I agree with indiana

the match that lead me to finding out about the players other than Murray
and ultimately to this site was Eaton WOW what a result fabulous brilliant etc. etc. etc

well to be brutal that didn't lead to anything special did it

NO!? thought not

and I really really REALLY wanted it to

RJA · Hall of fame

Too many Brits have had a few good results on grass in the UK in June and then failed to build on it. Hopefully James will not follow this all too familiar route.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I think it's likely that he won't - grass has never before been his best surface, has it? I thought he was supposed to be better on hard and clay.

indiana · Tennis legend

Madeline wrote:
I think it's likely that he won't - grass has never before been his best surface, has it? I thought he was supposed to be better on hard and clay.

Actaully, Mad, I think that is a bit of mythology about James on grass that has gone about in the past, without much evidence before the last couple of years, and generally with some quite strong counter evidence more recently.

What's maybe less clear is how much of these graas performances have been due to comparatively good ability on grass and how much rising to the generally much higher occasion of many of these grass matches ( though he fairly breezed through a future last year ). Whatever, he has at least certainly now shown real comfort on the surface.

He really hadn't played much cat all on grass on the circuit ( futures up ) before these last 2 years and I think it was more becuase he was known to be comparatively fairly good on clay that I used to read some thoughts that he might not be that good on grass.

Used to hear that about Rafa too wink

Re the previous few posts, including my own, I hope they don't really come across as seeming to rain on the party. But more, congrats to the guy on these performances, just let's hold back and watch how things develop in the coming months / year.

I really do hope James will find the consistency to take real strides up them rankings.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 16th of June 2011 10:08:48 AM

SMC1809 · All-time great

According to his ITF profile, his favourite surface is Hard, which I find hard to believe. With a forehand slice like his, I would've thought he will find most success on grass.