Back home now but going by Broady's latest tweet him and Evo won their doubles match.

I was tempted to stay and watch some doubles but the thought of trying to get out of London during rush hour was not an appealing one.

First round results

Joshua MILTON (GBR) (1) defeated Joshua JONES (GBR) 6-4 7-5
Yannick JANKOVITS (FRA) defeated George COUPLAND (GBR) 6-3 6-3
Ruan ROELOFSE (RSA) defeated Matthew SHORT (GBR) 6-4 6-3
David RICE (GBR) (6) defeated Miliaan NIESTEN (NED) 1-6 7-6(3) 6-4
Benjamin MITCHELL (AUS) (4) defeated James FEAVER (GBR) 7-6(8) 7-5
Andrew FITZPATRICK (GBR) defeated Matthieu ROY (FRA) 1-6 6-3 6-4
Mark RICHARDS (AUS) defeated Jamie WHITEFORD (GBR) 6-3 6-0
Josh GOODALL (GBR) (8) defeated Liam BROADY (GBR) 6-3 6-3
Elie ROUSSET (FRA) defeated Michael LOOK (AUS) (7) 6-3 6-3
Edward CORRIE (GBR) defeated Jules MARIE (FRA) 6-4 7-6(4)
Simon CAUVARD (FRA) defeated Richard GABB (GBR) 6-4 2-6 6-3
Jamie BAKER (GBR) (3) defeated Alexander WARD (GBR) 6-2 6-3
Chris EATON (GBR) (5) defeated Neal SKUPSKI (GBR) 6-4 6-1
Oliver GOLDING (GBR) defeated Sean THORNLEY (GBR) 6-3 1-6 6-1
Lewis BURTON (GBR) defeated Marshall TUTU (GBR) 6-3 6-4
Daniel EVANS (GBR) (2) defeated James MARSALEK (GBR) 6-2 6-2

Oli doesn't seem too impressed with his performance, but on paper that looks like a really decent win.
Liam probably rusty after a few weeks out and Josh in top form.

philwrig wrote:

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Liam probably rusty after a few weeks out and Josh in top form.

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 I watched all of this match and it was pretty poor. Josh didn't play that well and I suspect that he will struggle this week as the courts here are pretty slow.

As for Liam, I will start with a couple of positives. Firstly it would have been understandable if he had gone into this match feeling like the massive underdog given Goodall's recent form but it is quite obvious that he thinks he is good enough to play at this level and is impatient for success. Secondly he did show in flashes why he might well have a big future.

However on the whole he played a very poor match. His first serve percentage was probably around 30% (I am not kidding here) and he threw in lots of double faults, some of which were miles out. He was broken in 5 out of 9 service games (including 4 in a row), faced break points in two others and would have faced a break point in another had it not be for an astonishingly bad call. Serving this badly put him under huge pressure and while at times he played well from the back of the court he wasn't consistent enough on either wing. His comments on twitter "to be expected after a month away" should be taken with a huge pinch of salt. He was disgusted with the way he played.

The worst part of his game however was his on court demeanour. I don't think I have ever witnessed so much negativity from one player during a match. Almost every bad point was followed by him moaning at himself, berating himself, throwing his racquet around or slamming balls into the back fence. There were even times when he was doing this after a good point because he still seething over an earlier one. Now I can appreciate that he was really annoyed with the way he was playing and I don't mind players showing that, but not like this. You need to get angry, fine, get angry, smash your racquet to pieces and get over it. Berating yourself after every point is not going to make you play better and your opponent loves every minute of it. If I am being generous I would say that with this being his first match following his Wimbledon exploits that he might have got himself a bit too pumped up and couldn't control his disappointment with not performing to his very high levels of expectation. I don't want to make a big deal out of it, he his hardly the first 17 year old to have a day like that, but I really hope that his coach has a quiet word with him over it and that he avoids a repeat.

As for other matches. I saw bits and pieces of several.


Evo's victory over Marsalek wasn't quite as one sided as the score suggests but Dan was always a class above James.

Short played well at times and arguably deserved a set but on the whole the better player won.

Feaver had his chances and will probably feel he should have pulled off the upset. He had at least two points on serve for the first set breaker.

Milton's match was very competitive and Jones served for the second set. Had a few big points gone the other way the result would have been very different.

Golding dominated Thornley apart from the second set.

Rice can consider himself very lucky to have scrapped through.

heres hoping that evo wins this tournament