Week 15 - Italy F4 ($15,000) - Vercelli - Clay

SMC1809 · All-time great

Week 15 - Italy F4 ($15,000) - Vercelli - Clay

SMC1809 · All-time great

Two disappointing results. Oli lost 6-2 6-4 and Liam lost 6-4 7-5.

Ballavong · Lower Club Player

Piss poor

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Ballavong wrote:
Piss poor

Disappointing - Yes. But in truth I am not surprised. Neither player has been playing regularly recently and both have had quite lengthy injury periods this year.

Perhaps more importantly, they were both playing Italian opponents. One of the factors that I have seen a lot with the Spanish players here in Spain, is that they play day-in, day-out on Clay. It can make a mockery of the rankings and even very low ranked Spanish players can beat much higher ranked overseas opponents who have less clay court experience. I am sure the same is true in Italy.

Have faith in Oli an Liam. They will come good.

SMC1809 · All-time great

R1: PHILLIPS, Morgan (GBR) WR 491 v ARTUNEDO MARTINAVARR, Andres (ESP) WR 499

R1: SMETHURST, Daniel (GBR) WR 410 v SINICROPI, Riccardo (ITA) WR 456

SMC1809 · All-time great

Doubles:

L16: H.Podlipnik-Castillo / M.Rath [CHI/AUT] vs. A.Harris / D.Smethurst [AUS/GBR]
L16: N.Langer / A.Van Der Duim [GER/NED/2] vs. L.Broady / O.Golding [GBR]

Winners to meet in QF.

LordBrownof · Futures level

Who are Ollie and Liam's coaches?

Think it's a bit worrying that they're losing to players ranked at 900. Injuries or not.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

first claycourt match of the year, i'm not panicking

steven · Tennis legend

A win for Dan (and switching to today's rankings all round):

L32: Morgan Phillips WR 484 v Andrés Artuñedo Martínavarr (ESP) WR 496 - Tuesday - H2H 2-0
L32: Dan Smethurst WR 409 beat Riccardo Sinicropi (ITA) WR 468 by 2 & 2

L16: Dan Smethurst WR 409 v (2) Marek Michalicka (CZE) WR 301

Dan was having a dig at Oli and Liam on twitter for not signing in for a LL place ... and it looks like one of them would indeed have got in despite going out in QR1 because 2 LL places were created and only 1 was filled (clear from the fact that there is a walkover in R1 - unheard of in a pro main draw unless it is so remote that qualifying is empty!), i.e. only 1 of the losers from qualifying bothered to sign in at all! disbelief

-- Edited by steven on Tuesday 10th of April 2012 03:22:08 PM

steven · Tennis legend

johnnylad wrote:
To be fair its not as glaring an error as it would be if they lost in the final round. Yes, they should probably have signed in but its very unusual to get in as a LL losing in QR1 - I don't think we should see this as them being highly unprofessional and lazy etc....

Yes, I agree - I saw Dan's tweet before seeing the qualifying results and my initial reaction was 'give them the muppets of the month award' but it's highly unusual to get a LL place as a QR1 loser in a Futures event (where there will be at least 8 FQR losers ahead of you on the list) and it wasn't as if there were already known to be masses of w/ds.

Also, 7 FQR losers must have failed to sign in, so it's not as if the Brits were the most at fault here. Still a pity that neither of them went for it though!

-- Edited by steven on Monday 9th of April 2012 09:43:51 PM

christian · Intermediate Club Player

Yeah I saw that comment and it was a bit worrying to say the least. Fair enough they're young but they need to buckle down if they are going to achieve what they are capable of.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

To be fair its not as glaring an error as it would be if they lost in the final round. Yes, they should probably have signed in but its very unusual to get in as a LL losing in QR1 - I don't think we should see this as them being highly unprofessional and lazy etc....

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

christian wrote:
Yeah I saw that comment and it was a bit worrying to say the least. Fair enough they're young but they need to buckle down if they are going to achieve what they are capable of.

oh no they forget to sign in for the lucky losers spot at the 2012 Italy F4, their careers are completely ruined now...

steven · Tennis legend

Morgan's most convincing win yet against his now regular foe

L32: Morgan Phillips WR 484 beat Andrés Artuñedo Martínavarr (ESP) WR 496 by 2 & 0

L16: Morgan Phillips WR 484 v (8) Antal van der Duim (NED) WR 351
L16: Dan Smethurst WR 409 v (2) Marek Michalicka (CZE) WR 301

Morgan upset van der Duim 6-1 6-7(5) 6-2 in R2 last week, a repeat would be good!

-- Edited by steven on Wednesday 11th of April 2012 12:10:47 PM

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Given the Jack has flown all the way to Vietnam and "forgot" to even apply for the tournament this week, I would put their indiscretion at the lower end of the scale!!