Predictions for 2006

Drew · Dec 13, 2005

RE: Predictions for 2006

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

I still think our mysterious GB pro is JM.

If you read his posts there is just too much detail for it to be a wind-up. Including a report of Arvind Parmar's match in Helsinki and inside info on Andrew Banks retiring.

JonnyM · Junior player

I see you're all still rather suspicious. But I am seriously telling the truth

One aspect the wise soul failed to take into account was that I could have been giving you some misleading information to throw you off the scent. That's why I mentioned the second win when in actual fact I'd lost.

You are all a bit of a negative bunch, I see you don't rate my prospects for 2006 too highly. I'll have to try and prove you all wrong.

I've just read kundalini's post - glad to see he believes me

Pro fever seems to have caught, 1st eblunt pretending to be a pro and now Niall

-- Edited by AndyMurray at 23:18, 2005-12-13

Sally · Grand Slam Champion

AndyMurray wrote:

I see you're all still rather suspicious. But I am seriously telling the truth One aspect the wise soul failed to take into account was that I could have been giving you some misleading information to throw you off the scent. That's why I mentioned the second win when in actual fact I'd lost. You are all a bit of a negative bunch, I see you don't rate my prospects for 2006 too highly. I'll have to try and prove you all wrong. I've just read kundalini's post - glad to see he believes me Pro fever seems to have caught, 1st eblunt pretending to be a pro and now Niall-- Edited by AndyMurray at 23:18, 2005-12-13

We`re cynical after Niall`s wind-up. Who wouldn`t be? As for the predictions, maybe we said that to make you improve next year If you seriously are JM, good luck for 2006.

Drew · Dec 13, 2005

Ok Mr Marray......give us something so convincing that we would have to believe you......maybe you could tell us now what will be your first event next year...wether qualifying or main draw !!!!! I am 70/30 to believe you at the moment

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

AndyMurray wrote:

I see you're all still rather suspicious. But I am seriously telling the truth

One aspect the wise soul failed to take into account was that I could have been giving you some misleading information to throw you off the scent. That's why I mentioned the second win when in actual fact I'd lost.

But, as I said to Niall, I am a trusting soul. . . I expect people to be telling the truth

I'll cover my back: Good luck to Jonny Marray in 2006 - wherever and whoever he is!

Sheddie · administrator

If you're Jonny Marray good luck in 2006 but what's happened since Wimbledon ?

Results haven't really been going your way.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

kundalini wrote:

Time for wild predictions for 2006.

I can't see any more brits breaking into the top 100 in 2006. You either need to be incredibly talented and benefit from a large number of wildcards or you need to be very consistent at Challenger level. Right now we don't have anyone in either category though a few players are moving in the right direction.

So Alex Bogdanovic - 140 (Alex tends to produce a couple of great tournaments and a lot of first round defeats but if you take a careful look at 2005 compared with 2004 he is actually doing a lot better at getting past the first round. I think we will see him continue this trend and start to see a few more semis and quarters in tournaments where he has previously been knocked out early on)

Richard Bloomfield - 185 (Really impressed with Richard this year. I can see him being a solid Challenger player next season. And perhaps attempting to qualify for the odd ATP event)

Arvind Parmar - 200 (Arvind seems to be on a plateau - a lot of quarters, a few semis)

Martin Lee - 215 (anything is possible with Martin. He might shoot past everyone to be the number 4 player but 215 seems about par)

Matt Smith - 240 (I think Matt will continue to build on his great 2005 but it won't be easy winning matches at Challenger level)

Jamie Baker - 250 (Similarly, I think Jamie will end up playing a mixture of Futures and Challengers)

Colin Fleming - 265 (Hopefully Col will be able to make the step up to Challenger level)

Alan Mackin - no idea (Alan has had such a strange 2005 that it is almost impossible to tell what he'll being doing in 2006. Will we see more attempts to qualify for ATP events? More lucky loser spots? More satellites? Challengers? Will he be playing on clay?)

Josh Goodall - 250 (Josh had a disappointing 2005 but I can see him in amongst a whole pack of brits around the 250 mark. The Futures/Challengers transition is a difficult one and it seems to take players time to adjust)

Well my predictions turned out to be overly optimistic in most cases:

On Andy I said his best tennis would come on the clay (hopeless prediction), that he'd reach the semi of a slam (not even close though US Open was a real opportunity), that he'd finish the year close to the top 10 (long way off).

Boggo seems likely to do better than I suggested, Josh about right, while my predictions for Bloomfield, Martin Lee, Jonny Marray, Jamie Baker, Fleming, Parmar and especially Matt Smith were out by some margin; in each case I was too optimistic.

Sally seems to have judged it about right for many of the players though none of us sensed the troubles that Matt Smith would have in 2006.

Sheddie · administrator

I think your predictions were mostly pretty accurate kundalini, [look at mine, I was consistently out by about 100 places !!!!].

I think we all underestimated the effect which Mike Raphael would have on Boggo's game, I believe that if Alex hadn't had such bad luck with injuries and ATP draws he would be top 100 by now. He was on a roll indoors in February and then straight after Bergamo he sustained a hip injury which caused him to miss the whole of March and vital tournaments on his favourite indoor surfaces ! In April, he had his best ever results outdoors, making 3 quarters on the hard courts [usually he's struggled to win a match at challenger level on US cement]. Then during Cardiff the leg injury returned, Alex played Lanzarote but was forced to miss the entire clay court season bar RG qualies.
On the grass, he had several dreadful draws. I doubt even Henman would have been best pleased to draw Tursunov, Mirnyi and Nadal in rd1 of Queens, Nottingham and Wimbledon. The DC and resulting groin injury meant his missed Manchester and Nottingham and August was a write-off as the injury was still affecting his movement until September.

You were in that Alex has started to make a lot more quarters and semis in challengers whereas before he was losing in rd1. I think that's down to the fitness and strength work he's been doing with Mike and that's going to improve even more with being based in the States from December.

The prediction for Bloomers wasn't far out, he's currently ranked 225ish and with a good run over the next month he could definately end the year in the top 200 particularly as he's started to hit form again, I reckon he'll do well in Nottingham next week. There's some very weak challengers in Canada which he's looking to take advantage of in November. He could already be in the top 200 but for his scheduling during July and August. Going to the States for two months completely backfired as he hardly won a match. With hindisight it would have been better to stay on the grass and in Europe. Lots of brits struggle when going to the USA as they use Wilson balls over there which are completely different to the Slazengers which are used in Europe. The Wilson balls just fly off the court and it's really tricky to get used to them.

Arvind's really struggled with injuries in the latter part of the year and he's had a lot to defend, we couldn't really see that coming. Matt Smith has had an annus horribilis but I think our predictions for him would have been less ambitious if we'd known that he was going to play right on into the 3rd week of December in 2005 [giving himself just 2 weeks off before the new season !] and also that he broke up with his girlfriend late last year [quite possibly because she was a bit cheesed off with him disappearing off to India all through December instead of spending time with her in the off season

].

You got Martin Lee and Josh Goodall about right. Jamie Baker's made a leap of about 90 places this year, I'm still hopeful that he'll make that big push up to about 270, he's got 5 tournaments left this year [maybe 6] to do it.

I think Colin would have finished the year in the top 350 if he'd kept playing. He beat two top 200 players in the grass court season. Going to the States was a disaster for him in singles [as with Lee, Bloomers and Baker] but was a success in doubles. I reckon he'd have done well indoors with his big serve and aggressive game, unfortunately he returned from Bronx to receive the news that if he was going to complete his degree, this year would be his last chance and so he had to do that to give himself something to fall back on if tennis doesn't work.