QR2: Tom Farquharson WR 1665 beat Henrique Sousa (POR) WR 1445 by 7-6(3) 6-0
QR2: (q3) George Morgan WR 864 beat Gustavo Holz (BRA) UNR by 6-2 3-6 6-1
QR2: Philip Sikman UNR lost to (q10) Colin van Beem (NED) WR 1123 by 3 & 2

FQR: Tom Farquharson WR 1665 v (q2) Viktor Filipenko (HUN) WR 819
FQR: (q3) George Morgan WR 864 v (q9) Viktor Stjern (SWE) WR 1122 (H2H 2-0, s/s in juniors 2008, 3 sets here last week)

R1:  Germain Gigounon & Yannik Reuter (BEL/BEL) WR 1151 vs (3) Jesper Brunström (SWE) & George Morgan  WR 1131

L32:  (Q) Tom Farquharson WR 1216 lost to (Q) Jeroen Vanneste (BEL) WR 866 by 4 & 4
L32: (Q) George Morgan WR 844 beat Stanislav Poplavskyy (UKR) WR 531 by 6-1 2-0 ret.

L16: (Q) George Morgan WR 844 v Denis Bejtulahi (SRB) WR 766

Bejtulahi beat the 7th seed in R1.

Slightly strange that the tournament drawsheet and the ITF website both show George winning his first round 6-1 6-2, although he talked about a retirement at 2-0 in the second set. Result is still the same.

Seems a long time ago that George even got to a quarter final round of a $10k futures, so good luck for today!

He seems to have lost his way during 2012 - that difficult transition period post juniors, results-wise anyway. Long runs of first round defeats, spending weeks away (mostly in Turkey it seems), and now back in the world of qualifiers, given a ranking in the 800s. So a good run here would settle the nerves, and provide a "quali's avoidance" platform for next year. Go on!

I think the general consensus was that George would push on with stronger performances in futures this year, although perhaps not as quickly as Oli (who in turn has had an up and down year, with a couple of Futures wins and a good Wimbledon "cameo", alongside a stack of horrendously baffling defeats, but nonetheless still moved up over 200 ranking places to the low/mid 400s).  I would have guessed at solid ranking position in the high 400s to early 600s somewhere for George. 

For those more experienced tennis watchers than me - what seems to be the best way of turning round a rut? How does the LTA coaching system approach this if relevant?

1. Come home, stop playing tournaments and get some training/coaching/tactics/fitness/attitude (whichever is the issue) rehab with some of the LTA boffins who are paid to crack this sort of stuff

2. Keep playing tournaments through the rut, as it will turn around at some point naturally (assuming the talent and basics are there)

3. Keep playing tournaments through the rut, but (assuming its possible) have someone from the LTA on-site to advise - presume this is too expensive except where large groups are travelling