Week 3 - Great Britain F1 ($10,000) - Glasgow (Hard)

Shhh · Challenger level

RE: Week 3 - Great Britain F1 ($10,000) - Glasgow (Hard)

Ratty · County player

safin78 wrote:
overall very impressed with what our country has got to offer.

Yes, our players in this $10K ARE good aren't they. But unfortunately, too many players from other countries are better - as evidenced by those damned inconvenient things called RANKINGS.

smile

steven · Tennis legend

Still, at least we can always rely on Ratty to make a newbie feel welcome ... disbelief wink (though he might have a fair point, of course)

Thanks for the reports, Safin78 and clayfan - it's always good to get a first-hand description of the action and even more interesting to read differing views of the same matches.

clayfan · Lower Club Player

Nice to hear someone else's take on matches, Safin78. I wouldn't disagree with what you said at all. It just boils down to did Marcus win it or did Dan lose it. Perhaps we expect a bit too much of Evo, but given some of his past results you think he must be favourite to beat Marcus so you look for what went wrong. I think Dan would be better if he didn't get drawn into things and kept his concentration. But Marcus did play well and the best man won on the day.

It must be strange playing the same players week after week, year after year. They must know each other so well. I agree the 2 Josh's banter was pretty friendly, but still rather unusual. I think players want to be in their own little zone normally and most avoid direct communication with their opponents.

The British players often impress on home soil at this level. It is the lack of players in the Challenger and ATP circuits that is the problem. Many British players get stuck at Futures level seemingly unable to make the jump to regular Challenger appearances. So will any get to Aussie Qualies next year you ask? We are back to the usual suspects. Josh Goodall, Dan Evans and perhaps Richard Bloomfield. But I detect a sigh from people who have been here before and know it probably won't happen. The younger crew might produce someone, but next year is probably too early.

Spectator · All-time great

In terms of the next generation, I tend to look at people's W/L record against their highest-ranked peers, which seems potentially a decent indicator of future success. On this front, Mr Golding and Mr Broady are both extremely good prospects: Broady's run at Wimbledon (Kyrgios, Bourgue, Vesely, Kern, Kubler) alone would make one take note! But the two of them generally had very good records against top opposition. True, one never knows (and yes, I'm aware that Nadal's W/L record in juniors could be used as a counterindicator. You need a decent sample size for the record to have any meaning, something which -- as Ratty has pointed out -- we don't have with Nadal). But one can hope.

HossTheBoss · Strong Club Player

Great win for Marcus today ,Well Done

korriban · Challenger level

Marcus won 6-1 7-6. cracking result

This is what HosstheBoss said with regard to the 10 random predictions for 2013 thread a month or so ago.

"Heres one for you all to chew over ,Marcus Willis to get in top 350 before end of 2013."

Hoss - impressive stuff, what a good start!

HossTheBoss · Strong Club Player

korriban wrote:
Marcus won 6-1 7-6. cracking result
This is what HosstheBoss said with regard to the 10 random predictions for 2013 thread a month or so ago.
"Heres one for you all to chew over ,Marcus Willis to get in top 350 before end of 2013."
Hoss - impressive stuff, what a good start!

Thanks, Korriban some good stuff from Marcus this week,hope he can pull it off tomorrow.

Shhh · Challenger level

Josh makes it an all Brit final with a 6-4, 6-3 win today

SMC1809 · All-time great

R1: David RICE (GBR) / Sean THORNLEY (GBR) [1] beat Tom BURN (GBR) / Daniel EVANS (GBR) 6-2 6-4 smile cry

R1: Joshua MILTON (GBR) / Marcus WILLIS (GBR) beat Julien OBRY (FRA) / Mathieu RODRIGUES (FRA) 6-1 6-2 smile

R1: Toby MARTIN (GBR) / George MORGAN (GBR) beat Richard BECKER (GER) / Martin FISCHER (AUT) [3] 6-3 1-6 12-10 smile

R1: Kevin GRIEKSPOOR (NED) / Antal VAN DER DUIM (NED) beat Christian HARRISON (USA) / Neal SKUPSKI (GBR) 6-1 6-3 cry

R1: Daniel SMETHURST (GBR) / Alexander WARD (GBR) [4] beat Andrew FITZPATRICK (GBR) / Joshua WARD-HIBBERT (GBR) 6-2 6-1 smile cry

R1: Scott CLAYTON (GBR) / Richard GABB (GBR) beat Alan MACDONALD (GBR) / Jonathan PANKHURST (GBR) 6-3 3-6 12-10 smile cry

R1: Tom FARQUHARSON (GBR) / Neil PAUFFLEY (GBR) beat Lewis BURTON (GBR) / Edward CORRIE (GBR) [2] 7-6(5) 6-3 smile cry

QF: David RICE (GBR) / Sean THORNLEY (GBR) [1] beat Joshua MILTON (GBR) / Marcus WILLIS (GBR) 6-3 5-7 10-6 smile cry

QF: Toby MARTIN (GBR) / George MORGAN (GBR) beat Sergei KROTIOUK (RUS) / Matthieu ROY (FRA) 2-6 7-6(4) 10-3 smile

QF: Kevin GRIEKSPOOR (NED) / Antal VAN DER DUIM (NED) beat Daniel SMETHURST (GBR) / Alexander WARD (GBR) [4] 6-2 6-4 cry

QF: Scott CLAYTON (GBR) / Richard GABB (GBR) beat Tom FARQUHARSON (GBR) / Neil PAUFFLEY (GBR) 6-1 5-7 10-8 smile cry

SF: David RICE (GBR) / Sean THORNLEY (GBR) [1] beat Toby MARTIN (GBR) / George MORGAN (GBR) 6-2 6-7(6) 10-8 smile cry

SF: Scott CLAYTON (GBR) / Richard GABB (GBR) beat Kevin GRIEKSPOOR (NED) / Antal VAN DER DUIM (NED) 3-6 6-3 10-7 smile

F: David RICE (GBR) / Sean THORNLEY (GBR) [1] beat Scott CLAYTON (GBR) / Richard GABB (GBR) 7-6(5) 6-2

safin78 · Newbie

'The little thing called rankings'.

These players are top 1000 in the WORLD at what they do. That's for a fact more than all of us are at our jobs/ interests so I don't think we can judge/be too critical of our players. Maybe if we got behind them more they would have more belief. Went to watch again and Willis was tactically spot on, Harrison got annoyed at a couple of decisions early on and Willis took full advantage, was 42 30-0 up in second set and Harrison upped his game completely but was to no avail as Willis played a pretty much perfect tiebreak.

Goodall played very well and served fantastically on the big points against a high quality opponent, 1 break in each set was enough. Missing the final unfortunately as I have work but will be a good match I am sure.....

Ratty · County player

I don't think anyone was judging or being critical. I certainly wasn't, and to the best of my knowledge in all of my 622 posts have NEVER criticised any player for their playing ability.

Here's a thought. The quality of tennis in - oh, I don't know - Willis v Evans is only marginally below that in Murray v Djokovic. 9/10 people would not be able to tell the difference.

And yet while you can sell 25,000 tickets, and TV coverage watched by millions to the latter; you literally can't give away tickets to the former. Although of course standing on a freezing balcony doesn't exactly appeal.

steven · Tennis legend

FI: (WC) Marcus Willis WR 964 beat (1) Josh Goodall WR 258 by 4 & 4

Big week for Marcus! It should see him rise over 250 places to around 700 on Monday week.

-- Edited by steven on Saturday 19th of January 2013 03:16:52 PM

polly · Junior player

-- Edited by polly on Saturday 19th of January 2013 09:30:42 PM

KK · Club Coach

safin78 wrote:
'The little thing called rankings'.
These players are top 1000 in the WORLD at what they do. That's for a fact more than all of us are at our jobs/ interests so I don't think we can judge/be too critical of our players. Maybe if we got behind them more they would have more belief. Went to watch again and Willis was tactically spot on, Harrison got annoyed at a couple of decisions early on and Willis took full advantage, was 42 30-0 up in second set and Harrison upped his game completely but was to no avail as Willis played a pretty much perfect tiebreak.
Goodall played very well and served fantastically on the big points against a high quality opponent, 1 break in each set was enough. Missing the final unfortunately as I have work but will be a good match I am sure.....

Bit of a sweeping statement. Many of us might be in the top 1,000 of our professions. I would like to think I am! Sorry off the point.