Week 5 - Futures F4 ($15K) - Nußloch, Germany - carpet

steven · Tennis legend

Week 5 - Futures F4 ($15K) - Nußloch, Germany - carpet

steven · Tennis legend

L32: Neil Pauffley WR 456 v (5) Nils Langer (GER) WR 286 (= CH)

Ouch! Langer is the defending champion here and is also on a 5-match winning streak, having won Stuttgart-Stammheim Futures earlier this month.

korriban · Challenger level

Very tough for Neil. Incidentally, the world's top 94 junior, the belgian Kimmer Coppejans ( I need to check spelling here), didnt make it out of qualifying. He was beaten by an unranked German with perhaps the best surname in the draw. Frank Wintermantel, which is German for wintercoat!

korriban · Challenger level

Jan-Lennard Struff has received a WC here as top seed, which is not ideal. Now ranked 138, up about 100 on the year, up about 225 on 2 years, up over 550 on 3 years. Just reached the final of the Heilbronn CH, a 110 point event. Would be Neil's QF opponent if he manages to make progress, which as previously mentioned, will be tough. Ouch!

RJA · Hall of fame

Slightly odd that Neil has gone out to Germany for one week, when he could have played at Sheffield, and then comes back next week to play at Wirral.

Spectator · All-time great

Would make sense, if Nussloch is close to the other German tournaments he played last year, if there's some geographic connection ... a friend or relation to stay with, perhaps?

-- Edited by Spectator on Tuesday 29th of January 2013 01:25:21 PM

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

Not really cost wise probably not much more if any. More ranking points available more money and better opposition rather than playing the same Brits again.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

R1: Christian Hirschmüller (GER) & Harry Meehan UNR vs Sander Arends & David Pel (NED/NED) UNR

RJA · Hall of fame

Jaggy1876 wrote:
Not really cost wise probably not much more if any. More ranking points available more money and better opposition rather than playing the same Brits again.

Well indeed and I would have understood completely if he had gone out and played 3 or 4 German futures this month. I just thought it odd that he played Glasgow and Preston and has now gone to Gernany for one week before coming home to play at Wirral.

steven · Tennis legend

Spectator wrote:
Would make sense, if Nussloch is close to the other German tournaments he played last year, if there's some geographic connection ... a friend or relation to stay with, perhaps?

You might be onto something here - Nußloch and Leimen (the second of the German Futures he played last year) are both suburbs of Heidelberg, only about 2 miles apart. Hambach (where he won the title the week before Leimen) is about 100 miles to the north but close enough to be

So maybe he has family there or got to know people who live there while playing there last year and playing there again has been made easier as a result. Either that or he knows the surface at these locations particularly suits him.

steven · Tennis legend

Not going well for Neil at the moment (well, it was a rubbish draw - see above) - 3-5* Langer about to serve for the 1st set

steven · Tennis legend

L32: Neil Pauffley WR 456 lost to (5) Nils Langer (GER) WR 286 (= CH) by 3 & 4

indiana · Tennis legend

Neil had a bit of a tough start to the year. Hopefully he can get some more decent draws soon and get his year going.

Spectator · All-time great

Rotten luck on the draw. But at least if, as per Steven's comments above, he's around Heidelberg, there are some side benefits -- seem to recall (brief visit, years ago) that it's a very pretty place.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

R1: Sander Arends & David Pel (NED/NED) UNR defeated Christian Hirschmüller (GER) & Harry Meehan UNR by 5 & 4 cry