This is the fifth $10k of the year in GB. In the context of previous discussions on the tournament mix in GB, noticed that Australia is currently onto its 3rd or possibly 4th Challenger of the year. All of them have relatively weak fields, and are great opportunities for the likes of Saville, Krygios, Kokkinakis, Millman and others to build up quick points, or at least test themselves early in their careers. Combined with the batches of $15ks they have, again with weak Aussie dominated fields at this time of the year, it really does provide a huge benefit for developing talent to put their best foot forward quickly.

Of course, Australia's location and the timing of their Summer facilitate this strategy, making it hard for anyone not Australian to stay out there from Jan-March to take advantage of the tournaments. But if Italy can have nearly 20 Challengers, as well as large ATP tournaments through the year, why can't GB? Id love to be able to go and watch tennis outside June with decent fields, and I cant really anymore at home. 20 Challlengers maybe extreme, after all no other country goes anywhere near this. But the huge "hole" in GB's tournament profile, firstly in terms of level, secondly outside the month of June, seems to be very unhealthy for the progession of our young players, the promotion of the sport as an all year round game, and the opportunities for fans to enjoy the sport live.

murray_2k9 wrote:

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Always nice to have a Brit on all but one line.

Anybody know much about the WCs? Jack seems a bit of an enigma, only playing the junior events in Nottingham, yet reaching the final of the doubles twice (winning both) and made the QF in the singles last year, being beaten by eventual winner Clay Crawford. Strange but clearly with some potential, I wonder why he played so limited and now turns up here!?

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Jack was the first of the young players I watched when I started to attend local tennis events a few years ago.  I saw him play in Elche in 2010 and then again last year in Murcia.  He struck as a solid and consistent player that battles for everything.

He has had substantial periods of inactivity since then and until last week, I was unsure why.  I had the opportunity in Murcia to talk with James Rose, who is the LTA Development Manager in La Manga (think I've got the title right) and he has known Jack since his junior days.  He informed me that Jack has had ongoing injury problems (foot - to be precise) and that has limited his playing time.  It was the reason he missed the second half of the 2010 season and also why he wasn't with the training squad in La Manga before Xmas.

It would also be the reason why he hasn't played much at the start of this season.

Edit

Oops.  Two "Jacks" in the draw.  I was talking about Jack Carpenter. I get the feeling you were talking about Jack F-H.

My mistake

Doubles pairings involving Brits:

R1:  (1) David Rice & Sean Thornley WR 464 vs Scott Clayton & Richard Gabb WR 1874

R1:  (3) Josh Goodall & James Marsalek WR 999 vs (WC) Jack Findel-Hawkins & Alexander Gasson UNR

R1:  Neil Pauffley & Marcus Willis WR 2090 vs Damiano di Ienno & Francesco Vilardo (ITA/ITA) WR 2758

R1:  Lewis Burton & Tom Farquharson UNR vs (ALT) Antonio Mastrelia & Jan Zednik (ITA/CZE) UNR

R1:  Dan Smethurst & Alex Ward WR 1254 vs (3) Ed Corrie & Neal Skupski WR 1131

R1:  (WC) Harry Meehan & Stefan Sterland-Markovich WR 2300 vs (2) Frederik Nielsen (DEN) [how are the mighty fallen!  ] & Josh Ward-Hibbert WR 947

Dan Smethurst involved in a really tough encounter has just lost a final set tie break. Dan had a lot more break point opportunities...

R1:  (1) David Rice & Sean Thornley WR 464 defeated Scott Clayton & Richard Gabb WR 1874 by 0 & 3

R1:  (4) Ed Corrie & Neal Skupski WR 1131 defeated Dan Smethurst & Alex Ward WR 1254 by 7-6(3) 6-4