Week 13 - Vietnam F1 $10,000 - Bac Lieu City - Hard

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Week 13 - Vietnam F1 $10,000 - Bac Lieu City - Hard

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
Bob - still nothing on the ATP Challengers/Futures page for this event [...]

There is now! wink

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

paulisi wrote:
Great to see both through. This looks a particularly weak $10K and more of our GB players should take the chance and travel out to the weaker tournaments in search of ranking points.

Not so sure bit of a finance burden and a false economy playing weak players. If the players are good enough they should be looking to play top 400 players not 1000 ranked journeymen. However as we have seen recently zero points from our players playing in Portugal and Spain means thy have to search the 1000 rank range.

Well dome to both though dont really think we should be surprised at the Josh victory he is playing above his ranking and I could see him and Fitzy being ranked in the same range by year end.

steven · Tennis legend

Jaggy1876 wrote:
paulisi wrote:
Great to see both through. This looks a particularly weak $10K and more of our GB players should take the chance and travel out to the weaker tournaments in search of ranking points.
Not so sure bit of a finance burden and a false economy playing weak players. If the players are good enough they should be looking to play top 400 players not 1000 ranked journeymen. However as we have seen recently zero points from our players playing in Portugal and Spain means thy have to search the 1000 rank range.
Well dome to both though dont really think we should be surprised at the Josh victory he is playing above his ranking and I could see him and Fitzy being ranked in the same range by year end.

It's not quite as simple as that though, is it. Fitzy kept drawing seeds in R1 which made early losses more likely and that is then exacerbated by the effect on confidence levels. Going out to a Futures event where he was likely to be seeded is a good way to try to re-balance his ranking (though as we have seen with Josh Milton in the US, getting seeded doesn't mean you necessarily avoid tough R1 draws) and I can't imagine playing in Vietnam is that 'easy' even if the opposition is a bit weaker.

Fitzy · Intermediate Club Player

Hi guys, I will mention the tie break, get it out the way.
At 3-1 down we had a long ralley, I came to the net, and as I was running forward my head band slipped down my face to cover my eyes like a teenage mutant ninja turtle but without the eye holes.
No surprise trying to volley blind and rip it off at the same time didn't work. Amazing.

Anyway, it was brutal its clocking 40c out here at the main chunk of the day. Doesn't matter who you are playing its more about surviving first and going from there.

Few comments regarding my points, I'm aware of this but impossible for me to try to over turn that, so I'm just going to play and try to win more points this year than last. Not go week to week looking at what I have to defend. That will only have a negative effect.

The ref split second round matches, leaving only 2 rounds of singles tomorrow but yet doesn't want to start later to avoid the heat which is really strange. See what happens.
We just lost the doubles 64 64.

Its simple, u need match wins at any level for confidence, I haven't had many because of the start of the year I have had. Futures have been the same time as british tour's so its been impossible to get matches under my belt. So rgardless of wether I drop down the rankings like some posts have mentioned I'm going on the 2013 as a whole and just trying to keep going, keep improving and more importantly keep surviving and making a living.

If I ever lose its not for lack of trying, I'm aware of the circumstances, the last few years I have been good at backing things up, so we shall see what happens these weeks.

Looking forward to a battle tomorrow.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Can't help laughing at the headband incident, but I can see it wasn't very funny for you! Good luck the rest of the week.

Shhh · Challenger level

Fitzy wrote:
Few comments regarding my points, I'm aware of this but impossible for me to try to over turn that, so I'm just going to play and try to win more points this year than last. Not go week to week looking at what I have to defend. That will only have a negative effect.

100% way to go in my opinion Fitzy, good luck

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Hi Fitz

You left out one very important piece of information. We need to know what colour your headband was in order to work out which "turtle" you are LOL.

As for the rest of what you said, there is a lot of common sense in there. A drop in the rankings does NOT make you a worse player. And although a seeding can make a difference, in the end, all you can do is play the guy at the other end of the court. All players go through good and bad spells and this can lead to ranking anomalies but as the old saying goes - form is temporary, class is permanent.

As for the temperatures being 40 degrees - it is just getting warm !!

Have a good one tomorrow.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Cheers Fitzy - that's a good honest and sound philosophy to take forward. Good luck for the next few weeks and lets hope for a few wins under the belt to build up the confidence, boost the ranking and earn some money.

Jan · Hall of fame

good luck Fitzy!

paulisi · Tennis legend

The other thing to think about is the difficulty of selecting tournaments - tournaments have to be selected several weeks in advance(form changes), finances and conditions need to be taken into account.

It's much easier for Fitzy to play the local tournaments in Portugal, but you tend to play in the same conditions against similar opposition. Fitzy has taken a big risk in travelling to Vietnam. Historically the standard has been much weaker and it should be a opportunity to build up some confidence and win a few games and some cash, but there is always the fear that conditions or a bad draw will throw a spanner in the works.

steven · Tennis legend

Fitzy wrote:
Hi guys, I will mention the tie break, get it out the way.
At 3-1 down we had a long ralley, I came to the net, and as I was running forward my head band slipped down my face to cover my eyes like a teenage mutant ninja turtle but without the eye holes.
No surprise trying to volley blind and rip it off at the same time didn't work. Amazing.

Anyway, it was brutal its clocking 40c out here at the main chunk of the day. Doesn't matter who you are playing its more about surviving first and going from there.

Few comments regarding my points, I'm aware of this but impossible for me to try to over turn that, so I'm just going to play and try to win more points this year than last. Not go week to week looking at what I have to defend. That will only have a negative effect.

Thanks for the report. The mutant ninja turtle image is very funny, even if it can't have seemed that funny at the time.

You're absolutely right about the points, obviously - even if we might look at points coming off, players should try not to get too concerned about them (unless it's for practical reasons, like fitting in some tournaments while they might still be seeded before big chunks of points drop off - and even that might be counter-productive), since all they can control is the points going on. Best if players see having won an event a year earlier as proof that it's possible to do the same again given reasonable circumstances, rather something to add pressure now.

steven · Tennis legend

Good win for Fitzy (I thought Lucak might be tricky after having a look at his recent activity) and a good scoreline for Josh, though I'd have been surprised if he hadn't won:

L16: (5) Andrew Fitzpatrick WR 510 beat Otakar Lucak (CZE) WR 705 (= CH) by 4-6 7-6(8) 6-1
L16: Josh Ward-Hibbert WR 1121 beat Zach Itzstein (AUS) WR 995 (CH 898 last Jul) by 2 & 4 biggrin

Fitzy: "Took another epic win. 46 ..........76(8)!!!!61 in close to 3 hours again. Beat him physically which I love #heat ... 2 matches in a row break down 1-0 in the third and reel off 6 games. I'm just fighting to win. Tough to do anything else out here."

More to the point, that tiebreak win ends Fitzy's 7-tiebreak losing streak in singles stretching back to January - and nothing like surviving an epic tiebreak like that to restore self-belief that you can win them when they get close! biggrin

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 28th of March 2013 07:23:23 AM

Shhh · Challenger level

You got that score the wrong way round Steven........................you have Fitzy winning the tie break biggrin (seriously though, I wonder if there were match points saved in there?)

You watch, I bet he goes on a tie break winning streak now!

-- Edited by Shhh on Thursday 28th of March 2013 07:18:13 AM

bartman2099 · Lower Club Player

Babolat trophy are probably some of the worst balls out there!

I can't believe they're being use in a professional tournament.

Good luck to Fitzy and Josh in their QFs.

-- Edited by bartman2099 on Thursday 28th of March 2013 10:12:06 AM