From Jon Wertheim's Sports Illustrated "Tennis Mailbag": "What is the all-time record for men's professional match wins in a single season? Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta won another Challenger last week ..." sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/news/20130821/us-open-rafael-nadal-mailbag/

People on the board will probably particularly appreciate Wertheim's last point in response (though he has won so much that the aggregate sum somewhat disguises the paucity of the individual returns)

-- Edited by Spectator on Thursday 22nd of August 2013 03:37:36 AM

Miriambee wrote:

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Perhaps we don't need this thread now we've got our own British giant killer!

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Right now, I would love to see a match up between the two.

Busta is playing Como challenger this week. Despite being ranked at 76 at the moment, he chose not to play the US Open, although admittedly his ranking was somewhat lower when the entries went in.

He has a QF match against a certain Mr Naso tomorrow, who was recently beaten by Kyle.

Helen40 wrote:

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Good old Busta. How high do you reckon he can go?

Have you met him, is he a nice kid?

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I wouldn't go so far as to say I "met" him, but I was obviously there the day he played Kyle in Cartagena.  He seemed a very quiet and soft spoken person from what I saw afterwards in the bar and certainly well grounded. During the match there were no histrionics and it was all played in a great spirit.

I would say that by the end of this year, he is Top 50 potential as he has zero points to defend until next year.  Having said that, he has played (and won) so many tournaments this year that some of his 18 pointers from earlier in the year will drop off the chart soon because of the top 18 scores rule.

Longer term, I would say top 20 but probably has to improve his serve if he wants to compete rigt at the top level on the faster surfaces.

Bob in Spain wrote:

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I am sounding like a broken record, but Busta won yet another Challenger title today.

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Just saw this. That's 3 Challenger titles in his last 3 tournaments - with his win today, that makes 16 straight Challenger victories in a row.......this sounds familiar...........going on a run of form for weeks and months on end!

As you say, easily top 50 by year end, perhaps without playing too many ATP tournaments as well.

Thanks Bright Spark. I have been watching his progress this week as well. Strange how players below him in the rankings got a direct entry and yet he got in by a wild card. Just another of those "ranking at the time of entry" anomalies no doubt. Either that or he just applied late.

Comfortable win in the 1st round against Bogomolov Jnr 7-6 6-0 and a probable 2nd round match up with Dimitri Tursunov as he seems to have been dubbed recently. More interestingly is a potential rematch v Wawrinka in the QF if he can get through. Wawrinka beat him in 3 sets in the semis in Portugal (ATP250) earlier this year but not until Busta had come through 3 rounds of qualies and then beaten Benneteau, Goffin and Fognini to make the semis. He was ranked in the 250s at the time and is now up to 66. And with no points to defend this year, a top 50 place by the end of the year looks highly likely.

Just checked. Confirm Tursunov as the 2nd round opponent as he won easily today.