Week 20 - Turkey F19 ($10,000) - Antalya - Belconti (Hard)

RJA · Hall of fame

Week 20 - Turkey F19 ($10,000) - Antalya - Belconti (Hard)

RJA · Hall of fame

QR1: (q3) Miles Bugby WR 1550 v Bye
QR1: Sam Holt UNR v Riccardo Lemos (BRA) UNR To be played Sunday
QR1: (q6) Alexander Jhun WR 1768 beat Cem Urturk (TUR) UNR : 6-0, 6-0

FQR: (q3) Miles Bugby WR 1550 v Igor Sobolta (UKR) UNR
FQR: (q6) Alexander Jhun WR 1768 v Pavlo Zhukov (UKR) UNR

Miles and Alexander play their final round matches tomorrow on the same day that Sam plays his first round match. The reason for this unusual state of affairs is that the lack of people in the draw means that 2 qualifying rounds are being spread over 3 days.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Simon Ede -if he has indeed changed nationalities also competes here. Tom could get seeded and the field isn't as strong as last week.

Would be interested to see how Alexander Jhun gets on. He's one that may well shoot up the rankings when he gets some experience.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Jhun is the guy who is part of the same team in charge of Vekic, right? Strange that he has played so little despite being 18, are you expecting big things because of his connection with Vekic or...?

RJA · Hall of fame

murray_2k9 wrote:
Jhun is the guy who is part of the same team in charge of Vekic, right? Strange that he has played so little despite being 18, are you expecting big things because of his connection with Vekic or...?

He has just turned 18 (4 days ago) and is playing in his 19th futures tournament since last July (his first ever pro event). I hardly think that counts as having played "so little".

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Really, dont you? Including his one outing in juniors, playing 20 events in total is not a lot as an 18 year old.

RJA · Hall of fame

murray_2k9 wrote:
Really, dont you? Including his one outing in juniors, playing 20 events in total is not a lot as an 18 year old.

No I don't. For a start he was 17 for almost all of that period and 20 events over 45 weeks is nor particularly low, especially when you take out the off season.

More importantly, since he is part of well regarded training group he is probably on a structured plan to improve his game. He has only got through qualifying 5 times and won just one main draw match so simply playing as many events as possible doesn't seem sensible.

RJA · Hall of fame

An article from last month about the centre where he trains

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/10350388.Coaching_dream_team_serve_up_no_nonsense_tennis_programme/

Hard work on the court though is balanced by a commitment to academic study and JTC hires eight teachers in a variety of subjects to tutor the players in classrooms provided on site.

Sherling insists his time in football revealed to him the dangers of directing a youngsters focus on a playing career in sport too hard and for too long.

We owe it to them that they have as broad an education as possible so they can achieve as much as they can both in tennis and educationally, he said

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I agree, RJA. I think 20 big tournaments, as a 17-18 year old, is plenty.

The aim is not to be the best ranked 18 year-old but one of the top-ranked 25 year-olds. The average age for a top ten player at the moment is over 27 1/2 yrs old !! An 18 year-old is still in development phase - when can you train, let alone study, if you're playing 40 tournaments a year ?

I particularly liked the comment:

We fall in love with people who have a bit of ability in this country but what youve got to recognise is tennis is a brutal, warrior, gladiatorial sport and we too often sprinkle gold dust when we should be asking for pounds of flesh.

In France, all players of that age in the academies have to get the grades, and eventually their Bac, or else they're thrown out. I believe that the same is true for the German system.

RJA · Hall of fame

QR1: Riccardo Lemos (BRA) UNR beat Sam Holt UNR : 3-6, 7-5, 6-3

FQR: (q3) Miles Bugby WR 1550 beat Igor Sobolta (UKR) UNR : 6-2, 7-6(3)
FQR: Pavlo Zhukov (UKR) UNR beat (q6) Alexander Jhun WR 1768 : 6-2, 7-5

paulisi · Tennis legend

murray_2k9 wrote:
Jhun is the guy who is part of the same team in charge of Vekic, right? Strange that he has played so little despite being 18, are you expecting big things because of his connection with Vekic or...?

only via his coaching an training partners. I've no idea on his ability.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Thanks paulisi, I was just curious as I had heard very little about him myself.

Im not talking about 20 events in the space of a year, thats a very different matter, Im talking about 20 in total for a (young) 18 year old. Kyle, who is only 5 months older, played almost 40 junior events alone, and has played around 25 senior events on top of that, so objectively speaking having a total of 20 IS a low number.

It is very rare for talented players to almost completely bypass juniors as he has done (which was the whole point behind my observation) and Jhun's approach has been very different to that of Vekic who played juniors, rose to the top and then moved on to seniors with great success. Just all seems a bit strange!

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

L32: (Q) Miles Bugby WR 1556 v (4) Hugo Nys (FRA) WR 580
L32: Jack Carpenter WR 749 v (8) Bastian Trinker (AUT) WR 664
L32: Tom Farquharson WR 679 v (Q) Barkin Yalcinkale (TUR) WR 1580

paulisi · Tennis legend

Tough draws for Miles and Jack, but straight forward for Tom.

Tom would then come up against an out of form 6th seed Crepaldi or the once top 100 player George Bastl who is now 38 and should not be a problem these days judging by his results this year. The other seed in his quarter is Nys who i'd expect Tom to beat.

Sandman · Social player

Simon Ede's just begun his match, though I'm not sure what his nationality situation is.