Week 21 - Greece F8 ($10,000) - Marathon-Athens (Hard)

RJA · Hall of fame

RE: Week 21 - Greece F8 ($10,000) - Marathon-Athens (Hard)

korriban · Challenger level

RJA wrote:
Goodall won 5 games in a row but couldn't serve it out.

5-5*

Win or lose, this appears to be a very underwhelming performance from Josh against a player 1000 places below him in the rankings. What's going on?

steven · Tennis legend

Amazing singles form from the 'doubles specialist' - Dave has now won his last 14 singles sets without even being taken to a single tiebreak

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Josh finally makes it over the line winning 7-5 in the 3rd

RJA · Hall of fame

R1: (1) Josh Goodall / David Rice WR 630 beat Dimitris Loucareas / Athanasios (GRE/GRE) UNR : 6-4, 6-7(4) [10-1]
R1: Joseph Gill / Bruce Strachan UNR beat (4) Hugo Di Feo / Filip Peliwo (CAN/CAN) WR 1719 : 6-1, 6-2
R1: Sam Hutt / Chih-Jen Ho (TPE) UNR lost to Keith-Patrick Crowley / Tucker Vorster (RSA/RSA) UNR : 6-4, 6-2
R1: (3) Richard Gabb / Marcus Daniell (NZL) WR 949 beat Sean Carson / Boris Nikola Bakalov (AUS/BUL) UNR : walkover

QF: (1) Josh Goodall / David Rice WR 630 beat Sahak Bazrganian / Alexios Halebain (USA/USA) UNR : walkover
QF: Joseph Gill / Bruce Strachan UNR beat Ilias Giannakakis / Nikolaos Kokkotas (GRE/GRE) UNR : 2-6, 7-5 [10-7]
QF: (3) Richard Gabb / Marcus Daniell (NZL) WR 949 lost to Keith-Patrick Crowley / Tucker Vorster (RSA/RSA) UNR : walkover

SF: (1) Josh Goodall / David Rice WR 630 v Joseph Gill / Bruce Strachan UNR

spud · Challenger qualifying

Josh Goodall phoned in on the touchtennis show on Tuesday and said that the courts out there are pretty slow, I think having looked at the website for the place, they're pretty new so not surprising.

Not surprised to see Rice doing well on a slower court, he does have an attacking game but his ground strokes are solid enough until given the shorter ball. He does have the tennis to play singles at challenger level and will make it through quals at most tournaments if he decides to alongside his doubles

spud · Challenger qualifying

Will be very interesting to see the Rice v Goodall result, in current form/injuries and the courts you have to go Rice. Or putting it another way, Goodall will have to play much better than he is at the moment to win.

paulisi · Tennis legend

I wonder how the bookies are pricing this match. I'd bet they have Josh as favourite due to rankings gap.

In my eyes David Rice is a big favourite.

LHarvey89 · Social player

Yep, will be interesting to see how this one pans out. Last week I posted about Josh coming up against in-form opponents in recent times and how it is almost inevitable that he loses to anyone showing a bit of form. Yet, I find myself strangely favouring Josh for this one against a very in-form David Rice. I think Josh might want it more and the pressure is off of him as he isn't playing particularly well. The pressure isn't on David in the sense that he's largely viewed as a doubles player and he'll know that - therefore anything in singles will be deemed as a bonus (by others, perhaps not by him), but there is now a target on his head what with him being the champion at the exact same place last week. Josh knows he can beat him and has a pretty decent record against him if I remember correctly. I always remember reading a blog post from Josh once saying there are just certain players that he likes to play and there are certain players that he knows like to play against him. I get the feeling he likes to play against David and might remind us what he's all about here.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, it will be interesting to see the bookies odds. I would suggest that they generally have their fingers much more on the pulse than just to be looking at ranking gaps.

They have odds makers employed not to lose them money !

steven · Tennis legend

The ITF head to head is 5-2 in Josh's favour (which may not mean much at the moment but may give him some confidence, especially given that 1 of the "2" was a ret. the first time they played back in 2007), 1-1 last year.

All 7 matches were in Futures events, with Josh winning all 5 meetings that were in the QFs or later.

paulisi · Tennis legend

I don't use betfair and although i like occasional flutter, it normally is just a social bet at the weekends. However if i do see any value, i'm tempted. If the bookies offer 5/2 or better on David Rice i might throw a tenner on.

indiana · Tennis legend

Well, if you consider David Rice to be a big favourite, 5/2 or better would certainly be value !

korriban · Challenger level

Richard then went a break up final set (his third break without reply).

But immediately broken back.....and the Greek holds to love.

Oh Oh! - momentum shift alert!

Update: Richard holds for 2-2. Good lad!

-- Edited by korriban on Friday 24th of May 2013 11:45:27 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Very pleased for Richard. Really well done.

But I can't help it, I feel sorry for the poor Greek guy, three (amended!) MP, in front of his home crowd . . . .

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Friday 24th of May 2013 12:37:28 PM