Week 21 - Portugal F7 ($10,000) - Coimbra (Hard)

paulisi · Tennis legend

RE: Week 21 - Portugal F7 ($10,000) - Coimbra (Hard)

steven · Tennis legend

Dan: "far from feeling my best... but i'll get through it."

paulisi · Tennis legend

Still no official results up - waiting for information on Neil's match.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Having said that, they suddenly appear:

L32: (4) Neil Pauffley WR 473 bt (WC) Jose-Ricardo Nunes (POR) WR 1202 6-3 6-4

paulisi · Tennis legend

L16: (4) Neil Pauffley WR 473 vs Carlos Boluda-Purkiss (ESP) Q WR 1051 CH 557 Feb 2011
L16: (6) Dan Cox WR 514 vs Leonardo Tavares (POR) WR 852 CH 186 Aug 2010

steven · Tennis legend

Wasn't Boluda-Purkiss supposed to be 'the next Rafa' at one point? (if so, proof that it's not only in the UK and France where the hype machine goes into overdrive!)

paulisi · Tennis legend

Mixed news out of Portugal

L16: (4) Neil Pauffley WR 473 bt Carlos Boluda-Purkiss (ESP) Q WR 1051 CH 557 Feb 2011 6-0 7-5
L16: (6) Dan Cox WR 514 lost to Leonardo Tavares (POR) WR 852 CH 186 Aug 2010 6-2 6-1

Not really suprised about Dan - struggling at the moment.

QF: (4) Neil Pauffley WR 473 v Andre Gaspar Murta (POR) 767

Also 2nd seed is out in his half, so Neil half has really opened up.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
Wasn't Boluda-Purkiss supposed to be 'the next Rafa' at one point? (if so, proof that it's not only in the UK and France where the hype machine goes into overdrive!)

Yep. I remember he absolutely walked through the juniors events, one of the only players to ever win Les Petits As twice (top world tournament for 10-12, European equivalent of the Junior Orange Bowl).

DavidC will probably know better but I remember seeing him and him being a reasonable height and quite stocky, powerful kid (for age11). But I think that the main problem was that he then stopped growing. Practically completely. I believe he's only about 5ft 5" now. And light. It's pretty difficult to be a top player like that.

One of the many reasons that junior tennis can be misleading . . . Feel sorry for the guy though because, as you say, the hype was completely over the top (I remember Rafa saying Carlos was twcie as good as him at the same age), must be difficult to come to terms with.

Tennisnow · Lower Club Player

Fantastic! It's about time Neil returned to good form (Not that we can read much into two results).

Has real potential to at least break top 250. I Remember at the end of last year Neil getting to at least the quarter-finals in 6 out of 7 tournaments, winning two of them. He's been very unlucky with injuries, great to see he's still motivated.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, Tennisnow, after his impressive comeback last year, many in the forum were predicting a very good year for Neil, and indeed some of us felt he was a worth a place in the AEGON funding group.

In fact, it hasn't really gone too well this year, and it would be really good to see him turn things round again. He certainly has the potential to be doing quite a lot better.

korriban · Challenger level

Ratty. Les Petits As is not a 14 and under tournament like the Junior Orange Bowl, it's a genuine under 14 tournament where most of the competitors are 12 and 13, with a few exceptional players aged 11.

For example, Borna Coric lost the 2009 Final (Jan 2009), and the Junior Orange Bowl Final in 2010 (Dec 2010), virtually 2 years later. Probably the most interesting match to Youtube was a Gasquet-Nadal contest when I believe they were 11 or 12.

Edit: I've just noticed that Liam Broady got to the final when he was a few days over 14 in January 2008 - I suspect that you needed to be UNDER 14 (as opposed to 14 and under) on January 1st of the year (his birthday is on the 4th), and the tournament is just a couple of weeks later anyway. Anyway, my point remains the same - the Petits As players tend to be a year or 2 younger than in the Junior Orange Bowl

-- Edited by korriban on Thursday 23rd of May 2013 07:00:05 AM

philwrig · Hall of fame

Pauffs performed respectably in defeat when I some him play this year, so he wasn't a mile off getting back to last years form, it can be a sport of small margins.

Ratty · County player

Coup Droit wrote:
steven wrote:
Wasn't Boluda-Purkiss supposed to be 'the next Rafa' at one point? (if so, proof that it's not only in the UK and France where the hype machine goes into overdrive!)

Yep. I remember he absolutely walked through the juniors events, one of the only players to ever win Les Petits As twice (top world tournament for 10-12, European equivalent of the Junior Orange Bowl).

DavidC will probably know better but I remember seeing him and him being a reasonable height and quite stocky, powerful kid (for age11). But I think that the main problem was that he then stopped growing. Practically completely. I believe he's only about 5ft 5" now. And light. It's pretty difficult to be a top player like that.
One of the many reasons that junior tennis can be misleading . . . Feel sorry for the guy though because, as you say, the hype was completely over the top (I remember Rafa saying Carlos was twcie as good as him at the same age), must be difficult to come to terms with.

Some Ratty wisdom from January 2012 (yes, yes, I know, who cares?):

Back to Boluda, if I may. He is 3 months younger than Bernard Tomic, who was similarly gifted from a very early age. But Boluda has not grown very tall - his "official" height is 5'5". Tomic's is 6'5". That fact could well be the only reason he has struggled on the senior tour. Talk about being a prisoner of your genes.

I like this quote from Michael Shermer, a scientific author who used to be a pro cyclist. When asked to explain why he had never made it to the top in cycling, his answer was: "I should have picked better parents."

And while I am of course extremely hesitant about, er, correcting CD, the great guru of all things French, dude I think you'll find that Les Petits A is a tournament for 14-year olds.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Ratty, I could have sworn I'd typed 12-14. Sorry. Because, yes, you're absolutely right, it's under 14s and ,yes, Korriban's right, there's a lot of younger players who play too. So it's always got 12-14 on the heading. I mistyped it. Sorry again.

Glad I didn't mess up Boluda's height too (do 'gurus' have a three strikes and you're out rule ? in fact, is that how you spell gurus ????).

It must be very disheartening for Boluda - I wonder how his parents feel?

korriban · Challenger level

I suspect Boluda was probably a big physical specimen relative to his peers at 10-12, which gives a massive advantage.

At 5 foot 5, I think your chances of being a truly top player in the men's game are virtually nil.

I look at Michael Mmoh, the US "prodigy" (who must be 14 or 15 now), and I wonder the same sort of thing. All the reports about him are that he will be a superstar (believe he's a Bolletieri boy), but when you look at him, he looked like a 6 footer aged 13, and may well be considerably taller and more muscular now. Against 12 year olds his matches had that Jason and Goliath look about them - he was destroying the competition - whether it was pure physicality; or whether he was more talented anyway remains to be seen.......but my point is that the physical differences between players in junior events can be extreme......and therefore often results are a poor guide to the future.

Furthermore, oftentimes the most "successful" (as opposed to talented) young juniors (8-12) are those whose parents have a tennis court, or are tennis coaches themselves, or have been trained to within an inch of their lives by super-motivated parents 24/7. Natural talent for tennis, and world-class physical skills may not be there at all. And as the genuine prospects get older, mature physically, and catch up on coaching, the position reverses. I think of the Ren sisters, who are clearly very good players, and very nice individuals, and swept all before them when very young, but in professional tennis terms just don't even register.

Poor Senor Boluda. What a burden to have carried. Hope it doesn't end badly.