Boys: French Open - Grade A (Week 23)

Tennis36 · Masters Series Champion

RE: Boys: French Open - Grade A (Week 23)

blob · All-time great

Luke & Cameron's doubles has begun 1-0*

TMH · Futures qualifying

korriban wrote:
When Luke lost his first round match to Nakagawa yesterday, ITV were going on and on about this being a good effort by Luke because the Japanese is a well-known rising star amongst the Juniors. I have to admit I'd never heard him ever mentioned before as a high potential player, his ranking is nothing special, and he's already 2 breaks down in set 1 against Milojevic (who certainly DOES have a reputation).
To be honest it sounded a bit like an LTA "briefing". Does anyone know (perhaps David) anything about Nakagawa that can;t be seen from his ITF page.....which seems to suggest he's an OK player, nothing more.

-- Edited by korriban on Monday 3rd of June 2013 01:16:10 PM

Don't think he's anything more than your average top 50 junior.

Only 1 point on the pro tour (albeit a good win against Sekou Bangoura WR610), with losses to the likes of Podzus (WR1572), Crowley (WR780), Farinola (UNR), Cromwell (UNR) and Baradach (1374). Luke was certainly the clear favourite. I guess Nakagawa was just better on the day, but given the large amount of highly rated juniors of a similar age that have already made significant progress on the pro tour (Luke included), Nakagawa isn't really anything special.

DavidC · Tennis legend

korriban wrote:
When Luke lost his first round match to Nakagawa yesterday, ITV were going on and on about this being a good effort by Luke because the Japanese is a well-known rising star amongst the Juniors. I have to admit I'd never heard him ever mentioned before as a high potential player, his ranking is nothing special, and he's already 2 breaks down in set 1 against Milojevic (who certainly DOES have a reputation).
To be honest it sounded a bit like an LTA "briefing". Does anyone know (perhaps David) anything about Nakagawa that can;t be seen from his ITF page.....which seems to suggest he's an OK player, nothing more.

-- Edited by korriban on Monday 3rd of June 2013 01:16:10 PM

Yes i also heard John Inverdale talk up Nakagawa, and wondered where that had come from. His phrasing made it seem as if he had watched Nakagawa, but if so I doubt he has seen many top 50 juniors to compare. I've not read or heard anyone else talk about him in those terms. He ended up losing 6-4 6-4 to Milojevic, which is respectable.

Coric was untroubled (6-3 6-3), Zverev scraped home 13-11 in the decider whilst another player to keep an eye on is the Spaniard Albert Alcaraz Ivorra, who will play Gianluigi Quinzi in the third round, if the Italian wins his second match. Ivorra is another like Garin ranked in the 500s, with 3 clay court Futures finals in the last 6 months. Kyle is likely to play another on Wednesday (Yoshihito Nishioka, who comfortably dealt with the seeded Clement Geens, and plays Noah Rubin.) However the Japanese boy is more comfortable on hard, and Kyle beat him comfortably recently.

Kyle's doubles is third on court 16 whilst Cameron/Luke play their second round fourth on court 17 (against the fifth seeded Chileans Garin/Jarry)

Spectator · All-time great

Rubin beat both Napolitano and Broady last year at RG, so it will be interesting to see how he does this year against Nishioka. Also beat Baldi on clay at Eddie Herr. Hasn't had a great Spring, though, looking at his ITF page.

blob · All-time great

Kyle's doubles is mid way through set 1; 2 breaks a piece: 4-3*

blob · All-time great

Kyle & partner with an uphill struggle now.
4-6 1-2*

blob · All-time great

Wow!
They faced that challenge manfully and came back to take that second set.

In the MTB, they were *1-6 and 4-7* down, but fought back to draw level at *8-8.
They saved 2 MP's, at *8-9, *9-10; had their own missed MP at 11-10*
But they finally completed a heroic comeback!

4-6 6-4 [13-11]

Spectator · All-time great

Rubin seems to be that rara avis, an American who plays better on clay than on some other surfaces. Suspect that Edmund is a more formidable opponent than Nishioka, though.

PS: The Bambridge/Norrie result wasn't bad, given Garin/Jarry's record on clay!

-- Edited by Spectator on Tuesday 4th of June 2013 09:41:09 PM

PaulM · Tennis legend

Great stuff boys!

DF · Tennis legend

Luke and Cameron lost 6 - 7 3 - 6 to the number 5 seeds from Chile

DavidC · Tennis legend

I was proved premature in tipping Nishioka as Kyle's likely opponent - he lost in straight sets to Rubin, and their match is first on court 16, returning third on to play doubles against Gomez/Nakagawa. Kyle won in straight sets against Rubin at last year's US Open (Kyle's last junior event before this)

R3

(5) Kyle Edmund (GBR) v Noah Rubin (USA)

TMH · Futures qualifying

That bottom half of the draw is so stacked. Kyle, Zverev, Quinzi and Milojevic. Coric and Garin (beat Djere) in the top half (plus Kyrgios before he got knocked out). Those are probably the 8 best juniors around right now. And 6 of them have made the QFs.

Hard to place the two Serbs. Milojevic and Djere are #2 and #3 respectively in the juniors but have barely played the pro tour (Although Djere made a Futures final at the back end of last year).

-- Edited by TMH on Wednesday 5th of June 2013 01:06:03 PM

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

On serve, Kyle 3-2* in his third round match.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Just as I turn on to live scores, Kyle breaks to take the first set 7-5

Come on Kedders !!!!!!

Bob in Brazil