Week 24 - Challenger (€64,000) - Nottingham 2, UK (grass)

paulisi · Tennis legend

RE: Week 24 - Challenger (€64,000) - Nottingham 2, UK (grass)

steven · Tennis legend

Copying over RJA's FQR list (since we seem to be starting a new page) and adding in the main draw, where all of the Brits have avoided seeds in R1:

FQR: Dan Cox WR 516 v (q7) Adrien Bossel (SUI) WR 397
FQR: Josh Ward-Hibbert 869 v Jordan Kerr (AUS) UNR
FQR: (q6) Brydan Klein WR 275 v (q3) Dzmitry Zhyrmont (BLR) WR 239
FQR: (q8) Neil Pauffley WR 477 v George Coupland WR 998

L32: (WC) Dan Smethurst WR 372 v Ruben Bemelmans (BEL) WR 146 (CH 108 last Oct) - QFs at Nottm 1
L32: (WC) Josh Milton WR 368 v Yuichi Sugita (JPN) WR 135 (CH 116 last Nov)
L32: (WC) Dave Rice WR 573 v Bradley Klahn (USA) WR 184 (CH 182 in Apr)
L32: (WC) Richard Gabb WR 668 v Steve Johnson (USA) WR 130 (CH 127 in Apr) - R2 at Nottm 1

steven · Tennis legend

Btw qualifiers get (8) Soeda, Berrer, Devvarman or Young, none of them particularly inviting draws.

paulisi · Tennis legend

The wildcard draws are all tough, all 4 GB players will be big underdogs and the w/c draws are tough as well.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Madeline wrote:
steven wrote:
Btw qualifiers get (8) Soeda, Berrer, Devvarman or Young, none of them particularly inviting draws.
According to the draw sheet I have, qualifiers get Matesovic, Rosol, Paire and Berankis?

My version agrees with Steven's.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

You were too quick, SC: I deleted my post as soon as I had made it - I was on the wrong thread! I hoped nobody would notice. blankstare

RJA · Hall of fame

Pretty horrible draw all round. From that I would be pretty happy if we got any Brits into round 2.

steven · Tennis legend

Probably a good thing JWH isn't as laid-back on the court as he seems to be off it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xe398ZUGag

As for the description ... disbelief "Joshua Ward Hibbert is through to the final round of qualifying for the Aegon Challenge, getting past fellow Briton Jonny O'Mara 7-5 6-2 in the second round at the Nottingham Tennis Centre."

(Jonny didn't even play Josh and the 5 & 2 scoreline is Jonny's winning score in his QR1 match!)

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

The draw isn't kind when you consider our Wild Cards aren't known for beating top 200 players in fact have any of them managed to beat a player ranked higher than their draw here? I don't think so.

wolf · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
Btw qualifiers get (8) Soeda, Berrer, Devvarman or Young, none of them particularly inviting draws.

I would have thought Devvarman on grass would be a pretty good draw. Young wouldn't be horrible either as Jamie Baker beat him last year at Eastbourne (and again at the Aussie Open) although he was in a bit of a rut then.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Well, the tie-break prediction came true, paulisi !

Great ace on set point against him, and loved the second serve ace. Josh's first serve percentage is just a little low - hence the 5 BP he had to save, whereas Kerr had none. But then Josh won that set so hey, ho.

Added: Yes, I think he;'s got huge potential too - I saw him last year and he seems such a good athlete. And he's very young, nowhere near his physical prime. In a few years time he's going to be monstrously strong. Also seems a nice guy, from what one can tell. And quite serious too.

NB He's the one who went to hang round and be a sparring partner at one of the recent Masters, instead of playing another Futures, just to get a feel of 'great' things.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Sunday 9th of June 2013 11:15:41 AM

paulisi · Tennis legend

JWH live stream at present. Both very strong on serve.
Expecting a couple of tie breaks.

paulisi · Tennis legend

JWH made heavy weather of his last two service games, but tie break time.

When JWH gets his first serve in very difficult to return.

paulisi · Tennis legend

JWH wins the tie break 7-3

paulisi · Tennis legend

First time I've seen JWH and i'm very impressed.

Huge serve, good backhand. decent at the net. Will need to work on his service return and variations in play. Seems suited to the hard courts. Potential to get into top 300-400 quite quickly.