Week 27 - Great Britain F12 ($10,000) - Manchester (Grass)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Week 27 - Great Britain F12 ($10,000) - Manchester (Grass)

SMC1809 · All-time great

I agree with RJA. Decent player but definitely limited potential. I think the hype about him was based on a couple of decent runs in Futures last year in the Czech Rep?

korriban · Challenger level

SMC1809 wrote:
I agree with RJA. Decent player but definitely limited potential. I think the hype about him was based on a couple of decent runs in Futures last year in the Czech Rep?

I think you are right RJA. In 2012 Neil won 2 Futures, 1 in Germany and 1 in the Czech Republic and managed to get his ranking inside 450. All this after 20 months out with injury, from an unranked starting point, and with his season only starting in March! Nothing short of sensational really. A few of us were bigging him up, partly for the magnitude of his playing achievements on paper (arguably the biggest jump from any Brit over the year), partly because of his determination to come back from a terrible long term injury, and partly to constrast him to some of the young guys who were awarded full LTA funding for 2013 without necessarily delivering good performances on the tennis court to justify it. A classic good news story.

I have never seen him play live or on video, however, and my support was very much based on the above. Perhaps the reality is that he has limited upside potential to make it to the top 200. I don't know, but he certainly went on a long run towards the back end of last year which suggested he was probably playing at a 250-350 level at that time.

Tennisnow · Lower Club Player

Burton has indeed retired from the singles against Cox. After 4 points.

Jack Buxton · Club Coach

Klein takes first set 6-3

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Richard Gabb won 7-5, 6-3 against Joe Salisbury

steven · Tennis legend

Tennisnow wrote:
This means that, possibly, 17 British players will be ranked inside the top 500 when the points from Manchester are added.

This has only been beaten by 1 end of year tally since 1977.

Yes, 2005, when it was followed by a spate of retirements / switches to doubles by some of our top players ... so I hope Jamie and Josh haven't opened the floodgates this time!

Tennisnow · Lower Club Player

Bob in Spain wrote:
SF: (1) Brydan Klein WR 279 v (7/Q) Tom Farquharson WR 608
SF: (4) Dan Cox WR 520 v (6) Richard Gabb WR 604

According to the OOP, the semi-finals should take place later today.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Of course, a couple of people might say that this stat only works while including Klein. But, like it or not, he's British now, so he certainly counts as far as stats go. So it's good news for the GB men.

What I also note, looking today at Steven's top-25 table, is that 18 players out of the 25 are higher ranked than at the start of the year (7 lower obviously).

7 out of the 18 are ranked over 100 places higher than at the start (considerable more than 100 places in several cases).

And 12 out of the players are at an all time high (or within 10%).

There's not the same kernel of potentially soon-to-be top players as there is with women (JoKo and Tara should both be aiming to join Laura and Heather in the top 100 before too long) but there's far greater depth. And I believe in the mass effect - people will break through, others will follow.

paulisi · Tennis legend

That would seem right as the final is scheduled for Saturday, must have been a delay in the schedule earlier in the week.

RJA · Hall of fame

paulisi wrote:
That would seem right as the final is scheduled for Saturday, must have been a delay in the schedule earlier in the week.

It rained on Tuesday afternoon so they only got 11 first round singles matches done and none of the first round doubles. On Wednesday they played the remaining 5 first round singles plus the doubles first round and quarter finals. Therefore they were a day behind with the singles.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

I actually posted at the start of the year about the possibility of having 20 players in the top 500. To be honest, I didn't think the odds were that great but thought there may be a chance.

We seem to be getting closer and there are still a few others that could join that group - Fitzy (health permitting and who only has 15 points left to defend all year), Marcus W, RIchard G, Tom F and even possibly JWH if he gets a good run or two going. However, we have to counterbalance that with the retirements of Jamie B and Josh G who will at some stage drop out. And I am working on the premise that Dan, Oli and Ashley are already there and will stay.

I wasn't counting on Slabba dropping so quickly and was hoping he would get back in there, but injury seems to have put pay to that. Even if he gets fit now, I think (without looking) that he has a lot of points to defend.

I would give us about a 1 in 5 chance of reaching the 20 mark - but why not be ambitious and set our targets high.

Tennisnow · Lower Club Player

Marcus and Tom F are in fantastic positions, would be surprised if they didn't enter the top 500 by the end of the year, as long as their form doesn't dip substantially.

Tom has 3 points to defend before February, Marcus has only 6 before end of Jan.

steven · Tennis legend

In the semis, Tom has taken the 1st set against Brydan 6-4 (now 5-5* in the 2nd), while Dan has beaten Richard 1 & 4.

Jack Buxton · Club Coach

and to the delight of some on this board i am sure Tom wins 6-4 7-5 !