Week 29 - Challenger (€42,500) - Eskisehir, Turkey (Hard)

steven · Tennis legend

Week 29 - Challenger (€42,500) - Eskisehir, Turkey (Hard)

Shhh · Challenger level

QR2: Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA) UNR d. (q7) Sean Thornley WR 1217 6-4 6-2

Sean served up 9 DF's to add to several in the doubles earlier this week. Just a case of the yips? Does anybody know his game, I've seen it mentioned how good a doubles player he is?

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Shhh wrote:
QR2: Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA) UNR d. (q7) Sean Thornley WR 1217 6-4 6-2

Sean served up 9 DF's to add to several in the doubles earlier this week. Just a case of the yips? Does anybody know his game, I've seen it mentioned how good a doubles player he is?

I'm sure that there are people better qualified here to answer than me, but I watched two of his doubles games (with Rice) on livestream quite recently and was not impressed.

I'm not trying to be mean and he was reasonable at doubles (quite nice volleys, good anticipation) but he was the weakest of the four on the court, both times, by quite a way. And, unlike Rice, who I hadn't seen on TV for several years either, Sean most definitely did not have a game that made you think he'd be a good singles player - a pretty weak serve, not very solid from the back of the court, not particularly athletic . . .

RJA · Hall of fame

L32: Ed Corrie WR 337 v (WC) Cem Ilkel (TUR) WR 1151
L32: Dan Evans WR 252 v Ti Chen (TPE) WR 229
L32: Brydan Klein WR 278 v (2) David Goffin (BEL) WR 107

The winner of Evans/Chen plays the winner of Klein/Goffin

steven · Tennis legend

FQR: (q2) Dave Rice WR 445 v (q8) Gilad Ben Zvi (ISR) WR 1217

The Israeli player has a career high of 600, which he set in 2010, the year he lost 2 & 1 to Dave in R1 of Montréal Futures.

steven · Tennis legend

RJA wrote:
L32: Ed Corrie WR 337 v (WC) Cem Ilkel (TUR) WR 1151
L32: Dan Evans WR 252 v Ti Chen (TPE) WR 229
L32: Brydan Klein WR 278 v (2) David Goffin (BEL) WR 107

The winner of Evans/Chen plays the winner of Klein/Goffin

17-year-old Ilkel is junior no. 62 and reached a Futures QF from qualifying last month.

Chen (CH 200 in May) won Bakio Futures last week, beating Josh Milton in the semis - Josh won just 4 games.

Goffin hit a career high of 42 last October but has been struggling recently, with a string of R1 losses at main tour level and out in the QFs in Istanbul this week, where he was the top seed.

Tennisnow · Lower Club Player

Corrie has another incredibly easy first round challenger match.

Qualifying spots (if Dave can win his FQR) are mixed. 2 against seeds and 1 against WC.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

And Dave gets Ben Zvi again in the first round of the doubles, while Ed attempts a foray in the doubles with the Istanbul champion as his partner:

R1: Teymuraz Gabashvili & Uladzimir Ignatik (RUS/BLR) CR 653 vs James Cluskey (IRL) & Ed Corrie CR 715
R1: Gilad Ben Zvi & Dudi Sela (ISR/ISR) CR 1114 vs (3) David Rice & Sean Thornley CR 414

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Sunday 14th of July 2013 09:42:55 AM

steven · Tennis legend

That draw should give Dave a real crack at taking out his 2011 career high

Not sure what to say about Dan - last week's withdrawal was understandable if he was particularly close to his grandmother but if he didn't want to play this week either, why would he have left it until after the draw had been made? On the face of it then, I agree, very unprofessional. Then again, he could have picked up a late injury or something else unexpected could have come up. He certainly can't have seen the draw then decided to w/d, since he had a pretty good one - or at least, not a dire/unwinnable one.

-- Edited by steven on Sunday 14th of July 2013 03:27:44 PM

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

FQR: (q2) Dave Rice WR 445 defeated (q8) Gilad Ben Zvi (ISR) WR 1217 by 3 & 1 smile

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Excellent. Corrie's draw last week was not INCREDIBLY easy but he should be looking to capitalise this week.

steven · Tennis legend

It's fair enough to say that at first sight consecutive late withdrawals looks unprofessional, but as I said above, he looks to have had a good reason for the first one and he could have picked up a late injury this time or something else might have happened - we just don't know. Another factor that suggests that it is unlikely that Evo's withdrawal was a frivolous one is that there appears to be a $1000 fine for withdrawing from a Challenger as late as he did, which must be quite a deterrent.

Frustrating as it is to see him not pushing on, I agree with SMC that it's not fair to always assume the worst - particularly not as a result of a build up of unsubstantiated rumours.

If I remember right, we had someone on here a few weeks ago implying that Evo had done something really bad and that it was almost certain to come out in the press and then someone else saying he was intoxicated at Wimbledon, yet neither of those things have in fact appeared in the media. That seems odd if they were true because there is nothing the media like better during the grass court season than a scandal about 'lazy', 'unprofessional' Brits. That's not to say they aren't true, but those of us who didn't see what (if anything) actually happened should probably give him some benefit of the doubt for now.

-- Edited by steven on Sunday 14th of July 2013 06:25:17 PM

scottie1 · Futures level

i think corries level is at futures but interesting if he can step up get inside top 250

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Off thread, but Nic Mahut faces the prospect of playing four matches today! Singles semi, singles final, doubles semi then doubles final. I bet this doesn't happen often!

Steve

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
FQR: (q2) Dave Rice WR 445 defeated (q8) Gilad Ben Zvi (ISR) WR 1217 by 3 & 1

Well done, Dave.

So, is it better to get a direct FQR spot and be one of the top Q seeds i.e. get an 'easy' win and an automatic 3 points ? Or to be a DA and risk coming away with nothing ?

Seems like Dave did OK out of the entry list/ranking thing . . .

He should be pretty near his Career High now . . . . it's been a great few months for Dave, and no points to defend until September and plenty of room for new counting tournaments - he should be within that top 400, and a new CH, very soon