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

RJA · Hall of fame

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

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

RJA wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
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 . . .
When you get a draw like this it is good to go through qualifying and get the extra points. At other events it can mean 3 matches played just to pick up three points so quite a bit of work and some risk for little reward.

Yes, I realise - Alex W. is certainly a good example of someone who's been doing it the hard way for the last couple of months - three full Q rounds, with some good players.

David's situation just made me smile because, I assume, there is no guaranteed way of knowing in advance how many will enter, what level etc. So it's all a bit pot-luck. And he must have looked at that table and thought 'come on, down, someone's smiling on me'.

Bit like his Q1 draw at Wimbledon.

In fact, Dave Rice is one of the few who's made a passably decent amount of money this year so far. Thanks to singles and doubles (and NOT counting the LTA top-up which will be pretty significant given his results this year), he's made about USD 25k, which puts him sixth in terms of the men's table.

let's hope he gets one of the easier draws in the MD.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

RJA wrote:
Benten wrote:
I'm new to this posting on forums business so please for give me if I upset anyone, instead of you all judging dan and calling him unprofessional for withdrawing so late, why don't you keep your opinions to yourself until you know the reason!! And just for the record the reason he is pulling out is to attend his nans funeral on Friday, sorry if him putting his family before tennis makes him unprofessional but I'd say it is a pretty good reason to miss a tournement!!
Yes, I assumed that he was withdrawing because of his nan's funeral and I don't have a problem with him withdrawing for that reason. There is however no reason why he couldn't have withdrawn at any point during the last week rather than withdrawing after the draw had been made.

I agree.

Hi to you, Benten, and your point is well taken.

Like many others on this forum, I'm quite a fan of Dan's but, if one's got a funeral to go to, it would (as RJA says) be more normal to cancel your other commitments in advance because you know full well which dates you are unavailable.

However, at such times there's certainly a lot going on, family wise, and maybe it got overlooked and only done at the last minute. Perfectly understandable. No one's condemning him for it.

But this is a forum where people (mainly on the outside) talk/speculate/pose questions etc. about British tennis and British tennis players - it's not reasonable to expect everyone to keep quiet unless they know 100% for sure the inside track - that's the purpose of the forum : to put opinions and comments out there and see what others think. Some people might say that Dan has a tendency to unprofessionalism, some will give him the benefit of any doubt . . . some might also add that all his recent tweets have been about boxing and cricket . . .

Added: just crossed posts with you, Benten. And, yes, you're quite right to defend Dan when you know there's a good reason. Actually, he has a lot of fans on this forum (for what it's worth) - he's no angel but then, neither were some of us when we were young, or our kids now.

The one thing that I would like Dan to know is that I believe he will kick himself when he's 33 if he's frittered away his talent and LTA (and general public) backing by never really applying himself for more than two weeks at a time. Now's the time when he's really got the opportunity to make a name for himself in British tennis. And not by being 250th in the world but something really worthwhile (top 100 say). Please tell him that there's nothing worse than having regrets about what 'could have been'.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Sunday 14th of July 2013 07:35:13 PM

RJA · Hall of fame

Not remotely surprised by this but Evans is again a late withdrawal. On the face of it it looks extremely unprofessional to do this two weeks in a row.

Good news however

L32: (Q) David Rice WR 445 v (WC) Baris Ergudon (TUR) WR 1108

BradMarx90 · County player

Both Ed and Dave have very winnable draws, although our Brit wildcards had a point to prove last week so the Turkish ones will be galvanised by playing in their home country and will feel they want to earn their wildcard. Nothing to take for granted.

If Brydan can take the scalp of Goffin then he could reach QF, though I worry about Karol Beck as he has a lot of experience. All-in-all though, I'd be disappointed to see less than two Brits in Tuesday's second round.

SMC1809 · All-time great

RJA wrote:
Not remotely surprised by this but Evans is again a late withdrawal. On the face of it it looks extremely unprofessional to do this two weeks in a row.

Good news however

L32: (Q) David Rice WR 445 v (WC) Baris Ergudon (TUR) WR 1108

This is exactly the kind of post that will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Without any knowledge of his reason for withdrawal, he is being labelled extremely unprofessional. Next week, it will become fact that he is extremely unprofessional, and next month when another unexplained event happens involving Evo, it will be further evidence of his continued unprofessional behaviour.

Can't you just leave him alone? Perhaps pretend he's an Aussie bad-boy and just ignore him.

scottie1 · Futures level

maybe dan is still grieving for his gran. i like dan think hes second best to andy in gb terms on talent not sure about attitude though!

Benten · Improver

I'm new to this posting on forums business so please for give me if I upset anyone, instead of you all judging dan and calling him unprofessional for withdrawing so late, why don't you keep your opinions to yourself until you know the reason!! And just for the record the reason he is pulling out is to attend his nans funeral on Friday, sorry if him putting his family before tennis makes him unprofessional but I'd say it is a pretty good reason to miss a tournement!!

RJA · Hall of fame

Benten wrote:
I'm new to this posting on forums business so please for give me if I upset anyone, instead of you all judging dan and calling him unprofessional for withdrawing so late, why don't you keep your opinions to yourself until you know the reason!! And just for the record the reason he is pulling out is to attend his nans funeral on Friday, sorry if him putting his family before tennis makes him unprofessional but I'd say it is a pretty good reason to miss a tournement!!

Yes, I assumed that he was withdrawing because of his nan's funeral and I don't have a problem with him withdrawing for that reason. There is however no reason why he couldn't have withdrawn at any point during the last week rather than withdrawing after the draw had been made.

RJA · Hall of fame

SMC1809 wrote:
RJA wrote:
Not remotely surprised by this but Evans is again a late withdrawal. On the face of it it looks extremely unprofessional to do this two weeks in a row.

Good news however

L32: (Q) David Rice WR 445 v (WC) Baris Ergudon (TUR) WR 1108
This is exactly the kind of post that will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Without any knowledge of his reason for withdrawal, he is being labelled extremely unprofessional. Next week, it will become fact that he is extremely unprofessional, and next month when another unexplained event happens involving Evo, it will be further evidence of his continued unprofessional behaviour.
Can't you just leave him alone? Perhaps pretend he's an Aussie bad-boy and just ignore him.

Why don't you just ignore my posts as it seems clear that you regard any criticism of British tennis players as unreasonable.

And why would I want to ignore Dan, I have frequently said that I regard him as the second best British tennis player and he is player who I enjoy watching play. It doesn't mean that I will defend him regardless of what he does. Besides, he doesn't need me to label him as unprofessional to get such a reputation because he already has just such a reputation, and one that he has pretty much accepted is a deserved one.

Shhh · Challenger level

Benten wrote:
I'm new to this posting on forums business so please for give me if I upset anyone, instead of you all judging dan and calling him unprofessional for withdrawing so late, why don't you keep your opinions to yourself until you know the reason!! And just for the record the reason he is pulling out is to attend his nans funeral on Friday, sorry if him putting his family before tennis makes him unprofessional but I'd say it is a pretty good reason to miss a tournement!!

Welcome Benten, don't make this your last post!

Benten · Improver

Thanks for the welcome shhh, I'll be honest I'm not a massive fan of tennis it's just dan is uncle to my my two sons and when I feel he gets unfairly criticised on here I feel I have to reply in his defence. By all means feel free to have a go at him over some of his alleged antics if you like, but the death of his nan is unacceptable in my eyes. Rja I can't answer as to why dan didn't withdraw from the tournement earlier as I'm not privy to that info but I know the date of the funeral was only announced on Thursday or Friday so that might be why.

Benten · Improver

Hi coup droit I totally agree with you reference him kicking himself if he doesn't realise his full potential as I feel he could go far if he put his mind to it and committed himself 100%. Will he do it? Only time will tell, sadly it seems no matter how many people try to get the message through to him that he's in a very lucky position and to make the most of it it's up to dan to decide if he's prepared to put the hard graft in to achieve what a lot of people think he could!! Here's to hoping.

RJA · Hall of fame

Benten wrote:
Thanks for the welcome shhh, I'll be honest I'm not a massive fan of tennis it's just dan is uncle to my my two sons and when I feel he gets unfairly criticised on here I feel I have to reply in his defence. By all means feel free to have a go at him over some of his alleged antics if you like, but the death of his nan is unacceptable in my eyes. Rja I can't answer as to why dan didn't withdraw from the tournement earlier as I'm not privy to that info but I know the date of the funeral was only announced on Thursday or Friday so that might be why.

I am sorry if you thought I was having a go at him over the death of his nan, that most certainly wasn't the case. I would never expect someone to put playing tennis over the funeral of a close family member. In fact if you look at the thread from last weeks tournament I wrote

"Given the circumstances I don't really want to speculate too much on Evo's short term plans but I wouldn't be overly concerned if he pulled out of next weeks challenger in Turkey"

Benten · Improver

You don't have to apologise rja, it's a forum for people's thoughts/opinions etc, and your entitled to yours,I just wanted to come on here and give people the full picture as to why he pulled out, so at least people can make a judgement on the full facts rather than just guessing why he pulled out. I would however hope that now you know the reason behind his late withdrawal you can forgive his unprofessionalism as maybe his mind was elsewhere!