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

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

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

steven · Tennis legend

Thanks for posting, Benten - it's always helpful when someone comes on here and lets us know what's really going on. Other than that, I'd just echo the condolences to the family and the rest of what Bob said about not wanting Dan to look back in 10 years time and think "if only."

Lots of us look back, whatever we chose to do, and wish things had gone better when we were younger, but you can reconcile yourself to that if you just came up short (or got injured or whatever) but know you gave it absolutely everything while you had the chance. I'm not sure it would be so easy to reconcile yourself with if you had the talent, knew what to do and chose not to.

RJA · Hall of fame

Benten wrote:
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!

Well it isn't really for me, or anyone else, to forgive a lack of professionalism over this and quite obviously only Dan can honestly know to what his extent his mind was elsewhere. At the end of the day it is Dan's career and Dan's life, he can and will live it how he wants and he doesn't have to explain himself to me or any other fan of British tennis. Some of us do however feel frustrated to see someone of Dan's obvious talent underachieving, especially when we see a number of players with a fraction of Dan's talents giving so much to try and make a good career as a tennis player. Withdrawing late from a tournament might seem like a small thing but it does add to an appearance, fair or otherwise, of not taking his career as seriously as he could.

Jeff Stelling · Club Coach

Solid result for Corrie, although if he wants to be playing Challengers regularly he needs to duff up any bunnies he is lucky enough to draw.

Really hope Brydan can start having a few good runs, as his points tally for the year is not looking too clever.

In a similar vein, does anyone have any idea why Brydan is listed as 333rd in the ATP's Race to London rankings with 67 ranking points this year, yet their own ranking point breakdown for 2013 only give him 44 points (in line with Steven's table)? Bizarre.

I am guessing it is the 23 points he won in Indonesia in Nov/Dec last year but seems like a moronic oversight for the ATP to include these.

-- Edited by Jeff Stelling on Monday 15th of July 2013 12:07:27 PM

steven · Tennis legend

Some good news for Evo today - he is back in the top 250 and has actually taken out his August 2009 career high by one place, moving up to WR 247

I must admit, I couldn't quite believe that it was a career high when it highlighted itself after pasted the new rankings into my GB stats spreadsheet - I thought he had gone a bit higher in the intervening period.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
RJA wrote:
L32: Ed Corrie WR 337 v (WC) Cem Ilkel (TUR) WR 1151
17-year-old Ilkel is junior no. 62 and reached a Futures QF from qualifying last month.

Ed takes the first set quite comfortably by 6-3.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

and 3-0 up in the second. Looking good . . . (Ed's got 10 points coming off this week so it'd be nice to get some points here)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

L32: Ed Corrie WR 337 defeated (WC) Cem Ilkel (TUR) WR 1151 by 3 & 2 in just under an hour smile

He'll have to dispose of Artem Smirnov (WR 316) or the fourth seed, Uladzimir Ignatik (WR 167), in the last 16 if he wants to cover those 10 points...

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Jeff Stelling wrote:
Solid result for Corrie, although if he wants to be playing Challengers regularly he needs to duff up any bunnies he is lucky enough to draw.

Really hope Brydan can start having a few good runs, as his points tally for the year is not looking too clever.

In a similar vein, does anyone have any idea why Brydan is listed as 333rd in the ATP's Race to London rankings with 67 ranking points this year, yet their own ranking point breakdown for 2013 only give him 44 points (in line with Steven's table)? Bizarre.
I am guessing it is the 23 points he won in Indonesia in Nov/Dec last year but seems like a moronic oversight for the ATP to include these.

-- Edited by Jeff Stelling on Monday 15th of July 2013 12:07:27 PM

I noticed the same thing a few weeks ago and Steven clarified the situation for me. Apparently points scored in Nov/Dec DO COUNT towards the following year's Race to London as the they are too late to count for last year's race.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
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: Gilad Ben Zvi & Dudi Sela (ISR/ISR) CR 1114 vs (3) David Rice & Sean Thornley CR 414

Oh no, he doesn't! Sela was a late withdrawal in the singles, where he was the top seed, so he & Ben Zvi are also out of the doubles, ergo

R1: (ALT) Luís Antonio Pérez Pérez (don't normally bother with the mother's name, but couldn't resist including that one!) & Adrian Sikora (ESP/SVK) UNR (I think - can't find any mention of LAPP on the ATP site) vs (3) David Rice & Sean Thornley CR 414

Sela's withdrawal is of no benefit to the Brits in the singles, as they're all in the other half, but with a bit of luck, it will work to that of Dave & Sean in the doubles.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
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

Missed one:

R1: Nicoloz Basilashvili (GEO) & Brydan Klein CR 931 vs Evgeny Karlovskiy & Lovro Zovko (RUS/CRO) CR 1348

korriban · Challenger level

Klein 3-2*. Goffin appears to have been replaced by an alien imposter. All Goffin attacking, but he is missing badly on the final ball, and making tons of UEs. Klein just keeping the ball in play with pace, but lots of margin for error.....a la Josh Goodall.

Klein 4-3*. What an earth has happened to David Goffin in the last year? Unrecognisable from the player from 2012 RG and Wimbledon.

Klein 4-6. Klein started repeated teapot stances during the game in which he was broken, then a tirade towards the umpire for something or other when he dumped a routine shot into the net as Goffin served for the set. Now a long break between sets for what I'm guessing is a MTO for Klein!!! Goffin standing at the net staring at Klein for most of it looking seriously unimpressed. Hhhhmm

Klein 4-6 1-2*. Another tirade to the umpire at 0-30 complaining about the net, because Goffin hit a net cord! No apology from Goffin by this stage. Racquet thrown towards chair on losing his serve. nice!

-- Edited by korriban on Tuesday 16th of July 2013 08:13:09 AM

-- Edited by korriban on Tuesday 16th of July 2013 08:37:41 AM

-- Edited by korriban on Tuesday 16th of July 2013 08:49:25 AM

korriban · Challenger level

Starting to get almost angry watching this match. Literally Dave has stopped attacking completely - simply bog standard three quarter pace groundstrokes just like in training waiting for an error from a player ranked 700 places below him. All the winners coming from the Turk. For all we know, Dave could still win playing like this, but it's mostly a complete waste of time at Challenger level, let alone above.

Is there someone at the LTA or in other academies who is encouraging this Woziacki madness, because I see it time and time again from so many of our GB male players (none of whom seem to be able to break through properly, but are all very very competent).....surely the opposite approach is the ONLY way we can get top 100 players. Aggression. No let up. Play positively until the last point. Amplify what is working, don't back off from it.

5-5 final set. Now the UEs are coming from Dave because he's so worried about keeping the ball in play that he's not hitting through it......too many being dumped into the net. Come on, GO FOR IT.....try to WIN.....don't wait for the journeyman to lose

-- Edited by korriban on Tuesday 16th of July 2013 10:58:27 AM

korriban · Challenger level

And there it is.

5-6*.

At 30-30, Dave had 5 or 6 chances to play a forcing shot, but chose to pat-a-cake it back up the middle every time. Almost netted one. Then went short, and the Turk immediately went for a winner. 30-40. BP down, he plays a tight BH out. Totally predictable, totally avoidable.

Now he'll attack, of course, just like James Ward does when he's down.....will it work?

YES, of course it will!!!! 6-6. This is NOT rocket science, Dave. Come on - you're by far the better player!

-- Edited by korriban on Tuesday 16th of July 2013 11:07:50 AM

korriban · Challenger level

Why do I have a strong feeling that today's match against Mr Goffin could be rather chastening for Mr Klein? Putting aside all the baggage, I've been extremely underwhelmed by his form since the switch, both match results and his actual play live. Difficult to believe his CH is well inside 200, and at this point I think it is highly unlikely he would be considered for DC any time soon. Also underlines the fact that being a Junior GS Winner is not necessarily an indicator that you are going to be a top player. For some, yes. For others, probably that they were physically more developed than their 16-18 y.o peers and/or started playing even earlier.

Secondly, I may be wrong, but I can't recall a single occasion since his decision to rediscover his British heritage where he has teamed up with a British player in any doubles tournament. I suspect the situation is rather awkward.