Week 31 - Challenger ($100,000) - Vancouver, Canada (Hard)

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Week 31 - Challenger ($100,000) - Vancouver, Canada (Hard)

indiana · Tennis legend

Indeed, we would have very much taken that.

Though after Evo turned things round in the second set I thought he was going to win and any "inevitability" of that penultimate game certainly passed me by.

RJA · Hall of fame

steven wrote:
A pity about the way it ended, but Pospisil certainly served that out like a top 100 player!

Pospisil has had some great results this year and the fact that Dan was the better player for the second and most of the third really is very encouraging. If he keeps playing like this he will consistently get results at this level. Hopefully he builds on his great week and has another good tournament in Aptos where he has a very nice draw

thejester · Satellite level

Yep, it's a shame to see it end that way, I felt like Dan had it, even after Pospisil hauled him back from 4-1 to 4-4.
Still, a terrific week for Dan with some big points on the board, and as has been said, hopefully the tasty prize cheque he picks up will give him the inspiration to keep moving forward.

RJA · Hall of fame

indiana wrote:
Though after Evo turned things round in the second set I thought he was going to win and any "inevitability" of that penultimate game certainly passed me by.

Perhaps that was just me being negative but I just had a very bad feeling about it.

Tennis36 · Masters Series Champion

Btw I take it it wasn't just me who got incredibly frustrated with the camera focusing on the server rather than the actual serve repeatedly ...

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Tennis36 wrote:
Btw I take it it wasn't just me who got incredibly frustrated with the camera focusing on the server rather than the actual serve repeatedly ...

I found it mildly irritating as well, but I feel it churlish to complain when the stream provides us such watchable tennis. I found the commentator perfectly fine as well which is more than I can say about Wimbledon.

Dan served 6 DFs in the final set, including two in succession at 5-5 and these went a large way to costing his serve and with it the match. Perhaps Dan felt he had to go for big second serves as he was not winning many points behind it (just 25% in set 3).

The final set was extremely high quality tennis, and if Dan maintains that level it won't be long before he wins a challenger. I hope he has enjoyed his week and feels better about competing abroad.

RJA · Hall of fame

Lloyd Glasspool just tweeted

"Before he left he said he was coming home with 1 by his name. He currently will. Good job @Evo151216"

Still a bit of work to do though. Will need around 30 points between from Aptos and the US Open to make it happen.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Dan's week has been SO exciting and it was SO close but I can't help being a teeny bit happy that the Canadian won - the Canadians have obviously been hosting wonderful tournaments ('obviously' because the Brits have done so well) and their female contender didn't play a good match in her final - so to have a thrilling three set final, with MP saved, and the home boy finally winning - it's great for Canadian tennis, great for tennis in general and, looking back over the last few weeks, a blinkin' amazing few weeks for British up-and-coming tennis too.

indiana · Tennis legend

It's certainly been an encouraging 6 weeks or so, starting with Andy and Laura at Wimbledon.

I'd say all of the folliwing have additionally had good periods to varying degrees :

James, Dan E, Dan C, Alex, David, Ashley, Tom

Jo, Sam, Jade plus Danielle and Pippa to lesser degrees.

Apologiies to anyone missed...

RJA · Hall of fame

Coup Droit wrote:
Dan's week has been SO exciting and it was SO close but I can't help being a teeny bit happy that the Canadian won - the Canadians have obviously been hosting wonderful tournaments ('obviously' because the Brits have done so well) and their female contender didn't play a good match in her final - so to have a thrilling three set final, with MP saved, and the home boy finally winning - it's great for Canadian tennis, great for tennis in general and, looking back over the last few weeks, a blinkin' amazing few weeks for British up-and-coming tennis too.

Furthermore I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing for Dan to have fallen just short of taking the title as it reminds him that he still has much work to do. He played some fantastic stuff this week but there are still some obvious weaknesses to address and improvements to be made.

steven · Tennis legend

RJA wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Dan's week has been SO exciting and it was SO close but I can't help being a teeny bit happy that the Canadian won - the Canadians have obviously been hosting wonderful tournaments ('obviously' because the Brits have done so well) and their female contender didn't play a good match in her final - so to have a thrilling three set final, with MP saved, and the home boy finally winning - it's great for Canadian tennis, great for tennis in general and, looking back over the last few weeks, a blinkin' amazing few weeks for British up-and-coming tennis too.
Furthermore I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing for Dan to have fallen just short of taking the title as it reminds him that he still has much work to do. He played some fantastic stuff this week but there are still some obvious weaknesses to address and improvements to be made.

I know what you mean - much as I'd have loved to see him take the title, the way it all worked out might be for the best in the long run. A real feeling, hopefully, that all this could really be worth it, yet a reminder at the end that there is some way still to go. Also, it probably isn't a bad thing that he remains behind Wardy in the rankings for a little bit longer - I could just imagine him gleefully lording it over James when he'd got to Aptos if he'd won and overtaken him wink (that might be an unfair assumption, obviously!)

I would say this was easily his best week yet - better than Davis Cup and Queen's because of the number of matches he had to win back to back and better than Jersey 2009 because although he fell one step short this time, the calibre of the opposition was so much higher overall.

I do think it helped him knowing that lots of people were watching (even though that might inhibit some), probably particularly that Andy was watching, and the on-site crowd was a lot better than he'd get in Futures, or indeed at most GB Challengers!

Of course, Dan is still 100 points behind James in the race and it would be lovely to see the two of them chase each other up through the 1xx rankings with at least one of them making it into the top 100 by the year-end or early next year. Maybe that's asking a bit too much and/or wishful thinking based on an excellent fortnight, but it's the closest we've looked to having an Anne/Bally 2008/9-style battle among the men for a long, long time.

dorsetman · Social player

One thought from the first set of this final in particular, but also from other times I've seen Evans playing badly, is that there will always be an element of unpredictability in his game. He doesn't have that reliable huge serve or forehand that will tick over the scoreboard from early on in the match even if he's not playing that well...he's a touch player and will feel his way into most games at that level. Once he did get into the match he was all over Pospisil and made him look like a very limited player - it was really only Pospisil's huge serve that got him out of this match at the end - credit to the guy, serving out against those match points was big - but my point is that anyone that is hoping or expecting Evans to turn into a consistent automaton with a bit more experience is going to be disappointed, he's always going to have periods where he's playing outrageous tennis and periods where he struggles to deal with an opponent while he's looking for a way into a match or a tactic against a certain opponent that works - I suppose we just all hope that he does this at a higher level from now on - there are other erratic/inspired players a lot higher up the rankings for him to emulate.