Week 34 - Italy F22 ($15,000+H) - Este (Clay)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

RE: Week 34 - Italy F22 ($15,000+H) - Este (Clay)

Jack Buxton · Club Coach

and 3-0 up in second!

korriban · Challenger level

Alex 6-3 *3-1.

This is VERY impressive so far. Although Delic is ranked slightly lower, his last 7 tournaments were

1. 3 Futures tournaments, winning 2 of them

2. 3 Challenger qualifiers, coming through in 2 and also winning a MD round in 1.

3. Beating the #4 seeded Carballes-Buena, ranked 238 in R1 this week

Still a long way to go.....

korriban · Challenger level

5-2*. Alex holds from 0-40 with 5 straight points. Surely the experience of playing far better players and being under constant pressure on serve at Challenger level gives you huge confidence that you can find a way to prevail in these situations. Again, very impressive.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

L16: Alex Ward WR 342 defeated Mate Delic (CRO) WR 409 by 3 & 3 smile

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Completely agree, Korriban.

Delic has pretty impressive credentials and Alex seemed to win that match quite comfortably.
Delic had 6 BP and didn't convert one which probably meant that Alex was serving well.
Pleased for him . . .

paulisi · Tennis legend

Excellent win, but potentially a really tough test in the next round if he plays Gombos who is at a CH at the moment and is the 6th seed.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

And so it came to pass:

QF: (6) Norbert Gombos (SVK) WR 265 vs Alex Ward WR 342

Let's hope Alex has learnt a thing or two from his earlier flirtation with the Challenger circuit. wink

paulisi · Tennis legend

Alex underway

paulisi · Tennis legend

and immediately a break down 0-2

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

well, at 5-0 down, I guess this set is pretty much over - maybe he's just warmed up well now for the second . . .

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
well, at 5-0 down, I guess this set is pretty much over - maybe he's just warmed up well now for the second . . .

He's retired. cry Hope it's nowt serious.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

There seemed to be a big break at 3-0 which I thought might be a glitch or a MO (or indeed many things).
But at least that makes sense now.
All the best to Alex.

korriban · Challenger level

There had already been a very long break at 0-3, presumably a MTO for Alex. At 0-5 he retired.

Hope he's OK. He sounded A-OK on twitter after yesterday's match, looking forward to the QF, but he was completely out of it from the very first game (not 1 point won on return!), with only 4 points won in 5 games, so perhaps illness or an injury sustained BEFORE the match began.

Fingers crossed he's still in one piece and fit for next week.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Tweets from Alex :

"Had to retire from my match today, gutted, but back to london to find out more details tomorrow. Keeping positive."

"pain in my left heel :( "