Week 34 - Spain F27 ($10,000) - Ourense (Hard)

steven · Tennis legend

Week 34 - Spain F27 ($10,000) - Ourense (Hard)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

R1: (3) Marcus Daniell (NZL) & James Marsalek CR 939 vs Diogo Lourenço & David Vega (POR/ESP) UNR

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

R1: (3) Marcus Daniell (NZL) & James Marsalek CR 939 lost to Diogo Lourenço & David Vega (POR/ESP) UNR 6-4 2-6 10-5

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Monday 19th of August 2013 05:34:14 PM

korriban · Challenger level

steven wrote:
L32: (5) James Marsalek WR 566 v Laurent Malouli (FRA) WR 664 (CH 571 in Apr)
H2H: 0-1 - Malouli beat James 2 & 4 in Doha last October. The Frenchman went out in R2 in Vigo last week but reached at least the QFs in his previous 4 Futures. In other words, not the nicest of R1 draws for a seed.

-- Edited by steven on Sunday 18th of August 2013 11:46:02 PM

But if James keeps losing to players of this ranking or lower again and again, one might conclude he has reached his level: otherwise we'll be forever looking for shreds of evidence why lowly ranked opponent X or opponent Y is in fact a hard opponent, as if it's some kind of mitigation. At mid 500s, one might conclude that's not where James or the LTA expect him to be at 21/22. His one Futures tournament win, earlier this year, was one of the kindest draws you could possibly ever wish for......beating just 1 player inside 600 (mid 500s) to win.....

Looks like he's struggling at 1 set down already, but plenty of time to turn things around.

Just looking for 1 or 2 signs of star quality from out Team Aegon players, even if they aren't quite a Dan E or a Kyle in terms of talent.

Update: James went out 3-6 2-6.

-- Edited by korriban on Tuesday 20th of August 2013 09:56:57 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

James has lost the first set 6-3

Tennisnow · Lower Club Player

Malouli wins the first 6-3

indiana · Tennis legend

Certainly on the face of it James has had a pretty disappointing year, particularly lately. I was actually much more encouraged last year, especially with some very competitive outings against higher ranked players.

BUT he is still pnly 21. We have discussed on the forum how more and more players are coming through later and I recently pointed to the encouraging advances this year of quite a number of the GB 1990 born men.

So I would be very hesitant to "conclude he has reached his level".

I would think though that it is pretty unlikely at the moment that he will get into next year's AEGON funding group since there is a rather huge rise in the matrix expectations once players get into their early 20s.

steven · Tennis legend

Just to be clear, trying to provide some context around opponents' rankings does not mean I'm trying to say "so it's no big deal if he loses then" or anything like that. I'd have made Malouli favourite to win the match though (the bookies made it 50:50) but only because James seems to have been struggling for form so much this year.

On the face of it, very disappointing to have a the poor form 'confirmed' by a result once more, but of course there could be many reasons why this year hasn't gone well that we aren't aware of.

BTtennisfan · Improver

I've been following this forum for more than five years and some of the conclusions and comments here make me smile and recently also laugh and cry :)...just please let the guys get on with their tennis and encourage them as much as you can, life on the tour is far from easy, most of them work ridiculously hard day in day out and are extremely disappointed if things aren't going well. How many active members can say that they are top 1500 top 1000 top 500 top 250 in the world in what they do?? Just a few examples...Ashley Hewitt didn't have any results this time last year, some of you signed him off, and let's be honest he's been a pleasure to watch recently. Fitzy was a troublemaker at Ashley's and James's age, and although he did nothing until last year (23 years old I think), you would give him all the LTA funding possible. James has AEGON funding for this year and is based at the NTC but travels to tournaments without a coach. Also as far as I know from his NTC mates, he's just coming back from his second foot injury between end of May and now. Until they are 24, 25 or maybe even 26 according to recent statistics, you never know...and if you do, maybe you should advertise your ability to predict :)

steven · Tennis legend

Two foot injuries since the end of May would certainly come under the "there could be many reasons why this year hasn't gone well that we aren't aware of" category, though I was aware that James had been struggling with at least one injury.

I certainly don't doubt that the players concerned are far more disappointed than anyone here if things aren't going well when they are putting so much work in (if they didn't care, then that really would be a problem!) and need encouragement, but it wouldn't be worth having a forum if it was full of delusional fans who pretended everything was rosy and never questioned anything.

Virtually all of us want these players to do well, believe that they are worth following (isn't that better for an up-and-coming sportsperson than being ignored, even if it does mean that sometimes negative things are said as well as successes being recognised and highlighted?), respect the effort they put in and accept that we don't have enough inside info to make fully-informed comments - in fact, we might never have known about the foot injuries had the comments made above not prompted you to come on here and tell us about them, so in this case some idle speculation has led to us becoming a bit better informed, which is all to the good.

Also, if you have been following this forum closely, you can harldy have failed to notice that that people on here are as acutely aware as anyone (and possibly more aware than most) that all kinds of ups and downs are possible and you can only really judge a player's career when they have reached their mid-20s and beyond, but that doesn't mean we shoudn't discuss things in the meantime.

I imagine there are a few active members who can say they have been (or even are) top ... in the world at something. Admittedly perhaps not something as competitive as professional tennis, but even so, putting a huge amount of effort into something and having to deal with serious setbacks, etc, are not things that are limited to tennis or even just to professional sport.

korriban · Challenger level

steven wrote:
Just to be clear, trying to provide some context around opponents' rankings does not mean I'm trying to say "so it's no big deal if he loses then" or anything like that. I'd have made Malouli favourite to win the match though (the bookies made it 50:50) but only because James seems to have been struggling for form so much this year.

On the face of it, very disappointing to have a the poor form 'confirmed' by a result once more, but of course there could be many reasons why this year hasn't gone well that we aren't aware of.

Sorry Steven. Nothing sinister meant by it. The context is always much more revealing than the pure ranking. So long as we also mentioned opponents' lowlights as well as highlights, where relevant......for example Guido Pella had a top 80 ranking when Dan Evans thashed him recently, but he looked like he was allergic to grass!! And I think you pointed that out, I memory serves me correctly!

BTtennisfan · Improver

Thanks for your comment steven, I do believe we all want the same - we want our players to do well. There has been an incredible amount of information provided by you, RJA and Indiana and some other active members over years and I am as grateful as lots of other tennis fans for keeping us really well informed (RJA trip to Felixstowe for example - highly appreciated). I certainly don't expect anyone to pretend that everything is rosy and good but at the same time I'm not the only one who has noticed and mentioned sharp criticism of the guys between 19-24 over the last few months.

korriban · Challenger level

BTtennisfan wrote:
I've been following this forum for more than five years and some of the conclusions and comments here make me smile and recently also laugh and cry :)...just please let the guys get on with their tennis and encourage them as much as you can, life on the tour is far from easy, most of them work ridiculously hard day in day out and are extremely disappointed if things aren't going well. How many active members can say that they are top 1500 top 1000 top 500 top 250 in the world in what they do?? Just a few examples...Ashley Hewitt didn't have any results this time last year, some of you signed him off, and let's be honest he's been a pleasure to watch recently. Fitzy was a troublemaker at Ashley's and James's age, and although he did nothing until last year (23 years old I think), you would give him all the LTA funding possible. James has AEGON funding for this year and is based at the NTC but travels to tournaments without a coach. Also as far as I know from his NTC mates, he's just coming back from his second foot injury between end of May and now. Until they are 24, 25 or maybe even 26 according to recent statistics, you never know...and if you do, maybe you should advertise your ability to predict :)

Understand your general point completely.

1. Ashley. I'm 100% in the supporter camp, and have been since I joined the forum last year. I can't comment on what went before, but I rather thought comments had been very favourable towards him in the lasy 12-18 months.

2. Fitzy. I think most of us like him very much, as he engages with the forum, and he represents the journeyman pro. Whilst most of us are very sympathetic about his financial situation and probably wish there was more that could be done for him and players in his position, my sense is that he really isn't a clear pick for full funding, and I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone write something suggesting that here. There are others who would undoubtedly be ahead of him in the queue.

3. James. I am sympathetic, given all those injuries, but he is one of the lucky ones with full LTA funding - many others will be looking in enviously both in GB and abroad, wishing they were in his boat.

4. Predictions. Completely agree that it's hard. But one assumes that the LTA would be much much better at getting this right than outside local experts, given the power they have over careers, and the amount of funding they provide. otherwise........well it puts much of the whole basis for LTA centralisation into question. Hmmmm.

steven · Tennis legend

The ITF drawsheet is showing James as the winner (3 & 2) over Malouli. However, much as I wish that was correct, I assume people saw the match unfold on live scores this morning and the result has just been recorded wrongly on the ITF site?

KK · Club Coach

BTtennisfan wrote:
I've been following this forum for more than five years and some of the conclusions and comments here make me smile and recently also laugh and cry :)...just please let the guys get on with their tennis and encourage them as much as you can, life on the tour is far from easy, most of them work ridiculously hard day in day out and are extremely disappointed if things aren't going well. How many active members can say that they are top 1500 top 1000 top 500 top 250 in the world in what they do?? Just a few examples...Ashley Hewitt didn't have any results this time last year, some of you signed him off, and let's be honest he's been a pleasure to watch recently. Fitzy was a troublemaker at Ashley's and James's age, and although he did nothing until last year (23 years old I think), you would give him all the LTA funding possible. James has AEGON funding for this year and is based at the NTC but travels to tournaments without a coach. Also as far as I know from his NTC mates, he's just coming back from his second foot injury between end of May and now. Until they are 24, 25 or maybe even 26 according to recent statistics, you never know...and if you do, maybe you should advertise your ability to predict :)

I know I have written this before, so apologies to those who have already seen it - but there are probably many members of this forum who are in the top 1,000 or even top 250 in the world in what they do. I would like to think I am!