Week 35 - Belgium F11 ($15,000) - Damme (Clay)

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

RE: Week 35 - Belgium F11 ($15,000) - Damme (Clay)

korriban · Challenger level

Great stuff Ash.........in the end. And he'll get to play a player who was still going strong after over 2 and a half hours, with a much lower ranking.......so it's all in his court.

Just looking at the stats. No aces for Ashley, 8 to his opponent. Similar story for Dan Cox today and almost every match.

Got me thinking, that in our list of the top 25 mens' players and just outside that list there are very very few "big" servers, where the first serve is a weapon, and the second serve is a relative strength.

Haven't seen all the players live (incl on a live stream/TV) but have seen most, and from that list I'd only suggest:

Andy, Dan Evans (sometimes), James Ward (albeit with second serve issues), Marcus, Josh Goodall and JWH as serves that you could call a "weapon" if they fire, and where you'd imagine the opponent would worry about returning.

A few have been mentioned as having serves which are real weaknesses: Tom F, Josh Milton, Dan Cox, Liam. Many I simply don't know, but in general serve stats wouldn't suggest I've missed out any other big servers, so I presume the rest are average at best. Doesn't sound like Ash has got a weapon. From what I've seen of Oli, Kyle, Luke and the other younger players, it's all very hit and miss, depending on the day.

I saw Kyrgios the other day serving 130 mph bombs and I thought to myself.....if he's doing this at 18, is that a weakness for our lads?

Any Roscoe Tanners I've missed out?

-- Edited by korriban on Friday 30th of August 2013 01:03:30 PM

spud · Challenger qualifying

korriban wrote:
Andy, Dan Evans (sometimes), James Ward (albeit with second serve issues), Marcus, Josh Goodall and JWH as serves that you could call a "weapon" if they fire, and where you'd imagine the opponent would worry about returning.
A few have been mentioned as having serves which are real weaknesses: Tom F, Josh Milton, Dan Cox, Liam. Many I simply don't know, but in general serve stats wouldn't suggest I've missed out any other big servers, so I presume the rest are average at best. Doesn't sound like Ash has got a weapon. From what I've seen of Oli, Kyle, Luke and the other younger players, it's all very hit and miss, depending on the day.

Evans's serve is rarely a weapon, would say its more often a weakness.

Ward's serve has come on so much in the past year or two and is now a huge weapon, I think the best we've seen him serve was against Tursunov in the DC

Interesting you haven't mentioned Burton's serve, probably one of the biggest in the top 25. Obviously Bloomfield has a well know bomb. When I watched Kyle at Eastbourne he looked to be hitting 125+ most of the time but he is down as one of your 'inconsistent' serve's and i haven't seen much of him.

-- Edited by spud on Friday 30th of August 2013 04:19:14 PM

RJA · Hall of fame

Ash is set down but is up and early break in the second.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

And now takes the second set 6-2

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Ash has got the early break in the third.

2*-1

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Hewitt is serving for the match

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Ash serving for the match at 5-4

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

QF: (5) Ashley Hewitt WR 416 defeated Dimitar Grabul (MKD) WR 550 by 4-6 6-2 6-4

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

And that should be Ash up into the top 400 !!!

(about 390 ??)

well done - and keep going !

steven · Tennis legend

Yes, that's what I make it too - and only 1 point away from the GB top 10 (98 to Boggo's 99)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

the other QF in Ashley's half is still going on - a big three set battle.

Barbosa against Gonzalez Carrasco - sounds like a Johnny Depp pirate special !

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

SF: (5) Ashley Hewitt WR 416 v (Q) Romain Barbosa (BEL) WR 2089 (CH 2018 last month, 19yo)

Not a bad option for a 15k semi, but Barbosa did take out the Nº2 seed earlier in the tournament.

steven · Tennis legend

Bob in Spain wrote:

SF: (5) Ashley Hewitt WR 416 v (Q) Romain Barbosa (BEL) WR 2089 (CH 2018 last month, 19yo)

Not a bad option for a 15k semi, but Barbosa did take out the Nº2 seed earlier in the tournament.

He did indeed, but Ashley thrashed Barbosa 0 & 3 in R2 last week, so should be relishing the thought of playing him again for a place in the Final!

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

korriban wrote:
Andy, Dan Evans (sometimes), James Ward (albeit with second serve issues), Marcus, Josh Goodall and JWH as serves that you could call a "weapon" if they fire, and where you'd imagine the opponent would worry about returning.

If you're gonna include Dan and James I would include Oli in there, though for the pace he hits his first serve he doesn't pick up that many cheap points