korriban wrote:

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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

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Interesting.

The European perception is actually the exact opposite. i.e. if a Frenchman is told he's going to play some unknown Brit in a money tournament in France, his expectation is that it'll be a tall guy, with a big first serve, a good volley, but pretty unreliable groundshots and questionable fitness.

This is obviously partly because (a) the 'typical' Frenchman - or 'southern' Frenchman (my area) - will be a shorter guy, with no huge serve, few volleys but very solid, top-spin groundshots and excellent fitness, (sort of Spanish style) and (b) it's a historic thing where people somehow still think that UK players serve and volley just coz that's grass court tennis and ipso facto that's UK players.

I don't really know where the truth lies . . .

Coup Droit wrote:

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Ash's stats are pretty amazing.

He only broke into the top 1000 ten months ago, having spent four years dipping and diving between, approx, 1100 and 1900 (was he at uni/college/studying/doing something else/trying but just not playing at the right level?)

Since then, his rise has been absolutely linear - no dips.

Last 8 weeks: in the 400s
Previous 5 weeks: in the 500s
Previous 2 weeks: in the 600s
Previous 22 weeks: in the 700s
Previous 2 weeks: in the 800s

(Before that up at 1919)

he's now into the 300s (and well into them too).

Carry on Ash !!!

(Obviously the points to defend at end-Oct/start Nov will be the first challenge to the above but, really, congrats to him - it's rare to see something quite as clear-cut and consistent)

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It's not that unusual for a player to have risen without any dips over an 8-month period when they have only had 1 point to defend in those 8 months  I do get your point though - Ashley has done far better in the last 12 months than ever before and been pretty consistent this year and his rise up the rankings has been very impressive.

-- Edited by steven on Sunday 1st of September 2013 09:59:24 AM

The 'bearded man from Rome' suddenly seems to get his act together and (I think) wins 3 games on the trot, including two breaks . .

3*2 Barbosa

Despite the wobble, Ash comes through comfortably in the end, beating Romain Barbosa 6-1 4-6 6-2

By my reckoning, those points should get Ash up to about 368th WR !!!

(and up to 10th in the Brit List, which still includes Jamie B., so 9th in an active Brit list)

Ash's stats are pretty amazing.

He only broke into the top 1000 ten months ago, having spent four years dipping and diving between, approx, 1100 and 1900 (was he at uni/college/studying/doing something else/trying but just not playing at the right level?)

Since then, his rise has been absolutely linear - no dips.

Last 8 weeks: in the 400s
Previous 5 weeks: in the 500s
Previous 2 weeks: in the 600s
Previous 22 weeks: in the 700s
Previous 2 weeks: in the 800s

(Before that up at 1919)

he's now into the 300s (and well into them too).

Carry on Ash !!!

(Obviously the points to defend at end-Oct/start Nov will be the first challenge to the above but, really, congrats to him - it's rare to see something quite as clear-cut and consistent)

I'm always going off on a train of thought only to end up missing the obvious, so you're in bad company LOL

Seriously, I think he might need a bit of luck too looking at Gigounon's recent form. The bookies give him almost a 1 in 3 chance though. I have a rule when doing BOTB never to go against the bookies for a R1 match when they have odds of 3.00 or more against the outsider but that doesn't mean such outsiders never win - I've never checked whether they actually win 1/3rd of the time.