Week 35 - Great Britain F17 ($10,000) - Wrexham (Hard)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

RE: Week 35 - Great Britain F17 ($10,000) - Wrexham (Hard)

steven · Tennis legend

The ITF H2H is 6-2 to Dan but Marcus won their only previous meeting in Futures this year, on grass in Felixstowe.

RJA · Hall of fame

Final: (2) George Coupland & Marcus Willis CR 1622 beat (1) Liam Broady & Josh Ward-Hibbert CR 919 : 7-6(6), 6-3

Good day for Marcus, not so for Liam.

steven · Tennis legend

That's George's first Futures title, so well done to him. It's Marcus's 8th Futures doubles title.

steven · Tennis legend

That is Dan's 10th Futures singles title by the way - 4 of them this year (his record was 5 in 2010) and he has now won 19 of his last 20 matches since losing to Marcus in Felixstowe.

I can see his dilemma at the moment, in the sense that he must know that he should be trying to make the step up to Challengers as soon as possible but must also realise that it might be tough to get points initially when he does so. The Futures that are on at the moment are relatively weak and proving to be a great source of points, so perhaps the plan is to get as close to his career high and the AO qualifying cut as possible from Futures and then have a few months to play Challengers at a ranking of no worse than about 250 (remembering that he doesn't have any points due to come off until early March) which will get him into main draws or seeded in qualifying.

The way things stand, if he starts playing Challengers in October, he'll have about 6 months before any significant points come off and 9 months before *serious* tranches of points start to drop, by which time he must hope he will be doing well enough in Challengers to be able to cover them and more.

-- Edited by steven on Saturday 31st of August 2013 07:17:48 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Dan's won the first set 6-2.

Looks like Marcus' serve is not quite firing - 0 aces, 4 DF, 6 BP conceded . . .

(NB I was pleased for George too - congrats to him - he has some nice tennis and has had some hard draws)

Salmon · Tennis legend

Superdan is now a break up in the second.

I can understand why he's playing here, but he should have played the hardcourt Challengers in the coming two weeks. Unless it's a money issue, I suppose, and in that case we have nothing to say.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Dan finally runs out the - after SIX breaks of service in that second set, four of them his.

Final: (1) Dan Cox WR 336 defeated (2) Marcus Willis WR 475 by 2 & 3

Salmon · Tennis legend

QED, then.

That could take him into the top 300 and unless he gets injured, he'll have to play seriously badly to not make the Australian Open qualies cut.

I know that these 10Ks look easy, but he'll be fairly tired next week and if he makes the finals there, the third week will need him to find new reserves of energy.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I agree with you Salmon.

People said, arguably quite sensibly, that Dan was going to play the 10k futures throughout September in order to bump up his ranking and give himself a better chance in the Challengers in October (better presumably because he'd maybe make the MD and not have to do qualies as opposed to actually be playing better).

But it does seem a huge amount of matches to string together (and he had been having trouble with his wrist although I'm assuming that's OK now). And he's doing doubles.

And, given that he's (from memory) just won 3 and made 1 final, the only way seems to me is down i.e. he's full of confidence now, winning most easily, AND managing to win the really tight matches. But if he gets knocked out of Sheffield or Roehampton (or even just makes the semis) - which is quite possible - JWH came very close twice - then he's suddenly knocked off his perch.

I'm probably quite wrong, and I'm sure his team and him have thought it all through, but I'd have thought it would be better to go and try Challengers now while the going is really good . . .

Salmon · Tennis legend

Does Dan Cox have the lowest Doubles Ability/Singles Ability Index in the world? Discuss.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Clay Crawford has won his FQR against Gondwe (ZAM) 5-1 retired.

Into the MD . . .

Sorry !

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Monday 2nd of September 2013 12:17:35 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Well, NOW we know why Dan is playing futures and not moving up to Challengers:

www.lta.org.uk/fans-major-events/AEGON-GB-Pro-Series/News/2013/Wrexham-2/Dan-Cox-claims-fourth-Aegon-GB-Pro-Series-title-of-2013/

It's all to do with his cousin's wedding !!!!!

(the wrist thing still sounds a little worrying - specially for someone playing so much)

RJA · Hall of fame

Coup Droit wrote:
Clay Crawford has won his FQR against Gondwe (ZAM) 5-1 retired.

Into the MD . . .

Wrong thread.