I would have thought that if Dan wants to play the Izmir challenger in week 38 then he needs to skip Roehampton. He is currently 8th alt for Izmir (2 SEs to clear) so he is likely to be in qualifying if he goes there. If qualifying starts on the Saturday, as it normally does, he wouldn't be able to get there if he reached the Roehampton final and even if he made the SF it would be less than ideal. Sure he could easily get a Friday evening flight from London to Turkey but it isn't exactly great preparation.

steven wrote:

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Coup Droit wrote:

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Final: Richard Bloomfield & Dan Cox UNR lost to (2) Lewis Burton & Marcus Willis CR 1356 6-1 6-1

Well done to Lewis and Marcus. That's THREE weeks of back-to-back doubles titles for Marcus.

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Did I miss something? My list has him winning this week and last week but the first of his three doubles titles this year was back in week 18.

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No, you didn't miss anything .. . sad face . . . I counted Wrexham twice because it's listed both in the September list (at the start) and in the August list (at the end). I thought there were two Wrexhams !!! (yeah, I know, it's a sad world . . .) Sorry . . .

RJA wrote:

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I would have thought that if Dan wants to play the Izmir challenger in week 38 then he needs to skip Roehampton. He is currently 8th alt for Izmir (2 SEs to clear) so he is likely to be in qualifying if he goes there. If qualifying starts on the Saturday, as it normally does, he wouldn't be able to get there if he reached the Roehampton final and even if he made the SF it would be less than ideal. Sure he could easily get a Friday evening flight from London to Turkey but it isn't exactly great preparation.

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 You can say that again - it would be terrible preparation!! I used to do the afternoon/evening flight to Turkey many times a year on business, and if you are lucky enough to get a 5pm flight to Istanbul, you rarely make it to your bed before midnight. I've done the evening flight (9pm) twice and that meant that there was almost no point going to sleep in situ at all. Ismir would be the same: if you had to play on the Saturday morning you'd be a wreck.

indiana wrote:

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If Evo can be an inspiration as to what much more focus and dedication can achieve ( as I believe he can ) he is really going to aid the development of some players to an unquantifiable extent.

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That's right. With all the press and hoopla surrounding his bad boy, jack the lad persona and his famed lack of dedication, if he turns his approach to tennis around 100% and succeeds on the tour, it would be inspirational for those lads who only recently played against him, yet can now see him competing with the very best. I think it would also shine a very positive light on the LTA for sticking by him and supporting him, even if by rights many would feel he should have been dumped by the LTA years ago. The gap to Andy is too big for him to be much more than just a symbolic figure.

Great to see Liam putting some form together over the last couple of weeks and finally gets the breakthrough, beating Marcus and Dan C is a great achievement.

Also particularly pleased to see Robert Carter win, was hoping for this but was not expecting it!

Look forward to a close contest, hopefully 3 sets but would be very surprised if Liam doesn't win this given his current form.

If Andy's cousin was getting married would he play a bunch of tournaments below his level and contrary to his optimum career development?

The fact that he's messed around in these tournaments so long for a social event kind of says it all sadly...

korriban wrote:

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RJA wrote:

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Well Dan isn't playing a bunch of tournaments below his level. At the moment all we know is that he is a good futures player. Whether he can actually step up to challengers is another question and his previous attempts to do so haven't gone well. To be honest I suspect that his next attempt to do so will also go badly but it is of course right that he tries.

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The fact that as they walked off court yesterday Liam towered over Dan, and Liam isn't exactly a tall player (5-10 to 6 foot max I'm guessing), is the biggest challenge for Dan. Mr Evans shows that you don;t need to be tall to have a decent serve (his can be powerful on its day), but I think Mr Evans is a good 2 or 3 inches taller than Mr Cox. A weak serve is a pretty enormous barrier to success at the next level up.

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ATP profile says Cox is 5 foot 7 and that is about right. Evo is 5 foot 9

-- Edited by RJA on Saturday 7th of September 2013 09:37:23 AM