Week 36 - Great Britain F18 ($10,000) - Sheffield (Hard)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

RE: Week 36 - Great Britain F18 ($10,000) - Sheffield (Hard)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Losing the 1st set tie break seems to have broken Myles' resistance as Liam is already a double break up at *3-0 in the 2nd set.

Bloomers however is fighting back against Ed C having lost the first set and is now 3-1* up in the second.

Dan C still a break up against Marzi leading 4-2* in the second set.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Straight sets wins for both Dan C and Liam, whilst Bloomers and Ed C head into a 3rd set.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

And after two very close sets, Bloomers serves up a bagel in the 3rd to beat Ed C by 6-7(4) 6-4 6-0

steven · Tennis legend

Liam's win today means he will finally take out his November 2011 career high!

He has only played Dan once before in Futures - a topsy-turvy 6-1 2-6 6-0 win for Dan on clay in Edinburgh back in 2010.

scottie1 · Futures level

Jeff Stelling wrote:
RJA wrote:
I will post a bit about some of today's matches later tonight, much, much later. However I just wanted to reply to some of the comments about Jhun lest my comments about him be misinterpreted. Some of his antics may put some people off him and hopefully he will grow out of some of them but I don't think anything he does could be classed as "stretching the boundaries of fair play". For better of worse gamesmanship is a part of professional sport and so I try not to be too judgemental. If the tennis world in general is largely forgiving of the gamesmanship shown by a certain 12 times Grand Slam champion then I certainly don't see any reason to judge an 18 year lad who is trying to make his way in a very tough sport and who given his lack of height (he can't be more that 5 foot 6) starts out with a big disadvantage.
Firstly - thanks for the reports they are absolutely fantastic.
Secondly - I wouldn't be so sure that tennis is largely forgiving of the reprehensible cheating from Nadal that occurs on a regular basis. Don't think there's a single individual in the group I go to watch tennis with who doesn't despise the odious rule breaker.
Let's hope Jhun reins in some of his more histrionic tendencies without losing his abundance of competitive spirit.
PS - It's looking more and more like that loss to Marchenko has really knocked Ed for six. He seems to be a shadow of the player of earlier in the year.

-- Edited by Jeff Stelling on Thursday 5th of September 2013 12:31:02 PM

Personally I dont think Ed Corrie is Challenger Class, Sure he won many Futures In Gb but he knows how many of the British Players play!

RJA · Hall of fame

Jeff Stelling wrote:
Secondly - I wouldn't be so sure that tennis is largely forgiving of the reprehensible cheating from Nadal that occurs on a regular basis. Don't think there's a single individual in the group I go to watch tennis with who doesn't despise the odious rule breaker.
Let's hope Jhun reins in some of his more histrionic tendencies without losing his abundance of competitive spirit.

Yes you are probably right about Nadal, it is just the tennis media have largely spent the last few years worshipping the "big 4" and with any criticism of them kept very, very quiet. But yes, I think Alex will grow out of the worst of his antics. He is 18, hungry for success and frustrated that his career is nor progressing as fast as he would like. I really liked his tweet after yesterday's match

"Majority if this weeks prize money will be spent on a train back home. #dontlose"

Compare this to the tone of others who have mentioned the lack of prize money and you should be able to see why I am forgiving of some of his indiscretions.

RJA · Hall of fame

scottie1 wrote:
Personally I dont think Ed Corrie is Challenger Class, Sure he won many Futures In Gb but he knows how many of the British Players play!

I was a near lone voice on this forum saying very similar things earlier in the year. I do however think that Jeff is right and that it was the Marchenko match knocked the stuffing out of him. He was clearly devastated by the loss and I suspect that was the match when he realised just how much tougher challenger level would be. He probably played to the very best of his ability and still came up short against a typical challenger player who was clearly struggling.

korriban · Challenger level

RJA wrote:
scottie1 wrote:
Personally I dont think Ed Corrie is Challenger Class, Sure he won many Futures In Gb but he knows how many of the British Players play!
I was a near lone voice on this forum saying very similar things earlier in the year. I do however think that Jeff is right and that it was the Marchenko match knocked the stuffing out of him. He was clearly devastated by the loss and I suspect that was the match when he realised just how much tougher challenger level would be. He probably played to the very best of his ability and still came up short against a typical challenger player who was clearly struggling.

To be honest, I think it was illness in May and then the entire grass court season that knocked the stuffing out of him. Marchenko was the final curtain. This was supposed to be the period of the year where all the hard work and clear improvement to his game earlier on paid off, and he gained a lot of ranking points and exposure to better players and the general public in GB.

1. In early May he was rushed to hospital at a Futures in Greece with some kind of food poisoning/gastro bug and flew home, not playing an ITF or higher for the next 5 weeks.

2. He got a WC to the Nottingham Challenger. He lost to Bemelmans of Belgium. 5-7 5-7. A very close scoreline, but in fact he had served for both sets at 5-3!!!! He must have been truly gutted to lose this one.

3. He got a WC to Queen's. He lost to Stakovsky 4-6 6-7. Again exceptionally close. Dan got all the attention.

4. He got a WC to Wimbledon Qualies. He lost to Marchenko 4-6 7-5 5-7. Again exceptionally close. And in the context of his early year, the exceptional promise he showed, the bad luck of illness, then 3 matches which arguably he could/should have won in the 3 key tournaments for him of the whole year.....

I'm not surprised he's having a big let down at the back end of the year, when mentally he's now thinking about what might have been, preparing for next season, and facing the prospect of loads of ranking points to defend from january.

That's why I wanted him to get a few breaks....

steven · Tennis legend

Korriban's analysis of Ed's current woes rings very true to me. Hopefully he can come out of it. Of course, if Bloomers is relatively pain-free for once, he's more than capable of beating anyone in the field here.

Anyway, Rob Carter has reached his first Futures semi (and I don't even have to qualify the "first" with "singles" in this case!)

QF: (1) Dan Cox WR 336 beat (6) James Marsalek WR 568 by 3 & 4
QF: Liam Broady WR 733 beat Myles Orton WR 1232 by 7-6(5) 6-2
QF: Robert Carter WR 1188 beat George Coupland WR 959 by 7-6(4) 6-3 biggrin bleh
QF: Richard Bloomfield WR 716 beat (2/Q) Ed Corrie WR 338 by 6-7(4) 6-4 6-0 biggrin bleh

SF: (1) Dan Cox WR 336 v Liam Broady WR 733 - ITF H2H 1-0, 3 sets, on clay back in 2010
SF: Richard Bloomfield WR 716 v Robert Carter WR 1188

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

SF: Richard Bloomfield & Dan Cox UNR defeated Sam Hutt & Myles Orton UNR by 3 & 2

So pleased that Bloomers appears to be fit again. smile

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

Cox-Broady could be a real humdinger

indiana · Tennis legend

My own view re Nadal would be that Jeff is totally OTT in some of his phraseology. And whatever he hears from others in his own group, the wider community's general acceptance of Nadal is as RJA originally indicated.

He is a top professional tennis player who does use some gamesmanship and stretches, OK breaks, certain rules regarding such as time. That happens in professional sport and it is for the officials to control it.

But sorry, nothing I have seen from Nadal is remotely bad enough for such as "odious rule breaker". Most folk really do acknowledge him as a great player, who we are lucky to have in this generation.

As for Jhun, he evidently is a great scrapper, and while he does seem to have some tendencies worth curbing a bit, he does look to have good compeitive instincts.

Auditions for the choir of angels are that way....

korriban · Challenger level

Off topic, but relates to the "odious", "not technically against the rules, but pushing the limits" theme, so I'm leaving it here.

Just seen a Youtube video of Victoria Azarenka when she was 13. I'm guessing she will have been playing and "in training" for somewhere between 5 and 7 years by this point. The really interesting part is that when she hits the ball off both wings, she makes a tiny noise like most people do when they make an effort, but almost nothing noticeable. In other words, her preposterous, rule-bending, irritating, long-winded, decibel shattering "plummeting owl" baloney wasn't there at all at 13, so its clearly not a "natural noise which she can't help" as she always claims, and the noise has been coached-in by someone.

It's outrageous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0PuyIoukOc

And her outfits look like she just turned up for training, but that's another issue!!!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

'Screeching' is definitely coached in. I've seen it. The argument is that it's really important to breathe out explosively as you hit the ball (some players instinctively hold their breath and it's the worst thing you can do, because the muscles tense and contract as opposed to relax which is what you want - the more relaxed the muscles are, the more fluidity and acceleration ).

But, as a one-on-one coach, you can't hear the exhalation from the other side of the court. So lots of coaches 'make' their players shout/screech/whatever so they have proof that the exhalation is being done. (And they also think it sounds quite aggressive and 'serious').