Tennisnow wrote:

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The other seed in James's quarter has retired so this is a really good opportunity to reach a QF.

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 I presumed his opponent had retired

Tennisnow wrote:

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The other seed in James's quarter has retired so this is a really good opportunity to reach a QF.

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No, he didn't:  Adrian Ungur, the Romanian second seed (WR 105), defeated his compatriot, Victor Crivoi, by 1-6 5-3 retired!

steven wrote:

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If he goes on to win the match, I won't be too worried about James losing the 1st set - Reuter has been playing on this surface for a few weeks in a row, whereas it is Wardy's first clay court outing since early May, when he reached the An Ning Final, and I doubt even that was very similar to the surface here.

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 I just switched on to see James broken in the third set.

Of course it takes time to play yourself into form on the clay, but James was on the retreat on every single point - just hitting balls back with a safety margin - that's not going to get the job done! If only he'd play aggressively (as he often does when he's behind in a match) all of the time!