Week 38 - Kuwait F1 ($10,000) - Meshref (Hard)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

RE: Week 38 - Kuwait F1 ($10,000) - Meshref (Hard)

paulisi · Tennis legend

Hopefully the boys will have had a chat to JWH and Fitzy about how to cope, who had a few weeks in the silly heat of Vietnam earlier in the year.

RJA · Hall of fame

paulisi wrote:
Hopefully the boys will have had a chat to JWH and Fitzy about how to cope, who had a few weeks in the silly heat of Vietnam earlier in the year.

They probably wouldn't be much help. It is completely different type of heat in Middle East (very, very dry) to East and South East Asia (very humid).

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Well, Marcus and Lewis themselves both spent three weeks in Thailand last year.

And it was Lewis (I'd got it the wrong way round) who spent three weeks in Qatar and Kuwait last October.

So I imagine they're pretty clued up on what to expect.

Soto sent Lewis a congrats tweet with hashtag:fluids, which is quite sweet.

NB For the 'old-timers' (!) does anyone remember a GB junior who won the US Open Junior Doubles title in the year 2000 - by the name of Jimmy Nelson ? From Newcastle, apparently.

All news to me - I wasn't around much then - but apparently he's just joined Soto as one of their new coaches. So well done to him and glad to know he's still enjoying his tennis and earning a living from it!!!

Add: just looked him up and he won playing with Lee Childs; got to the last 16 in the singles too - and lost to Andy Roddick ! Made the dubs semis twice at Wimbeldon too . . . in fact, the more I read, the more interesting it seems . . .

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 17th of September 2013 09:37:26 PM

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 17th of September 2013 09:42:31 PM

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 17th of September 2013 09:53:28 PM

Spectator · All-time great

I don't know about Kuwait, but the UAE can actually be quite humid. (Checks: Kuwait seems better ... which is just as well!)

korriban · Challenger level

Marcus doing well at *5-2 today.

Brutal conditions: already 38 degrees and rising.

One retirement already from an Aussie who was *4-3 up. then lost the next 6 games to a South American before throwing in the towel. Currently an Austrian playing a Kuwaiti: was 6-1 2-0 up with 3 breaks to 0, but has lost the last 3 games......watching that match closely. Honestly believe that if poor local players find a way of keeping their better European/US/Antipodean opponents on the court for over an hour, then the match becomes a lottery.

If Marcus wins today, he plays a Kuwaiti ranked in the 700s who has not lost a game in 2 matches - frankly, I wouldn't fancy Marcus having a chance in that match whatsoever - not a test of talent, just ability to deal with the heat.

steven · Tennis legend

korriban wrote:
If Marcus wins today, he plays a Kuwaiti ranked in the 700s who has not lost a game in 2 matches - frankly, I wouldn't fancy Marcus having a chance in that match whatsoever - not a test of talent, just ability to deal with the heat.

Ghareeb has only played a Kuwaiti WC and someone who beat another Kuwaiti WC in R1, so the pair of double bagels isn't that surprising. However, the 33-year-old (a former top 350 player) did upset Alex Ward in Genova Challenger qualifying recently.

Marcus lost then regained his break in the 2nd set and leads 6-2 *3-2

Lewis lost the first 3 games to Doumbia but has just won the 4th game 1-3*

korriban · Challenger level

steven wrote:
korriban wrote:
If Marcus wins today, he plays a Kuwaiti ranked in the 700s who has not lost a game in 2 matches - frankly, I wouldn't fancy Marcus having a chance in that match whatsoever - not a test of talent, just ability to deal with the heat.
Ghareeb has only played a Kuwaiti WC and someone who beat another Kuwaiti WC in R1, so the pair of double bagels isn't that surprising. However, the 33-year-old (a former top 350 player) did upset Alex Ward in Genova Challenger qualifying recently.
Marcus lost then regained his break in the 2nd set and leads 6-2 *3-2
Lewis lost the first 3 games to Doumbia but has just won the 4th game 1-3*

Thanks Steven: so it's the same guy that beat Alex recently! Given what excellent form Alex had been showing, that result came completely out of the blue, so I'm assuming the Kuwaiti is playing some good tennis.

steven · Tennis legend

Marcus had match points at 6-2 5-2 then nothing happened for a while then score for the 8th game went back to 0-0 and has stuck there since, so presumably (but subject to confirmation):

L16: (2) Marcus Willis WR 426 beat Patrick Davidson (USA) WR 1434 (CH 1419 in Aug) by 2 & 2

QF: (2) Marcus Willis WR 426 v (7) Mohammed Ghareeb (KUW) WR 726 (CH 336 in 2006)

As has been mentioned above, 33-year-old Ghareeb won his first two matches here with double bagels, has won all 4 of his Futures singles titles in Kuwait (including one last year) and upset Alex Ward in Genova qualifying recently, so Marcus is facing quite a challenge!

korriban · Challenger level

Unfortunately Lewis is being pulverised.

1-6 0-1*

Just can't see Mr Burton winning this one unless, with temperatures now hitting 40 degrees, he somehow outlasts his opponent.

steven · Tennis legend

Now confirmed by the man himself:

"Got the win 62 62. Absolutely roasting out here. Now to watch @lewis4671 spoon some forehands about and send down some nuclears. #bomb #iiim"

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

The heat must be a real test but, as I said, I don't think Lewis' loss is quite as bad as it looks on paper.

The guys coming out of college have no ranking but they've done 4 years intensive tennis training and match-play and, though they're not all world level obviously, they're all under-ranked and the top ones, who then want to pursue it, are going to rise very quickly (up to a certain level) if they want to.
(Ed Corrie's interview on the LTA site is quite interesting).

Sadio is a very talented guy, intensive tennis since he was very young, national scholarships, now national champion (of the division that goes up to about WR500-600).

Good luck to both in their doubles. And well done Marcus. Going to be interesting to see how many points he can amass, if he carries on like this, keeping it short.

KK · Club Coach

Coup Droit wrote:
Well, Marcus and Lewis themselves both spent three weeks in Thailand last year.

And it was Lewis (I'd got it the wrong way round) who spent three weeks in Qatar and Kuwait last October.

So I imagine they're pretty clued up on what to expect.

Soto sent Lewis a congrats tweet with hashtag:fluids, which is quite sweet.

NB For the 'old-timers' (!) does anyone remember a GB junior who won the US Open Junior Doubles title in the year 2000 - by the name of Jimmy Nelson ? From Newcastle, apparently.

All news to me - I wasn't around much then - but apparently he's just joined Soto as one of their new coaches. So well done to him and glad to know he's still enjoying his tennis and earning a living from it!!!

Add: just looked him up and he won playing with Lee Childs; got to the last 16 in the singles too - and lost to Andy Roddick ! Made the dubs semis twice at Wimbeldon too . . . in fact, the more I read, the more interesting it seems . . .

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 17th of September 2013 09:37:26 PM

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 17th of September 2013 09:42:31 PM

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 17th of September 2013 09:53:28 PM

I remember reading about him at the time. He was meant to have a huge amount of potential, but decided he didn't want to be a professional tennis player.

steven · Tennis legend

This article from 2003 has a bit more info: http://www.thejournal.co.uk/sport/other-sport/tenns-what-a-waste-4671485 ... and this, from Neil Harman in his pre-Times days, covers the US Open junior doubles win: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/usopen/4771046/Childs-and-Nelson-end-barren-spell.html Active board is still refusing to let me make these into links for some reason, sorry about that.

Spectator · All-time great

Thanks for that first article, Steven. Really fascinating. Hope he does well as a coach - and that the LTA has improved on its quality of care for/interest in younger players.