Week 39 - Spain F32 ($15,000) - Sevilla (Clay)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

RE: Week 39 - Spain F32 ($15,000) - Sevilla (Clay)

korriban · Challenger level

RJA wrote:
This is turning into a pretty crappy week for British men's tennis.

That's right - men for whom we could certainly have constructed an arguable case for winning their respective tournaments.

1. Dan Evans - Napa Challenger, USA. Lost round 1.

2. James Ward - Fergana Challenger, Uzbekistan. Lost round 1.

3. Alex Ward - Seville $15k, Spain. Lost round 1.

4. Marcus Willis - Meshref $10k, Kuwait.....still going!!! No pressure.

BTW - if there are any other GB men who might feel agrieved that they didn't make this cut - sorry, but get real!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

RJA wrote:
This is turning into a pretty crappy week for British men's tennis.

I'd just posted on the women's site that it was pretty awful day for women's tennis !!! (JoKo retiring, all the girls losing at Loughborough, Mandy getting pipped in a third set TB....)

Looks like it's tears all round . . .. cry

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

And come on Matt Short (!) - serving for the first set at 5-3

steven · Tennis legend

Alex: "INCREDIBLE. 3-4 in the 3rd, emergency toilet break. Toilets 300m away, umpire didn't tell me i had to be back in 90secs. Get back late, GSM."

Meanwhile, Matt Short had a set point but has been broken back 5-4*

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Well, Matt won the first set 7-5.

Just as long as he doesn't nee to use the bathroom . . .

johnnylad · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
Alex: "INCREDIBLE. 3-4 in the 3rd, emergency toilet break. Toilets 300m away, umpire didn't tell me i had to be back in 90secs. Get back late, GSM."

Just in case we all start blaming that he had just been broken for 3-4 so the chances are it was already over.

However I don't fancy playing pro tennis in the sort of condition where I'd need an emergency toilet break so fair play to him for getting so deep into the match if he's ill

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Shorts now 7-5 *3-1 up having saved break points earlier this set

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Shorty wins 7-5 6-1

steven · Tennis legend

So a bit of succour for GB tennis today (for the first time since Marcus's win early this morning) comes from a fairly unlikely source!

L32: (Q) Matthew Short WR 901 beat Albert Alcaraz Ivorra (ESP) WR 578 (CH 547 in May; ex-top 25 junior) by 5 & 1 biggrin
L32: (8) Alex Ward WR 310 lost to Oriol Roca Batalla (ESP) WR 599 (CH 575 last week) by 6-3 2-6 4-3 def. bleh
L32: Ashley Hewitt WR 371 lost to (6) Matwe Middelkoop (NED) WR 326 (CH 197 in 2008) by 4 & 3

L16: (Q) Matthew Short WR 901 v Eduard Esteve Lobato (ESP) WR 676 (= CH; ex-top 40 junior)

Matt's R2 opponent upset top seed Samper in R1.

korriban · Challenger level

johnnylad wrote:
steven wrote:
Alex: "INCREDIBLE. 3-4 in the 3rd, emergency toilet break. Toilets 300m away, umpire didn't tell me i had to be back in 90secs. Get back late, GSM."
Just in case we all start blaming that he had just been broken for 3-4 so the chances are it was already over.
However I don't fancy playing pro tennis in the sort of condition where I'd need an emergency toilet break so fair play to him for getting so deep into the match if he's ill

As Steven pointed out, this is really hard to police! We know and trust Alex, and it sounds like it was a rather unpleasant experience indeed. Perhaps the umpire could have handled it better - but surely in such a situation Alex could/should have made clear that he needed an emergency pitstop as part of a MTO situation, not just a toilet break.

We need to consider that if the boot were on the other foot, and Alex had just broken serve in the third after the best part of 2 or more hours play, and his opponent then disappeared for an extended "emergency" break at that very moment, not sooner, not later.........I don't think any of us would believe for a second that it was anything other than extreme gamesmanship.

I'm sure that's what the opponent thought (wrongly) and perhaps the umpire. If Alex asks for a MTO, perhaps it would have worked out differently, but in this case, I think the umpire was left with no option and probably made the only call possible.

Perhaps it explains why today was so much of a struggle.

indiana · Tennis legend

While I can understand the reasoning for saying there was an arguable case for Evo and the two Wards ( seeded 2, 8 and not at all ) as well as Willis ( who is still going ) WINNNG their respective tournaments, I reckon if you looked much into the records and circumstances of OTHER players in these tournaments you'ed find an arguable case for quite a number of other players winning each of these tournaments. And in these 3 losses only James' loss seemed particularly bad and Alex seems to have had issues, and it is not clear how much he was affected.

Yes, with certain other losses in addition, overall it's not been much of a week so far, but Cox and Short have had good wins and Willis is still going. So I don't quite see it as too awful.

steven · Tennis legend

L16: (Q) Matthew Short WR 901 beat Eduard Esteve Lobato (ESP) WR 676 (= CH; ex-top 40 junior) by 6-3 3-6 6-2 biggrin

QF: (Q) Matthew Short WR 901 v (Q) Jean-Marc Werner (GER) WR 788 (CH 621 in 2012)

So Matt goes from playing a player who upset the top seed in the previous round to playing a qualifier who upset the 7th seed.

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 26th of September 2013 12:35:37 PM

RJA · Hall of fame

The draw sheet and the ITF site both say it was 6-3 in the third so reading between the lines it looks like this wasn't actually a default but 8 consecutive point point penalties for time violations, you should get one every 20 seconds.

It always amazes me how hopeless professional sportsmen are when it comes to knowing the rules. There is no such thing as an "emergency toilet break". You can leave the court between change of ends but you need to back after the 90 seconds.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Matt is playing with everything on serve and no BPs so far 3-2