Week 40 - Challenger (€106,500+H) - Mons, Belgium (indoor hard)

paulisi · Tennis legend

RE: Week 40 - Challenger (€106,500+H) - Mons, Belgium (indoor hard)

Miriambee · Futures level

won the 2nd set 6-3.

steven · Tennis legend

*0-3 down in the 3rd - Giustino seems to have found his 2nd wind unfortunately.

RJA · Hall of fame

Third set has started badly

*0-3

paulisi · Tennis legend

Errors back in James' game and the Italian has found his big first serve. Cannot see James coming back from 3-0 down

LouieG · County player

How frustrating is Ward

RJA · Hall of fame

Looking very bad for James

*2-5

LouieG · County player

Out

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

RJA wrote:
Looking very bad for James

*2-5

Looking even worse now. Soo frustrating. Wardy goes down in 3 sets.

paulisi · Tennis legend

LouieG wrote:
How frustrating is Ward

Very - when he's good he is very good, when he plays inconsistently he can lose to anyone.

Far too many unforced errors.

RJA · Hall of fame

Ever since Lexington it has just been one bad result after another. Good job James has nothing left to defend this year.

korriban · Challenger level

RJA wrote:
Ever since Lexington it has just been one bad result after another. Good job James has nothing left to defend this year.

I'm not too fussed about ranking point defences when players are simply not playing well on the court.

I simply don't know what to say about James. He CAN play very well, but he can also be maddeningly inconsistent and play very badly. And when he's playing really well against higher ranked players, he can also self-destruct mentally when on the point of winning (by suddenly turning into one of those 65 year old weekday tennis warriors who just keep it in play and nothing else)

Don't get it!

steven · Tennis legend

RJA wrote:
Ever since Lexington it has just been one bad result after another. Good job James has nothing left to defend this year.

To be fair to James, he did reach the FQR at the US Open, but that aside, it's been very frustrating that he hasn't pushed on after Lexington - it would have been great to have him and Dan chasing each other up the rankings.

RJA · Hall of fame

korriban wrote:
RJA wrote:
Ever since Lexington it has just been one bad result after another. Good job James has nothing left to defend this year.
I'm not too fussed about ranking point defences when players are simply not playing well on the court.
I simply don't know what to say about James. He CAN play very well, but he can also be maddeningly inconsistent and play very badly. And when he's playing really well against higher ranked players, he can also self-destruct mentally when on the point of winning (by suddenly turning into one of those 65 year old weekday tennis warriors who just keep it in play and nothing else)
Don't get it!

I certainly accept your first comment, I was merely pointing to the one saving grace that James won't slide down the rankings for the rest of the season.

Like you I just don't get what is going wrong with him. He has shown time and again that he is good enough to compete with top 100 players and there are no glaring weaknesses in his game for opponents to exploit. It is staggering that aside from Tursunov in the Davis Cup he hasn't beat a top 100 player this year and only 3 from the top 150.