Week 45 - Challenger ($50,000) - Knoxville, TN, USA (hard)

Bright Spark · Lower Club Player

RE: Week 45 - Challenger ($50,000) - Knoxville, TN, USA (hard)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Austin is currently WR 234 and Jose is WR 287 so both Brits will be batting above their ranking but, then, that's what Challengers is all about . . .

paulisi · Tennis legend

Dan is underway and an early break up.

The main draws for Ed and Dave are decent, could have been a lot worse.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Dan 6-1 3-6 2*-1

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

And Dan S wins 6-2 in the third set. Well done.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, not too bad looking draws for Ed and Dave. Ed, in particular, could do with a good win.

By the way, Josh and Dan still need to win two more matches to qualify, i.e. QR2 is not the FQR.

steven · Tennis legend

I was about to say "that's why it says QR2: / anyway, all US Challengers have 3 rounds of qualifying" ... and then I noticed my typo in the last line of the post. LOL

Salmon · Tennis legend

Wow, Fares Ghasya defeated Kutrovsky. I don't think there have been too many ranked Libyan tennis players in the last few years.

It looks like he studies at the University of Illinois, so he should again play at next week's tournament in Champaign.

Spectator · All-time great

Well, if they qualify, they either have the first seed or land in one of the softer quarters for a US challenger: Rajeev Ram (7) and Denis Kudla (2), Rik de Voest (who plays Kudla in the first round), Angelinos, a WC (Jarryd Chaplin) and three qualifiers.

If they get the first seed and think "He's beatable" and beat him, they're then, by contast, in line to face, if rankings/seedings hold, Steve Johnson and Alex Kuznetsov.

Mr Corrie's first round is good, but the rest of his quarter is rather nasty; Mr Rice were he to win would face either Peter Polansky or Jack Sock.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Aha, I definitely remember "Farris Gossea", because he represented Britain when he was a kid.

http://britishtennis.activeboard.com/index.spark?aBID=61841&p=3&topicID=8933809

Most of the links in there still work, and it's always interesting (or should that be "heart breaking"?) seeing how certain careers have shaped up.

-- Edited by Salmon on Monday 4th of November 2013 06:20:27 PM

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Doubles qualies:

QR1: (q1) Saketh Myneni & Sanam Singh (IND/IND) CR 958 (437+521) vs Jacob Meyer & Murphey ( img]http://www.anchoredbygrace.com/smileys/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img] ) Parker (USA/USA) (*)
QR1: (qWC) Sean Karl & Markus Kerner (USA/EST) UNR vs (q2) Ed Corrie & Dan Smethurst CR 1036 (591+445)

(*) The draw sheet has the Indians down to play Dimitar Kutrovsky & Josh Milton, but the schedule on the live scoreboard has them playing the Yanks. Summat amiss? Hope not.

The winners to play the top seeds, Sam Groth & John-Patrick Smith

*****

Main draw:

R1: David Rice & Sean Thornley CR 406 (210+206 - both of them up 22 places in this week's rankings wink ) vs Alex Kuznetsov & Denys Molchanov (USA/UKR) CR 457 (229+228)

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Monday 4th of November 2013 09:11:22 PM

wolf · Tennis legend

Ghasya is actually from Wales, I guess with Libyian descent. Not sure where he was born.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Thanks. I didn't think it was likely that he would be someone who had lived in Libya before going to uni in the US (tennis is rarely that romantic), but I had no idea that he had a Welsh base, either!

It looks like Libya's last appearance in the DC came in 2001, so he may have to wait for things to settle down in his country.

Miriambee · Futures level

dan S started 1-3* down 1st set.

Milts 2nd on.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Dan lost the first 6-3 but is 2*-5 up in the second