Milton started. 0-3

Josh loses the first set 6-2 (he's got a good arm but lousy footwork - strange for a fit looking young player).

There's been an MTO in Dan's match - assume it's for him (he was about to serve) but not sure.

spud, don't know the court numbers but I haven't got Dan's match streamed.

Salmon wrote:

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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.

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He has been playing tournaments in UK since he was 10, so I think he was probably born over here. Here is his LTA profile, under a slightly different name - http://www2.lta.org.uk/LtaOnlineV26/templates/hidden/search/playerdetails.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRNODEGUID=%7b03FEDCD9-653C-4B5F-90C0-0432A21782B6%7d&NRORIGINALURL=%2fSearch%2fPlayerSearch%2fPlayerDetails%2ehtm%3fId%3d1-2SM-41760%26BSMGuid%3d12b668de-a9dd-483f-8ef2-9ef5f7cf2496&NRCACHEHINT=Guest&Id=1-2SM-41760&BSMGuid=12b668de-a9dd-483f-8ef2-9ef5f7cf2496

And he won in straight sets. Ouellette (much like Kutrovsky) is quite good, so Fares seems like a fantastic prospect. Obviously he spends a lot of time playing tennis for his uni, but if you can beat top 500 players regularly without being a professional, you should at least be able to win a few Futures titles in your career.


I've decided that I'm now a Fares fan, so I don't know if I want him or Sanam to go through.


By the way, I hope that he'll do whatever he wants, and it would be fantastic to see the game spread more in North Africa* but isn't it likely that he may go back to representing Britain if he turns pro? I mean, it's not very plausible that the Libyan tennis federation is loaded**, and they aren't playing DC, either, so it'll be easier to carve out a career if someone is representing Britain.


* Remember the time when Morocco had three players in the top 100?
** Although it's just as probable that since they don't have too many top sportspersons, they'll back him if he does well, unlike Dustin Brown and Jamaica, for example.

" Plans to either play tennis professionally or become an astronaut after college."

No pressure, then.

QR1:  (q2) Ed Corrie & Dan Smethurst CR 1036 "defeated" (qWC) Sean Karl & Markus Kerner (USA/EST) UNR by retirement

*****

FQR:  (q1) Saketh Myneni & Sanam Singh (IND/IND) CR 958 (437+521) vs (q2) Ed Corrie & Dan Smethurst CR 1036 (591+445)

Dave up a break *2-1

Ed on serve after breaking back *1-2

 

Edit: Ed re-broken *1-4

Dave broken back on serve *2-3

-- Edited by DWH on Tuesday 5th of November 2013 06:43:37 PM