Week 46 - Challenger ($50,000) - Champaign, IL, USA (hard)

TMH · Futures qualifying

RE: Week 46 - Challenger ($50,000) - Champaign, IL, USA (hard)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

So is this the sign of Brits finally finding their feet at Challenger level, or is it a (or another) false dawn.

Either way, let's enjoy this moment. Three Brits in the QF and two of them playing lower ranked opponents for a place in the semis - and I fancy Dave's chances as well.

Fantastically well done to all three of them

steven · Tennis legend

Amazing stuff! I'm going to see if I can find out the last time 3 Brits made QFs at the same Challenger ... so I may be gone some time!

Josh's win is his first ever top 150 scalp too (previous best was Sidorenko WR 167 at Wimbledon qualifying back in 2009)

philwrig · Hall of fame

Stircrazy wrote:
I guess three out of four ain't bad...
L16: Dave Rice WR 329 defeated Erik Crepaldi ITA WR 515 by 5-7 6-4 6-4
L16: (Q) Josh Milton WR 580 defeated (3) Rajeev Ram (USA) WR 125 (CH 78 in 2009) by 4 & 3
L16: (WC) Dennis Nevolo (USA) WR 579 defeated Ed Corrie WR 319 by 7-6(3) 6-3
L16: (Q) Dan Smethurst WR 485 defeated Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) WR 509 by 2-6 7-6(5) 6-2
*****
QF: Dave Rice WR 329 vs (7) Sam Groth (AUS) WR 203
QF: (Q) Josh Milton WR 580 vs (WC) Dennis Nevolo (USA) WR 579
QF: (Q) Dan Smethurst WR 485 vs (Q) Dimitar Kutrovsky (BUL) WR 548

Well its better than Meat Loaf ;)

philwrig · Hall of fame

Fabtastic, great stuff, Josh really stepping it up and Dan not succumbing to letdown following yesterday.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
Bonus pool so far
£ 300 for George
£ 500 for Ed
£1,000 for Dave
£1,500 for Dan
£1,500 for Josh
Total so far: £ 4,800

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 14th of November 2013 12:35:49 AM

And with prize money as well totalling approx £ 3,250 already it is not just the LTA who will be taking notice but the UK's GDP figures will be getting a boost as well.

steven · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
Amazing stuff! I'm going to see if I can find out the last time 3 Brits made QFs at the same Challenger ... so I may be gone some time!

Josh's win is his first ever top 150 scalp too (previous best was Sidorenko WR 167 at Wimbledon qualifying back in 2009)

Ok, maybe not that long ... the last time 3 Brits made the QFs at the same Challenger was of course in Jersey in March 2009, when Evo won the title having beaten Boggo in the semis and Dan Cox made the QFs too.

The real challenge is finding out when it last happened outside the UK ... with an intermittent internet connection and a desperate need for some sleep, that might defeat me tonight!

steven · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
Finally found a candidate for the last time 3 Brits made the singles QFs at the same Challenger *outside the UK*:

Perth (Australia) in March 2001:

- Jamie Delgado reached the Final, losing to Mazarakis
- (4) Arvind Parmar lost to Delgado in the QFs
- (3) Martin Lee lost to Okun in the QFs

Any advance on that? (i.e. any time it has happened between Mar 2001 and Dec 2007 that I've forgotten - I'm virtually certain it hasn't happened since the start of 2008, otherwise I should have picked it up from the weekly points lists I have been keeping since then)

Did a few more checks this morning and I did manage to find a later one ... a whole week later - Hamilton, New Zealand 19-25 March 2001:

- (3) Martin Lee lost to Rehnquist in the Final
- Arvind Parmar lost to Martin in the SFs
- Barry Cowan lost to Rehnquist in the QFs

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 14th of November 2013 01:03:17 PM

Shhh · Challenger level

Shhh wrote:
If on their game, both could make the 2nd round here obviously but, I'd fancy Ed to go further and make the quarters. Gut feeling, always the kiss of death!

Taxi for Shhh doh

Salmon · Tennis legend

Wow, well done, Josh! Given how lean his season has been, I certainly didn't see this coming.

Ed's campaign to get into the AO qualies has probably ended with this defeat, but Ricey is still fighting. Another win here and then it'll be in his hands, but if he loses to Groth, he'll probably need a title in Turkey. And of course, Rice is fairly close to overtaking Ed in the Race -

Corrie - 140
*Rice - 138
*Willis - 117
Edmund - 110
Klein - 100
AWard - 96

Meanwhile, our reporters got hold of Andy Murray (who was randomly standing in front of a green and purple background!), and asked him about his opinions on the Race -

plankton · Social player

Great stuff from the Brits and great too to see perseverance with the challenger qualies beginning to pay off. Also, good on the LTA for encouraging the step up with financial support.
I watched Smethy vs Polansky and was really impressed. A few years ago Dan seemed a bit samey with a big hitting flat ball without much variation. Against Polansky he was much more patient and varied his pace and shots more but still had that big flat banger to make the winners when they presented themselves. He also looked comfortable under pressure against a good player.
Josh also looked very good with loads of variation and great control at the net which he seemed to like getting to, although I didn't watch as much as the smethy game. He has definitely injected a bit more power into his game over the last year which mixed with his guile makes it look like a quick run up the rankings should happen pretty soon. Prob needs to mix up the tournament levels a bit though. Great too from Ricey who has really turned his year around second half.
Great to see the progress and good luck to them all.

indiana · Tennis legend

Super to have 3 in the QFs, though being really greedy an Ed vs Josh QF would have been very nice. Interesting to see how Josh now does against Nevolo. One more win here for Josh to be back in the top 500, the 16th Brit to secure that for the end of year.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Super to have 3 in the QFs, though being really greedy an Ed vs Josh QF would have been very nice. Interesting to see how Josh now does against Nevolo. One more win here for Josh to be back in the top 500, the 16th Brit to secure that for the end of year.

I was keeping my mouth shut on that last part as I didn't want to jinx him. wink

Not sure if Josh is planning to play any more tournaments this year.

Jeff Stelling · Club Coach

Nice wins for Dan and Josh and some nice points. You could easily make the argument that their ranking reward this week is equivalent to winning a 10K.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

And even better news - Dan toughs it out and wins the TB 7-2. . . . (fingers crossed)

and to think that Dan lost 3 and 0 to him only a few weeks back . .. .

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 14th of November 2013 09:14:49 PM