Week 4 - Israel F2 ($10,000) - Eilat (Hard)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

RE: Week 4 - Israel F2 ($10,000) - Eilat (Hard)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Marcus and Lewis complete a 6-2 6-2 win

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

A1 tennis academy wrote:
We need to start focusing on challengers & aim to reach some SF to climb the rankings
Be interesting to see out Marcus & Lewis would fare vs skupski

Challenger, yes. And Challenger qualies in the singles. While Marcus' has a decent singles ranking. Go for it. smile

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

SF: (1) Lewis Burton & Marcus Willis CR 643 (316+327) vs Alexis Musialek & Martin Vaisse (FRA/FRA) CR 1522 (711+811)

The French boys have just dumped out the Italian third seeds, Grassi & Vanni (CR 918) by 1 & 4...

spud · Challenger qualifying

Against a difficult pair but take the first set from being a break down 7-5

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

SF: (1) Lewis Burton & Marcus Willis CR 643 (316+327) defeated Alexis Musialek & Martin Vaisse (FRA/FRA) CR 1522 (711+811) by 5 & 3 smile

More comfortable in the end than I expected.

****

Final: (1) Lewis Burton & Marcus Willis CR 643 (316+327) vs (2) Liang-Chi Huang & Amir Weintraub (TPE/ISR) CR 719 (300+419)

paulisi · Tennis legend

Not looking good in the doubles final, the boys have lost the first set 6-3 and are an early break down in the second set

spud · Challenger qualifying

Recover in the 2nd set, now at 3-6 *5-5

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

I had a nasty feeling this was going to happen:

Final: (2) Liang-Chi Huang & Amir Weintraub (TPE/ISR) CR 719 (300+419) defeated (1) Lewis Burton & Marcus Willis CR 643 (316+327) by 6-3 7-6(9) cry

Weintraub seems to have got his eye in again, more's the pity. hmm

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Shame. Very tight second set tie-break but not to be . . .

spud · Challenger qualifying

Shame... and you wonder if this the kind of match they should be winning if wanting to step up to challenger level

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

spud wrote:
Shame... and you wonder if this the kind of match they should be winning if wanting to step up to challenger level

Not sure one should deduce too much from one match. Lots of players step up very successfully to challengers without nailing every single futures match.

plankton · Social player

Don't chase the wimbly money - go challengers to develop their games.
Easy to say if you're not funding them though!!

RJA · Hall of fame

plankton wrote:
Don't chase the wimbly money - go challengers to develop their games.
Easy to say if you're not funding them though!!

Leaving aside my belief that no player should get a wild card unless they have played some challengers I don't think Marcus will make the top 250 before Wimbledon if he only plays futures. He needs about 100 points to make that mark and to do that in 5 months only playing futures, especially 10Ks, requires very impressive consistency.

-- Edited by RJA on Friday 24th of January 2014 02:28:15 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, most certainly should not be negatively judging a step up to challengers on losing one futures final to a decent pair.

As has been regaled on here, they have had a lot of success in futures though often, particularly in early rounds, facing pretty limited opposition.

It is clear that the time has passed where many on this forum would like to see the boys testing themselves ( and developing ) at challenger level.