Week 6 - ATP 250 - Zagreb (Hard)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

RE: Week 6 - ATP 250 - Zagreb (Hard)

steven · Tennis legend

Nice start to the tiebreak! *3-0

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Nice finish to the tiebreak too, takes it 7-2

steven · Tennis legend

First the Slovak no. 7, next the Slovak no. 8 ...

QR1: (q3) Dan Evans WR 146 beat Adrián Sikora (SVK) WR 287 (CH 285 two weeks ago) by 6-3 7-6(2)

QR2: (q3) Dan Evans WR 146 v Karol Beck (SVK) WR 334 (CH 36 in 2005)

H2H 0-1, 1 & 4, Nottingham Ch 2011

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Evo takes the breaker 7-2 and with it the match.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Good win, but in reality he should be in San Diego picking up cheap points playing DC

LouieG · County player

Good win for Evo, just needs to beat Beck WR 334 to guarentee 6 points

RJA · Hall of fame

paulisi wrote:
Good win, but in reality he should be in San Diego picking up cheap points playing DC

To be honest I think there was a lot of sense in him giving a Davis Cup tie on clay a miss and preparing for, and then playing, matches on indoor hard. Even if had picked up a "cheap" 40 points in San Diego, which was of course far from a given, a decent run here bodes better for the season as a whole. The problem was how he got round to being here, not that he actually ended up here.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

He might not have been selected if he had gone there. Well, actually he wasn't even selected to go there, for reasons that we can guess at but will probably never know for certain.

-- Edited by Madeline on Saturday 1st of February 2014 10:28:17 PM

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

paulisi wrote:
Good win, but in reality he should be in San Diego picking up cheap points playing DC

I don't think he handled it well at all, but I'm not convinced Evo would have been picked even if he had done all the right things. He is worse on clay than Ward and with Andy always a doubt for the doubles I don't think Leon would have picked both Ward & Evo in the final four. As such, playing here is more likely to be good for him long term - I maintain though that he really should have been a bit more professional about it all.

steven · Tennis legend

Like the rest of you, I think also it is unlikely that Dan would have been picked ahead of James, given the surface and the fact that it didn't go too well against Croatia in Umag (and especially now that James already had that win against Tursunov to prove his big DC match credentials) so it has almost certainly worked out best that Dan is in Zagreb and James is in San Diego. It's just a pity that there had to be another public controversy over it all.

Of course, it's possible that the journos took something Leon said and twisted it into a controversy (it's not as if that hasn't happened before!) but I can imagine Leon probably would have wanted to keep his DC options open so probably would have preferred Dan to take the 'slow' route home in case he was needed.

Anyway, hopefully by Monday it'll feel like all's well that ends well, both here and in California.

RJA · Hall of fame

Madeline wrote:
He might not have been selected if he had gone there. Well, actually he wasn't even selected to go there, for reasons that we can guess at but will probably never know for certain.

I think he pretty much said don't pick me as soon as he decided not to play Maui. Saying that he wanted to train indoors was a very clear indicator that he was gearing up to play indoor tournaments and not a Davis Cup tie on clay. We will almost certainly never know whether non-tennis reasons played a part in his decision, and I really hope that they didn't, but it was irrelevant when it came to selecting the side. There was no way a captain is going to pick a player who has said, explicitly or not, that he doesn't really want to play the tie unless that player is overwhelmingly better than the alternatives.

Priesty · Challenger level

Possibly a few cobwebs today but got the win....

Other than the slightly worrying capitulation against Fucsovics in the AO quals it hasn't been a bad start to the year for him really in terms of results.Jury's out about the DC affair of course, and possibly always will be.

jenks · Social player

I'm no Dan apologist, but why is everyone ruling out the possibility that Leon told Dan that he wasn't going to pick him and that is what caused Dan to home in a strop (or even with Leons blessing). Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the consensus amoung us is that Ward was the right selection, maybe this is what was discussed between Dan and Leon. We have had no word from official sources either way and frankly that would be out of character anyway.

Do I believe the theory above? With Evos history im not sure I do. But with a few press chaps seemingly being the only evidence on the contrary im starting to believe we may well be reading to much into all this!

Or have I missed something that makes it perfectly clear?

steven · Tennis legend

No, I don't think you've missed anything. If I had to guess, I'd guess Leon probably did want him to play in Maui and be an option for the DC tie, but under the scenario you describe (i.e. if it had become clear in conversations between Dan and Leon that Dan wasn't likely to be the first choice and Dan or possible even Dan and Leon together decided it would make more sense for him to go back to Europe and play Zagreb), it is more than plausible that the press could have blown up an innocent comment from Leon about this into another Evo-bashing controversy.