Week 6 - Portugal F1 ($10,000) - Vale Do Lobo (Hard)

Spectator · All-time great

RE: Week 6 - Portugal F1 ($10,000) - Vale Do Lobo (Hard)

DWH · Club Coach

Well done Oli! Good Stuff smile

RJA · Hall of fame

Far from ideal circumstances so really good to see Oli take the title.

Priesty · Challenger level

Well done Oli good to see you picking up where you left off at the end of last year biggrin

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Congratulations to Oli for the win and to the tournament for finally finishing

tommymac · Junior player

Congrats Oli well done!

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Sounds like Oli played much better in the final than he perhaps did in the semi.

Great way to start the year for him.

Well played Oli.

TMH · Futures qualifying

Great start to the year and fantastic to see him carry right on from where left off in 2013. Did really well to keep his cool in what must have been pretty frustrating circumstances too.

Priesty · Challenger level

Coup Droit wrote:
So good to see Oli dealing so well with that line-call that he certainly thought was completely wrong.

This is an encouraging sign, and shows he's matured. I watched him play Lacko at Nottingham in 2012 and after winning the first set, a bad call against him on break point at 1-1 in the 2nd caused him to completely fall apart and he barely won another game.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

TBH, I hadn't exactly written Oli off over the last 12-18 months, but I did feel he had plateaued and would struggle to break out of the level he was at and start really moving up again. He must be feeling really good and positive now - lovely to see.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

The Optimist wrote:
TBH, I hadn't exactly written Oli off over the last 12-18 months, but I did feel he had plateaued and would struggle to break out of the level he was at and start really moving up again. He must be feeling really good and positive now - lovely to see.

The route to the top is never a straight line. There will always be years where a player consolidates, improves their playing standard but not their ranking. I think this is particularly true as players transition from Futures to Challengers. Winning a Futures brings 18 points and sometimes you don't have to play anyone inside the 300 or even higher. To get 18 points in a Challenger, in my opinion, is much harder as you would have to qualify and reach the QF and that can often require a victory over a top 100 or 150 player. Consequently, ranking can often standstill or even fall back during this transition.

I think Oli specifically targetted improvement in his game as opposed to improvement in his ranking last year. Injuries didn't help of course. But had his intention been to maximise ranking points opportunities, then given his playing style, there is no way he would have missed the grass court season to play on the clay.

I hope, as I am sure we all do, that Oli's performances this year will benefit from the improvements he worked hard for last year. The early signs couldn't be better.

Jan · Hall of fame

Well done Oli!
I had to go out a few games before the end, but enjoyed what I did manage to catch on the stream.

steven · Tennis legend

It strikes me Oli was probably more hampered by the injury than most of us realised. Pretty amazing that he has won every match since recovering. Indeed, he might well have won all of his last 4 events if that other, more temporary, injury hadn't forced him to pull out before that Doha SF.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
It strikes me Oli was probably more hampered by the injury than most of us realised. Pretty amazing that he has won every match since recovering. Indeed, he might well have won all of his last 4 events if that other, more temporary, injury hadn't forced him to pull out before that Doha SF.

Yes, wise words - I'd been wondering about it too. And, of course, the 'being hampered' can be in many ways i.e. playing in pain is obvious but, even if not, there's the impact on training and, maybe most important, the impact on the mental side - it's very dehabilitating having to worry about something all the time.

I saw most of his semi yesterday (and a little of the final) and I was struck by how fit he looked and, key, how willing he seemed to get stuck into long rallies (maybe too willing in the semi from a tactics point of view) - very different from the little bits I saw last year.

It's possible also that he's found a new 'love' of the game - only by being forced to stop for a period do you realise how much it means to you (NB no idea, only idly speculating here . . . )