A bit disappointed at the field this week.

I shall go down for some of the qualifiers, but there isn't anyone of particular interest in the first round draw that I'm keen to watch, so I may arrive around noon.

Keen to see Scott, Evan ,Imran, Bruce and Adam TB

Very interesting day- got to watch lots of people who I'd never seen play before and had a chat with a couple of players, such as Harry Meehan and Jathan Malik.

Results pretty much went to form, but Scott and Evan in particular were given frights. Bruce Strachan was the major surprise losing easily to Adam Skalsky. Broady, Bambo, Hilts all around as well as Eden Richardson!!!!

I'll post a bit more detail after DC

 

PS Harry not the greatest fan of Ratty at the moment.........

-- Edited by paulisi on Sunday 2nd of February 2014 06:56:19 PM

TMH wrote:

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Do Harry and/or Josh read this forum?

For that matter, besides from Fitzy, are any of the other guys known to frequent this place?

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Josh tweeted about something Ratty wrote on here last week.

QR1

Riccardo BONADIO (ITA) [1] BYE
Callum POLAND-SMITH (GBR) 6-1 6-1 Robert LECK (GBR)
Enrique VIDAL (GBR) 6-1 6-3 Adam JONES (GBR)
Jordan MCCULLOCH (GBR) BYE
Scott CLAYTON (GBR) [2] BYE
Marcus WALTERS (GBR) BYE
Adam SKALSKY (GBR) 7-6(3) 6-3 Sebastian JACKSON (GBR)
Bruce STRACHAN (GBR) [9] BYE
Nicolas ROSENZWEIG (FRA) [3] BYE
Curtis CLARKE (GBR) 6-0 6-0 Robert NAWROCKI (GBR)
Peter ASHLEY (GBR) BYE
Antonio MASTRELIA (ITA) [11] BYE
Giorgio PORTALURI (ITA) [4] BYE
Philip SIKMAN (GBR) 6-3 6-3 Scott william LISTER (GBR)
Marshall TUTU (GBR) 6-2 6-4 Oliver BRENNAN (GBR)
David PORTER (GBR) [15] BYE
Evan HOYT (GBR) [5] BYE
Nick EECKELAERS (GBR) 6-2 6-2 Kyle FELLOWS (GBR)
Isaac STOUTE (GBR) BYE
Ryan PENISTON (GBR) [14] BYE
Imran ASWAT (GBR) [6] BYE
Robert GODLEWSKI (POL) 6-3 7-6(2) Sizya Ernest KIVANDA (GBR)
Joe WOOLLEY (GBR) 4-6 7-6(4) 6-4 Luke POWER (GBR)
Nicholas JONES (GBR) [12] BYE
Piotr LOMACKI (POL) [7] BYE
Jac NEWIS (GBR) 6-3 6-0 Luke WELLENS (GBR)
Mika JULIN (FIN) BYE
Tom ALLEN (GBR) [10] BYE
Adam THORNTON-BROWN (GBR) [8] BYE
Luke HENLEY (GBR) 7-5 6-3 Maxim RENKE (GER)
Alexis CANTER (GBR) BYE
Karol DRZEWIECKI (POL) [13] BYE

Interesting to see that Marchall Tutu breezed through his two matches. He had a good run last week.

paulisi wrote:

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Coup Droit wrote:

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Interesting to see that Marchall Tutu breezed through his two matches. He had a good run last week.

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He's in some very good form playing very solid tennis at the moment.

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Thanks for that.

I looked him up and seemingly he's been at Bath University and, given he's 21, I assume he graduated last summer ? So the UK equivalent of one of the US college boys. Wonder if he's now focusing seriously on tennis and going to give it a go . . .

Arrived just after 11am and missed the majority of the games in the first matches, but did catch the end of Enrique Vidal's match, where Adam Jones pushed him close in the second set. Enrique looks a nice player with a decent all round game and hits the ball very flat. Unfortunately in his second match he wasn't as consistent as McCulloch.

The two games I watched next, which were side by side, were Kivanda v Godolski and Woolley v Power.

Kivanda v Godolski was an interesting match to say the least. You could see why Godolski was ranked inside the top 600 previously and will be a dangerous qualifier, he should beat Nick Jones. Kivanda has one of the best backhands I have seen for sometime and pushed the Pole really close, but his forehand and volleying need some tidying up, but he will get ranking points soon. So the big story in this match was the heated argument when a ball came across towards the court, Kivanda stopped looking for a let and the Pole refused. This argument went on for a good ten minutes, before an official and then the tournament director had to intervene and Joe Woolley and Adam Skansky were also getting frustrated by the antics on the neighbouring court. There were a few more arguments about calls later in the game as well. Apparently something similar happened last week with the Pole as well.
Something similar happened in the Pole's second match with Imran with questionable calls and an official had to come on court and later warned Godolski for an incorrect call.
Imran Aswat has a nice solid game and pushed Godolski close, but just didn't have enough in the end.
Joe Woolley v Luke Power was a really long game nearly 2 and a half hours. Joe is still 16 and is tall and wiry and plays an aggressive game, whereas Luke Power has a very solid game and excellent court coverage. Joe started slowly, was constantly talking to himself, but came back to dominate the second set tie break and eventually held out serve in a very long final game. If Joe can get down to the gym and work on his strength and get some more power into his shots, he could be a very good player. He did start to cramp at the end of the match and I wasn't surprised he lost the second round match as that win took a lot out of him.
Peter Ashley looks another decent player and after a tight first set ran away with the second. I didn't watch too much of this match as Peter's loud running commentary was really annoying.

Scott Clayton v Marcus Walters was an interesting match. Marcus is only 15, but put up an excellent performance and is definitely one to look out for in the future. Scott has some talent, but was a bit rusty early on missing some straight forward shots.
Evan Hoyt on the other hand was in big trouble and should really have lost. He was broken early in the first second and never recovered. Won the second set reasonably easily, but was 4-1 down in the second set and then really upped his game to comeback to win 7-5. Nick Eeckelaers played really well and all the guys said he has improved significantly from last year and is another to watch.

I watched bits and pieces of the other matches, but with six courts in play it was easy to get distracted.


A few observations:

Courts are slow, will suit the fitter players with a solid all round game such as Ed Corrie
The depth in men's tennis is excellent and there are a lot of players of a good ability that could get onto the ATP rankings, that are not on there yet.

Harry - apart from the fact that he is huge, he came down with ice packs attached to the top of his legs following an injury he picked up last week. He had a hit yesterday and again later and should be OK for Tuesday and the fact that we should not necessarily read results as to the way people have played, there may be reasons behind it. The second seed's game suited him, whereas he was carrying an injury against a very solid player in the next round. He said he and Josh were mates off court before Josh became his coach and Josh is a strict coach. Financial pressures are a big issue for Harry and he is quite a character.

Jathan is a real nice guy. He has been struggling with injury last year and again is struggling financial and relying on parental help especially with two tennis players in the family and no funding. He trains at Sutton with Adam Skalsky and was thus pleased when Adam beat Bruce. Adam even switched to singlehanded backhands!!! He came down early expecting to sign in for qualifiers only for some late drop outs to make main draw. He knew all the players and was giving insights into them and tour life. A couple of things that I wasn't aware of was that the entry fees had gone up this year and the lack of tournaments in the South East where the majority of players are based.

I'm looking forward to Tuesday.