...and whilst typing that Marcus has been broken, now trails 1-2* in 3rd set.

Time to dig deep

I'm not particularly surprised by that result. It's been a very disappointing start to the year for Marcus and Gong is clearly a player who is ranked below his level, due to his attempt to break into challenger tournaments. It surely doesn't bode well for Marcus' aspirations of moving into challengers himself, if he can't beat a player who has continuously been losing first round challenger matches.

-- Edited by Mburnett1 on Thursday 13th of February 2014 07:32:16 AM

steven wrote:

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QF: (4) Marcus Willis WR 387 lost to Gong Mao-Xin (CHN) WR 759 (CH 294 in 2011) by 6-7(4) 7-5 6-2

Gong may well be under-ranked (and has been top 300 in the past, of course) but that means a R1 loss and 3 QF exits for Marcus in singles so far this year, i.e. just 6 points when he's been seeded to get 16 and would probably have been hoping for even more if he has ambitions to make a big move this year.

Assuming Marcus hasn't become a worse player over the off-season (which seems unlikely!), I wonder if he's getting bored with Futures now and needs to move up and challenge himself a bit more. I know that hasn't been working for Gong but it certainly did for Alex Ward last year (his 4 best results in Futures over the last 12 months are only QFs, yet he was beginning to make some waves at Challenger level before he got injured) and, admittedly on very limited evidence so far, seems to be working for Ed this year too.

Marcus isn't too happy with himself: "Went down 67(4) 75 62. 0/10 break points converted. #clutch" That really does sound frustrating.

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 13th of February 2014 08:47:08 AM

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 I will certainly be pushing for a full focus on challengers 

Its worked well for Dan Smethhurst

 

A1 tennis academy wrote:

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steven wrote:

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QF: (4) Marcus Willis WR 387 lost to Gong Mao-Xin (CHN) WR 759 (CH 294 in 2011) by 6-7(4) 7-5 6-2

Gong may well be under-ranked (and has been top 300 in the past, of course) but that means a R1 loss and 3 QF exits for Marcus in singles so far this year, i.e. just 6 points when he's been seeded to get 16 and would probably have been hoping for even more if he has ambitions to make a big move this year.

Assuming Marcus hasn't become a worse player over the off-season (which seems unlikely!), I wonder if he's getting bored with Futures now and needs to move up and challenge himself a bit more. I know that hasn't been working for Gong but it certainly did for Alex Ward last year (his 4 best results in Futures over the last 12 months are only QFs, yet he was beginning to make some waves at Challenger level before he got injured) and, admittedly on very limited evidence so far, seems to be working for Ed this year too.

Marcus isn't too happy with himself: "Went down 67(4) 75 62. 0/10 break points converted. #clutch" That really does sound frustrating.

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 13th of February 2014 08:47:08 AM

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 I will certainly be pushing for a full focus on challengers 

Its worked well for Dan Smethhurst

 

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 I agree 100% Steven.  No one will know until its tried but I could well see Marcus being an "Alex Ward" in this respect.  Its not a problem to drop back down again if it proves again a mistake. There is the bonus of course that their doubles game is ready to be tested at this level anyway.  I really fear (as discussed on here many times) that if thel rack up the points to make top 250 playing far flung 10k's only, the LTA will still not be forthcoming with the cherished Wild Card.

 

And the boys make another final with a 6-4 7-6(5) win.

Completely agree with Shhh and Steven, and glad to see A1's comment. Time to give Challengers a go.

My opinion is that, even if the results aren't always great, it raises the bar. Shows the players a whole new level of professionalism etc. (same is true for those on the border of Challenegrs and ATP).

Alex is a classic (with the still hilarious quote when he got dumped out of R1 futures in Spain last year: 'can't hack it in futures, off to give ATP a go' - and so he did).

But maybe Ed is having a blast in Italy becuase he was frustrated with how we was playing in the futures? Sort of applies to Dan C too. Maybe Dave blew up in Quimper because he'd been playing way too many matches and doing 'too well' in futures ? (Still don't know why he chnaged his mind and asked for a W/C in the last one).

Not trying to deduce anything scientific from those three that spring to mind just in passing . . .

And, as Shhh says, time to give the doubles duo an outing at Challenger level too.

After all, they'll play more futures too - everyone in that sort of bracket has to mix and match.