Week 9 - Great Britain F6 ($10,000) - Shrewsbury (Hard)

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Week 9 - Great Britain F6 ($10,000) - Shrewsbury (Hard)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Sakharov has broken and will serve for the match.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Another one bites the dust.

Dan C loses 6-4 7-5

RJA · Hall of fame

Only one Brit in the SFs is pretty disappointing when 3 of the top 4 seeds were British.

Josh now a break up in the second *2-1

RJA · Hall of fame

Ash storms back to take the second set 6-3

paulisi · Tennis legend

RJA wrote:
Only one Brit in the SFs is pretty disappointing when 3 of the top 4 seeds were British.

I've got a feeling that we may see the same at Preston, especially as Dave Rice doesn't seem to be playing at the top of his game at the moment.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Josh M won 7-5 3-6 6-1

I can hear Bob cheering in the background....

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
Josh M won 7-5 3-6 6-1

I can hear Bob cheering in the background....

LOLEFPTH. (Laughs Out Loud Enough For Paulisi To Hear)

Given Josh is now the only Brit left, I'm sure we will ALL be cheering him from this point on.

steven · Tennis legend

A shocking day for the top three Brits here - is this going to be Josh's big week?

QF: (1) Dan Cox WR 243 lost to (7) Gleb Sakharov (FRA) WR 604 (CH 314 in 2012) by 4 & 5

QF: (4) Liam Broady WR 474 lost to (8) Isak Arvidsson (SWE) WR 618 (CH 554 in Jul) by 2 & 3

QF: (6) Josh Milton WR 553 beat (2) Ashley Hewitt WR 415 by 7-5 3-6 6-1

Non-GB: (3) Micke Kontinen (FIN) WR 453 (CH 450 last week) v (7) Gleb Sakharov (FRA) WR 604 (CH 314 in 2012)
QF: (6) Josh Milton WR 553 v (8) Isak Arvidsson (SWE) WR 618 (CH 554 in Jul)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

TMH wrote:
Been a pretty underwhelming start to the year for Liam so far.

I'm not a huge Liam fan, biased (completely unfairly probably) by the fact that the last time I saw him he was playing pretty poorly (v windy and sore arm didn't help but you can't help be influenced by the actual game as opposed to the possible counterarguments).

However, in his defence, he did make a sudden huge jump last autumn - this time last year he was about WR 900 : I know he had some injury niggles but even so he spent a long time (over a year) knocking around the 900s level.

So it's maybe not surprising that he's having to take a bit of time to consolidate and 'grow into' a 450 player. Before, hopefully, moving up a notch again.

indiana · Tennis legend

There's something about, Liam, I think a rather hangdog lack of positivity ( although I can think of one guy that could still play very well with that ! ) combined with lack of really big shots, that has always had me doubting his ultimate progress, and wondering whether much less heralded players will go further. Whereas I am much more reassured going forward by what I see from Oli and Kyle.

But as CD says, Liam did have a good period last year. Would be very good if he could step up again, move on and disprove my doubts.

indiana · Tennis legend

I did think that after the R1 draw was made, paulisi was being notably pessimistic to suggest that we'd do well to get 2 semi finalists.

But 2 is certainly better than 1, which certainly isn't doing well !

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
There's something about, Liam, I think a rather hangdog lack of positivity ( although I can think of one guy that could still play very well with that ! ) combined with lack of really big shots, that has always had me doubting his ultimate progress, and wondering whether much less heralded players will go further. Whereas I am much more reassured going forward by what I see from Oli and Kyle.

But as CD says, Liam did have a good period last year. Would be very good if he could step up again, move on and disprove my doubts.

yes, a similar perception of the man . . .

Oli and Kyle are obviously ranked higher than Liam so the comparison is 'easier' but I think Luke and JWH both have games that are far more positive and encouraging moving forward. Yet both of the them had a far more mediocre 2013 compared with Liam.

It's also soemtimes easy to be seduced by the guys with the flashy shots and to ignore the steady-eddy sorts who, often, outshine their colleagues in terms of final results. But I sometimes feel sorry for Liam (probably again completely unjustified) : he must look at Naomi, and younger brother Calum, and think - where did my inches go? How come I got so 'short'-changed ! Not that he's small by normal standards but there's obviosuly some real height genes in that family and he just didn't get them . . .

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

SF: Luke Bambridge & Toby Martin CR 1163 (477+686) defeated Cam Norrie & Jonny O'Mara UNR CR 1929 (913+1016) by 6-2 4-6 [10-3]

****

Final: Luke Bambridge & Toby Martin CR 1163 (477+686) vs (2) Isak Arvidsson & Micke Kontinen (SWE/FIN) CR 991 (458+533)

philwrig · Hall of fame

Liam at his best is a top class player, those that witnessed his junior Wimby run to the final, would agree. Like any player he can have dips but when confident and fully fit he's still one of our best prospects. You also couldn't come across a nicer lad either, and I'm sure given time he'll change the mind of those doubters. Of course he has weaknesses as well as strengths, but on pure ballstriking ability he's as good as Kyle/Oli, remember he beat Kyle pretty handily late 2012.