Rob completed the Dutch demolition job (serves them right for last week )

L32: Toby Martin WR 870 beat Maximilian Dinslaken (GER) WR 852 (CH 725 in Jul) by 3 & 2
L32: (5) Tom Farquharson WR 443 beat (Q) Joe Woolley UNR by 2 & 2
L32: Cameron Norrie WR 804 lost to (4) Sam Barry (IRL) WR 423 (CH 410 in Dec) by 4-6 6-2 6-2
L32: Josh Milton WR 555 beat Jakub Lustyk (CZE) WR 709 (CH 638 in Sep) by 7-6(6) 6-2
L32: Josh Ward-Hibbert WR 711 beat Andrea Basso (ITA) WR 726 (CH 715 in Jan) by 6-0 6-7(6) 6-3
L32: (8/WC) Neil Pauffley WR 545 beat (WC) Lewis Burton WR 733 by 0 & 4
L32: Jathan Malik WR 981 lost to (7) Luca Vanni (ITA) WR 516 (CH 272 in 2012) by 4 & 2
L32: Luke Bambridge WR 616 beat (Q) Alan Gleeson (IRL) UNR by 3 & 1
L32: George Coupland WR 742 beat (WC) Robbie Ridout UNR by 2 & 2
L32: Rob Carter WR 863 beat (Q) Sander Arends (NED) WR 1452 (CH 1444 in Feb) by 3 & 4
L32: (2) Marcus Willis WR 392 beat (Q) Luke Oakley UNR by 2 & 1

L16: (1) Dave Rice WR 291 v Lorenzo Frigerio (ITA) WR 953 (CH 796 in Apr)
L16: (5) Tom Farquharson WR 443 v Toby Martin WR 870
L16: Josh Milton WR 555 v (4) Sam Barry (IRL) WR 423 (CH 410 in Dec)
L16: (8/WC) Neil Pauffley WR 545 v Josh Ward-Hibbert WR 711
L16: Luke Bambridge WR 616 v (7) Luca Vanni (ITA) WR 516 (CH 272 in 2012)
Non-GB: Tom Schonenberg (GER) WR 685 v (Q) Piotr Lomacki (POL) WR 1293
L16: George Coupland WR 742 v (6) Julien Cagnina (BEL) WR 504 (CH 472 in Oct)
L16: (2) Marcus Willis WR 392 v Rob Carter WR 863

H2Hs

Tom v Toby - 2-0 - 2 sets in 2011, 3 sets in Bath a year ago
Josh v Barry - 0-1 - 1&3, Khon Kaen (Thailand) 2011
Marcus v Rob - 1-0 - 4-6 6-4 7-6(2), Edgbaston last Oct

-- Edited by steven on Tuesday 11th of March 2014 06:17:48 PM

Interesting calls.

I reckon Tom, Neil and Marcus will hold sway OK. I have a sneaking feeling George might get a result.

I went today for the majority of the day and will go again tomorrow.

JWH was really teeing off with his backhand in the first set and it was all going in for the bagel set. The rest of the match was really closely fought with I think only one break in the whole of the last two, a topsy turvy game at 4-3 in the 3rd which Josh was a little lucky to win as he hit a shot out at game point down and it wasn't called. It was a pretty good match with both players showing a decent level and both have the potential to be higher ranked. While JWH has a lot of good attributes with great athleticism, big serve and a good groundstrokes when in his zone I felt the feel on his shots weren't quite there, he didn't have great touch. His backhand slice and volleys are both shots he needs to work and general play when pushed forward into the court.

Milton eventually won a long tight first set against Lustyk, he saved a set point at 3-5* with a great defensive lob when the point seemed over and saved another in the next game when Lustyk netted an easy backhand. He wasted a couple of set points at 6-4 in the tie-break but Lustyk double faulted at 6-6 and then played what looked to be a lovely lob just wide. I wasn't watching the second set but it seems as if he ran away with it from there. Josh looked to be trying the more aggressive game style we saw in Champaign at the end of last year, trying to step up the court a bit more. He has really good speed and chased down a number of drop shots in spectacular fashion, going into splits and hitting a winner of one has stayed in the mind.

Only watched the final few points of Jathan Malik's match. Seems to have a nice backhand?

I watched Rice-Hutt from Hutt being 5-2 up in the second but from then Hutt made a number of unforced errors to lose five games in a row and looked like he didn't want to fight it out by the end. Sam did play the best shot of the day though, a flat backhand pass on the run at full stretch.

From what I saw from Toby's match he won the majority of the points on his opponents second serve and has a good all round game.

Norrie-Barry was an interesting one. Cam played some very nice tennis to come back from 0-3 behind to win the first set and go an early break up in the second. But Sam fought back to take seven games in a row and it looked like he was going to power through the match until Cam starved off break point for a very important hold at the beginning of the set and then went 4-2 up before Sam took the final four games. It was commented a few weeks ago that Cam likes to make signals when he thinks ball is out and he did it again today and also at one stage shouting "out" when the ball landed on the line which really should have been called a hindrance. To be honest I thought he showed really bad sportsmanship and was very petulant with the umpire. He was unlucky on match point down when he hit a first serve that was on the line but called out. I thought Barry was always in the match even when he was a break down in both the last two sets because he never looked like panicking. Cam is actually a really fine player, puts his opponent in difficult positions with his spins and angles and could easily have gone deep in the draw here. I just hope someone can tell him just to play the ball to the whistle and focus on his own game not what the umpire is doing.

Coupland was relatively untroubled, thought maybe Ridout was maybe trying a little too hard. George has a big jump inside the court on serve wish maybe he would use that and serve and volley a bit more than he did.

Watched a bit of Luke but it was an easy match hopefully I can garner a bit more from tomorrow.

I think Woolley just had a bad day against Farquharson, in his own words just nothing felt right. Tom was very focused and determined and has a good all round game and doesn't give away many cheap points. He also hit a similar shot to Hutt's earlier.

Hoping for a few more competitive matches tomorrow so I can better assess some players.

Thanks Wolf, but it was Bamboo and not Cam calling balls out. I think it's a comment trait as Toby was doing it a bit last week.

Thanks for the report Wolf. Great to get an insight.

Toby's tweet seemed to back up what you are saying as he thought he returned exceptionally well yesterday.

Thanks wolf. Thinking of going down aswell today so may see you about.

Moving quickly back to the tennis, Rob C is an early break up against Marcus *2-1. Toby and Tom are 1-1

Edit

And as I type, Marcus breaks back for 2-2

-- Edited by Bob in Spain on Wednesday 12th of March 2014 10:57:05 AM