Week 13 - Bahrain F1 ($10,000) - Manama (Hard)

RJA · Hall of fame

RE: Week 13 - Bahrain F1 ($10,000) - Manama (Hard)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

RJA wrote:
All in all a somewhat disappointing week here.

Definitely a bit underwhelming.

And a bit of doubles success on the side is not really going to cut it. . . . (although they might as well go and win the darn thing as they're entered for it).

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

SF: (1) Liam Broady & Josh Ward-Hibbert CR 717 (395+322) defeated (3) Kevin Griekspoor & Scott Griekspoor (NED/NED) CR 1148 (585+563) by 7-6(6) 6-3

steven · Tennis legend

Liam: "Lost singles today 6-2 7-6 (5) to Cagnina. Played really crap until about half way through the 2nd. Some good things sprinkled in though"

steven · Tennis legend

You know how often we notice players retiring in the match after they have beaten a Brit? Well, Bréchemier retired from his QF today having beaten two Brits in a row

indiana · Tennis legend

Well, you already had him down as "a bit annoying", Steven. Clearly he tbought how could he be more annoying !

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

It went from bad to worse for poor old Luke:

SF: (4) Jaime Pulgar & Javier Pulgar (ESP/ESP) CR 1915 (304+1611) defeated (2) Luke Bambridge & Antoine Benneteau (FRA) CR 857 (401+456) by 7-5 3-6 [10-8] bleh

ergo

Final: (1) Liam Broady & Josh Ward-Hibbert CR 717 (395+322) vs (4) Jaime Pulgar & Javier Pulgar (ESP/ESP) CR 1915 (304+1611)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
You know how often we notice players retiring in the match after they have beaten a Brit? Well, Bréchemier retired from his QF today having beaten two Brits in a row

I think he must have run himself into the ground, chasing down all those balls. If only he'd 'let' Josh win, then he woudln't be injured now, would he? Let that be a lesson, young man . . . smile

NB Dan Cox points out that in the Main Draw there were three sets of twins !!! DOn't know if that's been mentioned before but is that a record?

steven · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
steven wrote:
You know how often we notice players retiring in the match after they have beaten a Brit? Well, Bréchemier retired from his QF today having beaten two Brits in a row

I think he must have run himself into the ground, chasing down all those balls. If only he'd 'let' Josh win, then he woudln't be injured now, would he? Let that be a lesson, young man . . .

NB Dan Cox points out that in the Main Draw there were three sets of twins !!! DOn't know if that's been mentioned before but is that a record?

Poor M. Bréchemier, it's probably a genuine injury. Just strange how often it seems to happen - of course, maybe fans of other nations' players notice a similar thing and it's not just our players who trigger next round retirements ...

I noticed Dan's tweet but I had trouble working out who the third pair were - the Griekspoors and the Pulgars are definitely twins but the only other possibilities I could see at first glance were the Abdulnabis, who met in R1, but they were born almost two years apart.

Spectator · All-time great

Well done to Messrs Broady and Ward-Hibbert, and best wishes for the final. Mr Broady should now be at least in the 370s and Mr Ward-Hibbert may (for some reason the ATP website won't give me his results at present) be edging towards the 200s ... though he's already reached the point where even a 10K win doesn't boost the ranking by too much. Meanwhile do hope that someone can find Mr. Bambridge a consistent doubles partner. This SF should take him into the 300s - not bad for three months into his first year post- juniors, and remarkable given that he has played with a different partner in almost every tournament. Would be interesting to see what he could do if in a stable pairing.

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

None of these boys should be worrying about doubles this early in their career. Try and make it at singles first then if not good enough become a doubles player. The best doubles players after all are so because they failed to make the top grade in real tennis.

Spectator · All-time great

There are many reasons for playing doubles and trying to be good at it: it can help sharpen your responses at the net, and the extra money you get from it doesn't hurt when you're just starting out. Doing well enough may also enable you to get a taste of higher-level competition while you wait for your singles to catch up. (Rankings-wise, Broady and JWH, for example, could probably begin to think about a lower-level challenger in doubles)

Beyond that, I rather think that if the gentlemen in question reached the career singles highs of Peya (92), Stepanek (8), Paes (73), Mahut (39 - simultaneous with his doubles successes), Nestor (58 - simultaneous with doubles successes), Marcel Granollers (19 - simultaneous with doubles successes), or Llodra (21 - simultaneous with doubles successes), we would not necessarily think that they had done too badly. (NB: The reason for this rather random sampling of the top 25 doubles players is that the ATP website won't let me in to the pages for many of the players: I don't think people would feel upset if our players' singles careers mimicked those of Dodig, Verdasco or Mirnyi either!)

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Well said, Spectator! I really don't see why it should be just one or the other when it comes to singles / doubles play.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Final: (1) Liam Broady & Josh Ward-Hibbert CR 717 (395+322) lost to (4) Jaime Pulgar & Javier Pulgar (ESP/ESP) CR 1915 (304+1611) 6-2 2-6 10-6

Well, it was close . ..