... and that sets up a repeat of last week's Final, which the Serb won 2 & 4:

FINAL: (2) Dan Smethurst WR 272 v (1) Filip Krajinovic (SRB) WR 223 (CH 170 in 2010)

indiana wrote:

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Well done, againnnn, to Dan.

With 162 points, Dan has now moved above the current 100th place in the ATP race ( 160 points ). Of course, there is zero chance of 162 points being good enough on Monday week when these points get added. But if he could win the title this week and move to 181 points he might have a squeak. He has pulled out of the Sarasota Challenger next week so won't be adding any points from that.

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He should also be in the top 250 of the actual rankings on Monday week unless nearly everyone in the 240-260 range is having a really good week.

I haven't done the maths but I guess Dan must have topped out the LTA bonus scheme £5000 cap for futures by now. Which is pretty impressive.

In fact, the LTA must be super relieved that they imposed the cap this year - Dan would be on course to about bankrupt them otherwise !

Dan lost 1 & 6

Talking of 2014-only points, in the first 15 weeks of this year, 8 Brits have racked up 50 or more:

1065 Andy
137 Dan S
136 Evo
109 James
62 Ed
56 Dan C
56 Kyle
50 Dave

Compare this with the first 15 weeks of 2013, when no Brits other than Andy had picked up more than 100 points and only two (James and Ed) had picked up 50 or more!

Once again, another fine week from Mr Smethurst! Well done lad. Have a good rest and then win another load of matches in Korea please

Great to see the improvement in the Brits this year compared to last. Thanks for that stat Steven!

Yes, interesting table from Steven.

It's been a generally great start to the year for our top guys. With Oli on 38 points for the year and Marcus on 36, our top 10 points scorers for the year are also our current top in the overall rankings ( indeed were 9 of our top 10 before the year got started with just the surging Dan S replacing Brydan in our top 10 ).

With Tom F on 31 points ( pretty good concerning ongoing injury issues ) it has been very definitely a tale of two halves ( ish ) in the top 25 table. Such as Liam, Luke and Cameron have shown up pretty well at times, but it has been quieter further down the rankings than I would have hoped. For instance, we certainly don't look likely to have 20 in the top 500 any time soon after just missing it during last year ( 15 in the top 400 does look more possible though ).

Hopefully others will make breakthroughs in the months to come. For now though, I'd certainly say the start to the year made by our top ranked players certainly more than makes up for this and I would like to add my congratulations to those involved.