steven wrote:

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[...] The seeds in Alec's section are (q6) Egor Gerasimov (BEL) WR 273 and (q2) Andre Ghem (BRA) WR 200.

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Alec?  

Turns out Evo is a late withdrawal form Heilbronn (though I suppose by Dan's standards, before the draw is early!)

I'm sure we'll see Dan again at some point in the Futures.....(the way it's going at the moment anyway )

paulisi wrote:

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It's embarrassing.......

 

I could understand this if we knew and didn't agree with Dan's reason for withdrawal. I'm not making excuses for Dan but until we know that facts why the criticism? Dan played in Irving and retired - the reason given "left knee". He played the following week an lost a match we had expected him to win. He played last week and lost a match we expected him to win. He has withdrawn from the main draw of a Challenger this week. Any chance he still has a niggle with his knee?

I know he was seen at a football match recently but an injury wouldn't prevent that - unless of course he was playing! If you want to criticise Dan, go ahead. But at least wait until you have the facts.

 

 

SMC1809 wrote:

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paulisi wrote:

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It's embarrassing.......

 

I could understand this if we knew and didn't agree with Dan's reason for withdrawal. I'm not making excuses for Dan but until we know that facts why the criticism? Dan played in Irving and retired - the reason given "left knee". He played the following week an lost a match we had expected him to win. He played last week and lost a match we expected him to win. He has withdrawn from the main draw of a Challenger this week. Any chance he still has a niggle with his knee?

I know he was seen at a football match recently but an injury wouldn't prevent that - unless of course he was playing! If you want to criticise Dan, go ahead. But at least wait until you have the facts.

 

 

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 All very fair, balanced and British.

I would suggest, however, that if certain folks are assuming (perhaps incorrectly on this occasion, although I doubt it) that it's yet another Dan trademark "unexplained" withdrawal or "unusual" change of plan.......then this is simply due to 6 years of data points!! If PaddyPower were running a book on this, they would probably have "random unexplained withdrawal" on shorter odds than "illness or injury", given Dan's history.

Dan has taken the opportunity of commenting via twitter on Bedene's potential GB DC eligibility, albeit he has removed his original tweet which was probably for the best, given it's tone and intent.......Dan certainly is much more British than Bedene. He may or may not be more talented. But he almost certainly is less reliable in terms of turning up for the training and the match......

I certainly hope Dan is fit for FO qualies and that he decides to turn up.....although it may be a fruitless endeavour, given his lack of form or practice on clay. He certainly shouldn't be too "exhausted" in 2014, after he complained of tiredness at the end of 2013!

Off course, some scepticism about Dan is natural with the body of evidence and his own admissions about past lack of dedication. And, yes, that withdrawal from Asian Challengers late last year due to 'tiredness' ( admittedly I only read that reason from Gary ) was classic. Your average tennis player has to actually play quite a lot of tennis matches before err 'tiredness' is an issue.

But while I detect a little burying head in sand above, it is absolutely fair comment that we know no facts here, but do know that Dan has recently had a knee problem.

So it is out of order to call this particular withdrawal 'embarrassing', whatever one's thoughts and suspicions.