Great win for James

Dan C will have to win twice tomorrow to qualify. He plays Lorenzi at 10am.

James is on 3rd.

As I suggested earlier, why would Dan have to play twice when they can play Saturday and I presume Sunday too if it came to it ?

From how much things are behind, I can't imagine qualifying being completed on Friday, and I can't see why they'ed even want to try, when it would mean players having to play twice on the one day.

Coup Droit wrote:

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The ESPN article was very detailed about this (you may well have read it Eddie):

espn.go.com/tennis/french14/story/_/id/10962619/french-open-french-open-exposes-americans-weakness

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I've read it now. It's an interesting article. When you consider that the U.S, has arguably the tennis world's most powerful combination of well-funded national federation (USTA) and private sector tennis facilities (Saddlebrook, Bolettieri etc) you wonder why it is they are not producing the top players any longer.

I've often wondered too whether Andy Murray made the right choice in Florida as his principal training base and whether his career goal of becoming world number 1 would have been attained had he based himself in Europe (Spain?) to complete his tennis development on clay rather than, as he does, having to find himself anew on the surface every season He said he used to practice far more with the likes of Nadal than he does now. Had he based himself in Spain for example, then presumably it would be easier to arrange training sessions with his fellow top players.

It does say TBA on the OoP though. Dan is definitely fit enough to do it though so if he can somehow beat Lorenzi it could work in his advantage!

James played well today was very solid throughout. I think there was only 1 breakpoint each in the match and barely a deuce game apart from that, so it felt like the match was just meandering along until they got to the tiebreaks.

His sliced forehand when pushed wide was excellent and must have won him a lot of points which Harrison was on top in, including a very long point which got him to match point. I think he could have been a bit more aggressive on return as at times he just seemed to push back weak second serves mid court and let Harrison dictate the point, but overall 2 good days work. Didn't see much of Rola his final round opponent but he was on the court behind Heather and looked a very big bloke.

Dan Cox was very impressive. Not seen much of Dan before and wasn't expecting much on clay, but I thought he was excellent. He looks like he has done a lot of work in the gym and was hitting the ball very well. Am interested to see how he will get on against Lorenzi.

Dan Evans tried hard I thought, but was basically outclassed by a guy who was so much more comfortable on the surface and moved so much better on it. Dan found it very hard to get Elias off balance and to get him moving around the court and most long rallies ended with Dan chasing from side to side and then making a forced error. Then when Dan tried to be more aggressive later on he made a lot of unforced errors. A tough draw on the surface.

Also was good to see Ireland's James McGee making the final qualifying round after winning the first set on his 10th set point when Guido Pella double faulted. It must be said that barring a couple of games at the end of the first set (and he wasn't great then) Pella was unbelievably bad, but you can only beat whats in front of you.

Don't know if anyone has mentioned it but Dan Smethurst was in Paris, saw him watching Dan Evans match, a shame he didn't get in but I'm sure he would have taken being first alt for french open quallies at the start of the year.