Week 21 - Roland Garros men's qualifying

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Week 21 - Roland Garros men's qualifying

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Cracking win for James. Good luck in the MD

seagull · Hall of fame

Presumably with Lorenzi not playing again until tomorrow then we have to wait until then for qualifiers to be placed

spud · Challenger qualifying

Fantastic from Ward!

Was nervous reading through the posts updating the score but optimistic because there were so many pages to still get through which hinted he may have done it!

philwrig · Hall of fame

Great great win for Wardy, easpecially after somewhat bottling it the 1st time around, he looked on top during the final set, but serving last is always very tough. Been playing very consistently of late to a high level, so it's very encouraging for the near future.

As for no TB's I've noticed quite a few matches going late into a third set during the week, especially if you're constantly scrolling down the livescore app.
I doubt Neil would have been doing the same, so it's probably a natural reaction to think tiebreaker at 6-6, even if it is way off the mark and he should know better.

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Tremendous performance, all the more dramtic for having saved the MPs! I think he'll have a decent shot if he has a favourable draw in the MD as well. I'm sure the media exposure will be a boon when it comes to re negotiating sponsorship deals, and the 24K Euros won't go amiss either!

Keep going!

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

When are they going to place the qualifiers?

freerider · Futures level

so so pleased for Wardy. Especially nice the manner he did it in - think he would have choked it a year or two ago. Hoping his R1 match is on Monday so I can put my feet up and watch it :) (and hopefully it will be on itv4)

Great effort also for Cox looking forward to seeing what he can produce on clay - I think it is a surface that he could do well on

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

freerider wrote:
so so pleased for Wardy. Especially nice the manner he did it in - think he would have choked it a year or two ago. Hoping his R1 match is on Monday so I can put my feet up and watch it :) (and hopefully it will be on itv4)

Great effort also for Cox looking forward to seeing what he can produce on clay - I think it is a surface that he could do well on

Yes, I agree. Never thought about it before (so probably obvious to everyone else smile ) but Dan has the real profile of a clay court player and, what with the time he spends on clay in Marbella, he must have a lot of what it takes to be a good clay player.

Thrilled for James too. Especially as he'd never won a match here before. And, dare one say it, some memorable chokes in the past. Nice pay cheque, nice kudos, great to be around the 'big guys' in the grand slam main draw. Well done him.

Spectator · All-time great

Absolutely wonderful. A very good day for British tennis. (And that covers both the win and the - eminently respectable and well fought - loss.)

freerider · Futures level

just had a little look at the draw. 2 Q vs Q draws in there, Steve Johnson on clay might be a decent draw.

Obviously want to avoid one of the seeds, Fognini would be a horrendous draw

Long time reader · Lower Club Player

A great win for Wardy, I missed most of the first set as was watching Dan Cox, but after hanging on a bit at the start of the second set Ward gradually started to take control and looked the better player. Once he broke for 4-3 in the final set he was 0-30 and Rola was way on top in the rally when James played another superb sliced forehand. 3 good points later and I thought he had weathered the storm and had it won. He had a chance on the match point at 5-3, Rola hit a short volley and James did a big slide into the shot but couldn't control the forehand.

When serving for the match he got to 30-15 with a forehand winner and a big serve but then Rola seemed to cut out the errors and played a few good points to break back. James played a few excellent backhands to save Rola's match points and then after struggling on Rola's serve for a few games finally broke on his third break point of the game with an excellent recovery of a drop shot.

Rola played a poor game when James served for the match for the 2nd time making some poor errors. Been very impressed with Ward, excellent defensively and very consistent, hopefully he will get a winnable first round match.

Was gutted for Dan Cox thought he played very well in the second set and could easily have won it. Very small margins decided the tiebreak, Lorenzi hitting a volley onto the line and Dan hitting a passing shot millimetres wide. Still hes proved he can compete well at this level, now he needs to forget the futures and concentrate on challengers and above.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Thanks for the report, LTR, much appreciated.

freerider · Futures level

yes thanks for the report. I really feel as though Ward will push on up the rankings a bit now, this win tooday will do wonders for his confidence, and we all know when he is firing he is definitely worthy of the top 100.

Also thanks to everyone for score updates over the past few days

steven · Tennis legend

Thanks for the reports, LTR - it's great to find out some of what lay behind the livescores that so many of us were glued to! Hope you enjoyed your time at RG too - and continue to if you are going again!