Week 22 - Roland Garros main draw (men) - Paris, France - Clay

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

RE: Week 22 - Roland Garros main draw (men) - Paris, France - Clay

Jan · Hall of fame

I had to go out and came home just a couple of games before the end.
A good French campaign for James.
Good luck to him on the green grass!

jake270392 · Intermediate Club Player

Dont know if there is a doubles thread but just noticed Neal Skupski has scraped intovthe doubles draw with Bradley Klahn. They play Gabashvili and Kukushkin in the first round.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Fantastic display by Wardy, 4-4 game in second was the game changer though, lots of positives overall.

Encouraged by what Leon said prematch i.e that Wardy now has his own coach and not one from the LTA, which seems to have given him a new lease of life.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Maybe that is why he fought right to the last point, something he has not always done in the past - at least not when I have been watching.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:
Fantastic display by Wardy, 4-4 game in second was the game changer though, lots of positives overall.

Encouraged by what Leon said prematch i.e that Wardy now has his own coach and not one from the LTA, which seems to have given him a new lease of life.

Interesting - begs a question . . .

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Good run for Wardy all in all. Bummer about the rain break

So where will that take him in the rankings?

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

Only up a few places roughly 160 I think. So although the prize money makes it worthwhile rankings wise a this stage doesn't mean a lot.

LouieG · County player

No points to defend though until mid July, a good grass court season could see him break his career high of 137.

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

I was thinking the same thing LouieG. He needs approximately 75 points to get back to his career high. This is very do-able in the four tournaments of the grass court season (I imagine he is playing them all). However, he has to defend 80 points from his win in Lexington last July, so a poor grass court season could have implications for his ranking.

I saw much of the first set. Robredo was perhaps not at his very best (remember those duff volleys! ) but Dino took his opportunity. When was the last time a British player called something other than Tim, Andy or Greg won a set on clay at ATP level? I remember Martin Lee winning a whole match in Holland the week after his exploits in Rhode Island. That was at least a dozen years ago!

LordBrownof · Futures level

This really feels like a crucial moment in his career, doesn't it? If he can take the confidence of winning three matches against decent opposition on clay into the grass court season and win a few matches, he could be in a great position to be there or there abouts (top 100) by the US Open.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

James credits Arsenal with his new found success (in the Independent a few days back). I reckon on his new coach.

Whatever it takes, James, whatever it takes . . .

EddietheEagle · County player

Forget the coach, Ward needs to beef up physically. He's too spindly. Robredo had more power, more resilience. Ward was forced back too deep, too often.

philwrig · Hall of fame

It sounds as if Wardy is targeting Queens as his 1st grass court tournament. If he plays Notts he's only going to use it as a warmup event.

gattolibero · Social player

EddietheEagle wrote:
Forget the coach, Ward needs to beef up physically. He's too spindly. Robredo had more power, more resilience. Ward was forced back too deep, too often.

I thought the same thing, but not yesterday where James was quite good and honestly I didn't like Robredo, he's no.17 in the ranking but he hasn't played like a top 20.

Dominic Inglot whereas said that on BBC: "There's been missed opportunities, we've seen that a few times in Ward's career. He tends to get broken early in sets where he serves first and then he has to play catch-up, which is a difficult position to be in. Maybe that is something he as to address with his coach or perhaps with a psychologist."

Everyone has a different advice for Ward... but everybody is thinking that he shouldn't be so low in ranking! He should be around no. 80.