A131 wrote:

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Quite pathetic really when you think about it - not one British man has come through qualifying since Chris Eaton and where is he now. I'd be surprised if any of the two remaining women made it through either.

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The point is that our players who should be playing qualifying i.e those of the right level to play qualifying (Evans, Ward, Cox), are given widlcards into the main draw.

 

So then those actually playing qualifying are not the WR 120-220 ranked lot like all the others, but WR 300-ers who really shouldn't be there, as of right. Therefore, of course they will probably lose. 

 

If you want more qualifiyng players to qualify then just get rid of MD wildcards (and hence James qualifies in France, Dan Evans qualifies in the US etc. etc.). But I like the wildcard system and think it has some benefit. However, it'll never generate many winners.  

Oliver Golding played a cracking match. Really rose to the occasion. Super first set (and his serve wasn't even really working at first so he had his work cut out).

Chiudenelli took a purely strategic bathroom break at the end of the first set (which took for ever because it's quite walk). Oli still won his next two games but the Swiss guy had re-grouped a bit and played better. Still very close. And all credit to Oli for drawing a tight third set out. Some really good play by him. A couple of clusters of double-faults were maybe expensive but it was a strategic decision to go for aggressive second serves and, for the most part, it really paid off - lots of service winners on second serve and he'd have got broken doing conservative second serves.

Only one comment: the Swiss man had his coach, very present at the side (even warned for coaching at one point). Constant support. Marco would make comments to him ('focus', 'make him play' etc/. etc/ ) and the coach would give a little clap or nod. All legit really. And very useful. But Oli (as far as I could see) had no-one. Certainly not anyone who seemed really there for him (unless I missed it). And Oli really needed it. The change-over at 4-5 down in the third (when he'd squeaked the game, partly thanks to a very lucky call) should have been recorded and shown to youngsters as 'how not to do an important change-over' - and, on cue, Oli came out and played a really poor return game in the last game. Hope he feels reasonably pleased with his showing, it was good stuff.

(Brydan conducted himself very well, from what I saw, even some 'pleases' and 'thank yous' to the ball boys and no histrionics when it was close in the third - in fact, he fought well. I still can't think of him as British but I couldn't fault his behaviour on court or his commitment to the match).

(Bedene was head and shoulders better than his opponent).

The crux of it is that most of the players who've lost this week here are simply out of their depth at this level, if they were playing these players in a challenger abroad we wouldn't expect anything more from them so there's no reason to here. Except of course for the grass factor which would make it a misleading result anyway.

That said, encouraging signs from Oli and great from Gabi, keep it up!

I watched most of Oli's match. Here is my take on it:  Oli played a great first set, hitting with power and accuracy from the back of the court. He broke serve twice and most spectators would have thought he was going to win quite handily.  Marco took a very long toilet break after the 1st set, I thought this out of order after just 30mins of play.  To his credit, Oli kept himself together and won his sevice game with aplomb and got stuck into Marcos and came close to getting the break. In the middle of the set, Oli played a horris service game:  Two doubles and missed a sitter.  This gave Marco the 2nd set.   Excellent hitting from both players continued into the decider. Oli was hitting the heavier ball, but Marco stayed in the point.  Oli constructed points well but could not finish them off often enough.  If I was was to be hyper critical I would say that he should have attempted moving forward a bit more when the big hits from deep were not winning him enough points.  Unfortunately, Oli threw in another horror show service game in the middle of the set.  Three consecutive DFs drew a gasp from the crowd and there was no way back into the service game or the set. 

I think Oli will feel that this match was a missed an opportunity.  It was a good performance against a seasoned campaigner, but let down by lapses of concentration on his own serve. 

 

I watched several games of Bedene's first set.  He looked very much in control and very solid.  

Thanks for all the reports, certainly appears rather more encouraging than a few dismissive comments.

Re Oli, I did read that Oli playing the grass court season is against the LTA's ( highly uncustomised ? ) schedule for him. It would be a pity if a 'penalty' is absolutely no LTA support at matches in this period.

Jaffa wrote:

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Customary daft question of the day from me:

Is the doubles qualifying best of 5 sets or 3?

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Hi,

 

All the qualifying is best of 3 sets (even the last round, I think, although someone did tell me that the last round was best of five but I don;t think they're right)

indiana wrote:

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Thanks for all the reports, certainly appears rather more encouraging than a few dismissive comments.

Re Oli, I did read that Oli playing the grass court season is against the LTA's ( highly uncustomised ? ) schedule for him. It would be a pity if a 'penalty' is absolutely no LTA support at matches in this period.

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It is possible that I missed the coach but I didn't see anyone (and did look) which I find very strange - especially for a young-ish player. In fact, of all the ones I saw, only Bedene really had a 'team' with him.

 

Dave and Sean are now warming up.