Week 28 - Challenger (€42,500) - Portoroz, Slovenia (Hard)

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

RE: Week 28 - Challenger (€42,500) - Portoroz, Slovenia (Hard)

Jan · Hall of fame

Ah and I arrive just in time to see the match is over!
Well done to both lads today

philwrig · Hall of fame

Now I thought that was a step up from yesterday. The fearhand was on song, and when it is lookout.
I think over the last 18 months he's developed a big snap on the forehand. Remember seeing that at Eastbourne last year for the 1st time.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Much higher standard all round today and that forehand (or should I say "fearhand", Phil) was a really potent weapon. That win will take Kyle back into the top 300 and a win in the QF would put him borderline for a CH ranking.

One match at a time though.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Bob in Spain wrote:
philwrig wrote:
The fearhand looking in very good order.

Have to confess its not my own word invention. Brad Gilbert was the originator.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Excellent win, caught the match from 5-5 in the first.

Kyle must have got to deuce on his opponents serve almost every game. His forehand was excellent and the number of winners was extremely high. Nice to see Kyle occasionally mixing his game up and playing the odd point of serve and volley.

Best I've seen him play consistently.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

L16: Kyle Edmund WR 312 beat Egor Gerasimov (BLR) WR 230 7-5 6-4
L16: Dan Cox WR 224 beat (6) David Guez (FRA) WR 172 6-2 6-0

QF: Kyle Edmund WR 312 v Niels Desein (BEL) WR 234 (CH 164 in Dec 2010)
QF: Dan Cox WR 224 v (2) Gilles Muller (LUX) WR 84 (CH 42 in Mar 2011)

Great to have both in the QFs. Winners of these matches to play each other in the semis. Would be even better to see them face off in the semis but a really tough one for Dan.

Edit

Should add that they will both get a day off tomorrow. And more importantly, so will we.

-- Edited by Bob in Spain on Wednesday 9th of July 2014 06:49:03 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Great to see from Kyle and Dan.

They have both now amassed more than 100 ranking points during this year to date. That makes 7 British men over 100, and Dave Rice will reach 100 if he reaches the final in the Ilkley futures event this week. Last year, after week 28, just 2 British men had reached 100 points, with 9 getting there by year end.

2013 - top 4 YTD points by week 28 :

1 Andy 5160
2 James 151
3 Dan E 96
4 Ed 91

2014 - top 8 YTD points by week 28 :

1 Andy 2435
2 James 200
3 Dan S 158
4 Dan E 154
5 Kyle 105 ( 90 + 15 to date )
6 Alex 103 ( 102 + 1 to date )
7 Dan C 101 ( 86 + 15 to date )
8 Dave 86 ( 85 + 1 to date )

Any errors and omissions - it will be someone else's fault :)

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

Can't see Dan getting past Muller with his big serve, but still a good week for him relative to the draw. A tough QF against a player who is for all intents and purposes the 1st seed. On the other hand, Kyle has a winnable QF and I wouldn't be surprised to see him win. Shame that they couldn't have been on opposite sides of the draw because I've watched some of Muller in the past few days and he seems to be in very strong form. As it stands, if Kyle managed to win his QF, Muller would probably clean sweep the brits on his way to the final.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I am a little more optimistic being in the blissful situation of not having seen Muller play, not even at Wimbledon. His track record suggests he has reached his peak using his heavy serve to clean up challenger fields but can't move on as top 100 players can return it. Kyricos kicked on making a dent in the Wimbledon field after his recent run of challenger wins seeing off muller to get his wildcard at Nottingham. Muller has had an impressive run of challenger wins but has lost to Justin Brown who Kyle beat earlier this year. So optimistic that Dan or Kyle should the later get the chance may see him off. A win for either would be a great scalp and sign of real progress. Great to have a couple of Brits in challenger QF with chances of going further. Hopefully Broady and Golding will be at this level next year with Kyle and the Dans C and S winning trophies and pushing James qualifying for slams. Nothing like a bit of sunshine and a ginger beer shandy to induce such a wave of optimism.... Could get out of hand by September what with global warming.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Indi that's interesting, shows nicely how Andy's ranking has been hammered by injury ie he is at a statistical nadir yet Wimbledon is the first tournement this year tha he has shown some form in. However at 10 he should dodge diokovic Nader and federer until the QF's and assuming he maintains the form shown in the first half of Wimbledon must really fancy his chances against the last two.

How many of the others are on track for end of year targets that would show growth vs hard graft. Really we want to see James and Dan Ev in the top 100 which would mean close to 600 points, Kyle the Dans, Olie Golding, Liam's targeting 250 points in 20-21 tournaments would show the potential to be a top 100 player for the most significant period of their careers between 25-28 with the potential for an Indianna summer into their early 30 s.

Quite predictably None of the top 10 play more than 22-25 tournements, blasting out close to 30 may have some developmental value in your early 20's but beyond that I think has to be taken into consideration as a negative when assessing the true rank and potential of a player.

You can see why so many British athletes play football, tennis is so gladiatorial there is no place to hide on a bad day, you just get beat. Hoping for some more great performances over the next couple of days

EddietheEagle · County player

Rusedski earning his corn (or caviar) at last, travelling with Edmund. Makes a difference.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Kyle first up tomorrow at 11am UK time, followed immediately by Dan.

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

Hoping for at least one SF tomorrow! At least it won't be a long wait to find out. Excited to watch Kyle on the stream and to see if he can maintain his consistency.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Kyle on live stream right now.

new.livestream.com/ATP/Portoroz2014centrecourt

Dan C on straight afterwards.