Week 30 - Challenger ($50,000) - Lexington, KY, USA (Hard)

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

RE: Week 30 - Challenger ($50,000) - Lexington, KY, USA (Hard)

indiana · Tennis legend

Very good looking win by Richard. Even allowing for the fact that some extremely good eligible juniors have largely moved on, I imagine that as JWR 2, Kozlov is hugely underranked in the senior rankings.

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

Kozlov had a fantastic junior Wimby, it wouldn't have been fair for him to beat Richard and qualify for a 50k challenger. smile

Spectator · All-time great

Sarmiento is another top university player - would guess he's fairly seriously underranked. Feel for Kozlov - must be so frustrating to watch the player against whom you had a winning record until this year reaching the semis of an ATP 500 when you are losing in the qualies of a 50K Challenger. But then Nadal was winning Grand Slams at a way earlier age than Federer ... and Federer didn't do badly in the end! (And no, not saying that I necessarily think that junior success translates into senior success or that Kozlov's style will necessarily make him a senior success ... but simply that players transition at different speeds).

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

BeefyDeedz wrote:
Kozlov had a fantastic junior Wimby, it wouldn't have been fair for him to beat Richard and qualify for a 50k challenger.

Exactly smile smile smile

Watching the Dan C/Dan S doubles final yesterday, the commentator (Mike ?) said he'd been talking to Dan Cox about the two Dans and about the good young group out of the UK in general and dan Cox had told him not to forget Richard Gabb who was defintitely on his way up and should be included in their group. Mike mentioned Richard's exploits that week and that he was now down at Lexington.

I thought it was nice of Dan to give Gabb a plug - doesn't really make any difference but it's nice all the same.

However, maybe Cox knows a thing or two . . . ?? smile

RJA · Hall of fame

Great stuff from Richard here. Some of our supposedly more talented youngsters could learn a thing or three from him.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Two of the Dans in the doubles, but not quite the pairing you'd expect! confuse

R1: (WC) Mark Ein & Jesse Witten (USA/USA) UNR (*) vs Dan Evans & Dan Smethurst CR 1491 (1325+166 [+25 places in today's rankings smile ])

No combined ranking for the Yank wild cards, but a combined age of 80 (49+31)! disbelief

Dan Cox shot up no fewer than 250 places in today's rankings to 408. biggrin Wonder why he's not playing in the doubles here.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Is it maybe possible that, given the ice packs I'd mentioned, Dan Cox thought singles and doubles, again, was asking a bit too much ? (Mind you, Dan S had ice packs too but he'd only played one singles match, quite a few days ago, so maybe not quite so acute . .. )

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

It is also possible that Dan S and Dan E had planned this some time ago and that Dan S didn't want to go back on a promise. Perhaps the Dan S/Dan C partnership was just a last minute thing last week.

Too many Dan's for my liking.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Bob in Spain wrote:
It is also possible that Dan S and Dan E had planned this some time ago and that Dan S didn't want to go back on a promise. Perhaps the Dan S/Dan C partnership was just a last minute thing last week.

Too many Dan's for my liking.

ain't that the truth . . disbelief

truly over-danned . . .

RJA · Hall of fame

Coup Droit wrote:
Is it maybe possible that, given the ice packs I'd mentioned, Dan Cox thought singles and doubles, again, was asking a bit too much ? (Mind you, Dan S had ice packs too but he'd only played one singles match, quite a few days ago, so maybe not quite so acute . .. )

Coxy has had injury problems in the past so I would think he would be cautious about over playing and after 7 matches in singles and doubles last week he might well have thought that giving doubles a miss this week would be for the best.

Jaffa · Challenger level

I wouldn't get too hung up on the ice pack thing, CD. It's standard issue stuff for warming down after a match. I know I do it!

philwrig · Hall of fame

Kozlov still looks like a kid with no weapons which doesn't translate well into the senior game(mentioned this on another thread). Still a fine win for Gabby.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

philwrig wrote:
Kozlov still looks like a kid with no weapons which doesn't translate well into the senior game(mentioned this on another thread). Still a fine win for Gabby.

he did only turn 16 earlier this year! Think i'll reserve judgement until he's filled out a little..

Spectator · All-time great

Just out of curiosity, I went back and looked ... and found that Dan Evans had done very nicely in doubles in juniors with Dan Smethurst, Dan Cox, and - most frequently - David Rice. Always thought that his gifts would lend themselves to doubles - combination with Dan Smethurst could be a really nice one for both. Then again, the play of the Cox/Smethurst team was just great to watch. Really do hope that those two pair up again.