Looking forward to Kyles next challenge which again is pitched at just the right level if as is likely he gets to play Ilhan, interesting comparison with Kokanikis who had the stamina to see him off in three sets in May given Kyles fade in the semis in Astana against the eventual winner who admittedly beat in Ilhan in three and from the scores they look like long close sets. Hopefully he will be shattered and Kyle well rested. We can then all make spurious extrapolations about Kyles improving stamina. However if he's able to stay injury free and keep this sort of schedule up through the summer and Autumn then perhaps get off to Miami again he would be in the perfect position to attack the top 100 in 2015, on reflection a perfectly planned schedule for 14. This is of course pure speculation but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the sports personality of the year didn't give him some generic advice as to how to plan the first part of this year particular given his early introduction to the Davis cup squad, the amicable switch to Greg from Beechy as coach such pragmatic mentoring hopefully will allow Kyle to be the best player he can be and perhaps a resource for the others making that juniors to senior tour transition. Does anyone know who Beechy is looking after now?

Kyle's opponent will NOT be Mr Ilhan, who must have shown signs of tiredness. Having bagelled his Spanish opponent in the 1st set, he lost the 2nd and eventually went out in a 3rd set breaker.

L16: Kyle Edmund WR 225 v Roberto Ortega Olmedo (ESP) WR 265 (CH 263 last month)

Probably puts a bit of expectation on Kyle but he should be winning these based on past form.

yeah, shame that. Though they are a break up now in the second.

QF:  Brydan Klein & Nikola Mektic (CRO) CR 514 (268+246) defeated Lewis Burton & Marcus Willis CR 462 (234+228) by 7-5 3-6 [10-6]

*****

SF:  (4) Ilija Bozoljac & Goran Tosic (SRB/SRB) vs Brydan Klein & Nikola Mektic (CRO) CR 514 (268+246)

Obviously a memory failure, but I was shocked to see that this is Marcus & Lewis' second only foray into Challengers. All their counters, bar one, are futures. (Klein, on the contrary, has 7 counting challengers in his doubles tally).

I hope that singles is still key (which will limit challengers to some extent i.e. there will have to a be a good mix) but you can't just sit back and keep going for futures - how can you ever learn ? I hope that they'll go for a more mixed, ambitious scheduling in the coming year.

 

NB and re Beefy above, Klein is staying in Spain for a 10k (on hard) which seems a reasonably savvy schedule choice.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Wednesday 30th of July 2014 03:40:08 PM