The GB men playing North American Futures this summer get a 15K at last - Liam Broady (one of the top seeds), Ashley Hewitt, Richard Gabb, Josh Milton and Luke Bambridge should all be in the main draw.
QR2: (q3) Scott Clayton WR 1179 v Zubair Virjee (CAN) UNR or Andre Selem de Stefano (BRA) UNR
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Points achievement aside, I think this group will benefit enormously going forward for having sustained this N. American swing and working together. Hunting in packs at overseas tournaments is the way young GB pro players will accelerate their development. This tour is a good sign despite the relatively meagre points results.
Points haul has been a bit skewed by Mitchel Franks visit to a voodoo medicine man prior to the swing who blessed him and cursed Liam in any head to head. Looks like an interesting week of tennis plenty of Brits for us to follow in Calgary. The one downside of hunting in a pack is will by definition limit the potential British points hall in any given week. It would be good to see Richard Gabb have a deep run after his recent challengers.
L32: (Q) Scott Clayton WR 1183 v (Q) Dennis Uspensky (USA) WR 2238 (CH 1519 in 2013)
L32: (6) Ashley Hewitt WR 471 v Daniel Nguyen (USA) WR 480 (CH 418 in 2013)
L32: (3) Liam Broady WR 353 v (Q) Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (USA) WR 1603 (CH 1508 in 2010; junior CH 13 in 2013)
L32: (4) Josh Milton WR 397 v Philip Bester (CAN) WR 602 (CH 229 in 2011)
L32: Luke Bambridge WR 515 v Frederik Nielsen (DEN) WR 652 (CH 190 in 2011)
L32: Richard Gabb WR 474 v (2) Dimitar Kutrovsky (BUL) WR 348 (CH 312 in 2012)
Scott v Uspensky H2H: 1-0 - Scott won 1 & 5 in juniors in Nicosia in 2011
Ashley v Nguyen H2H: 1-0 - Ashley won 7-6(12) 7-6(3) on clay in Buffalo in June (but Nguyen won the title in Godfrey last month)
Richard v Kutrovsky H2H: 0-1 - Kutrovsky won 4 & 1 in Sherbrooke (also in Canada) last year
The winners of the first two matches above (in the top quarter) and the last two matches above (in the bottom quarter) will play each other in R2. Liam is in the 2nd quarter and Ashley in the 3rd.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Brit takeover this week, I wonder what the record is for Brit involvement in an overseas futures tournament ( exc Ireland ).
A quick check of the overseas Futures since the start of 2010 where Brits have picked up 30 points or more (only 9 tournaments, 7 excluding Ireland) gives the following:
6 Brits at Marathon 10K in week 21 last year ((7) Rice WIN, (5) Gabb RU, (1) Baker QF, (2) Goodall QF, Gill R1, (Q) Hutt R1)
5 Brits at Heraklion 10K in week 46 last year and at Danderyd 10K in week 38 in 2011
There may well be Futures that had more than 6 Brits who weren't as successful as the ones at these events, but the above suggests 6 is not unheard of, albeit still a rare event.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!