Nice tweet by Liam after his win!

"That win & my new career high are for my Grandad who would have been 84 3days ago. #OnlyAFutures #BestIGotAtTheMo #NotLostIndoorsFor3Months"

Well done Liam. Glad to see some success for the guy.

I had my reservations about some of Liam's results on this trip, given that (if I remember rightly) there have been a couple of disappointing defeats and a few of the wins have been against opposition with a 4 digit ranking. However this has been a great way to finish it off and I hope (as I'm sure we all do) that he can carry this success on at challenger level, and who knows eventually perhaps even beyond that.

Doubts have been raised on the forum, not without justification, about his ability to eventually reach the higher echelons in the game, but I guess you never know how much the family discord with his dad has affected him in the past year. Here's hoping he can carry on this week's good form and rest up sufficiently for the GB futures events to have a good run there!

Well done Liam.

You have to applaud Liam on a great summer of graft and what a fabulous way to finish it off.

Back to back tournament play tends to involve a group of players in a bubble and to clean up you have to be dominating the whole field. Summer futures in the US will obviously expose you to the top ranked collegiate players coming out as juniors and seniors, so actually this time of year I feel it is stiffer than general ITF play.

This does muck up the seedlings as a number of the better players have rankings based on a few ITFs they played before college yet have spent a couple of years playing full time tennis which at its apex is probably equivalent.

I feel a lot of the criticism he has received has Ben down to expectation related to is high seeding relative to some under ranked players notably Mitchel Franks, and some early round losses relative to seeding. US Open week levels that playing field and Liam has cleaned up.

I hope he has enjoyed it in the US and would like to see him back at the turn of the year for the Florida based futures followed by a run through Spain particularly Murcia and Cartagena and then challengers. This is a perfectly designed schedule bespoke to his needs and my ability to watch.

indiana wrote:

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Tremendous, great week for Liam at the end of a long trip. Very encouraging. Congratulations !

By the way, I think that Liam ( like other players ) generally gets fair comment here, based on his results.

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 I probably over reacted a bit, and I agree the vast majority of posters are fair all of the time. Just feel there a few who sometimes are a bit on the negative side when a player produces a bad result, also the players do read this forum and it can be a kick in the teeth when you read a negative appraisal when you haven't actually been there to witness the match.