Week 34 - US Open Men's Qualifying - Hard

indiana · Tennis legend

RE: Week 34 - US Open Men's Qualifying - Hard

goldenboy · Club Coach

philwrig wrote:
I'm with Indy, I have no doubt that Smethy can beat higher ranked players, he did it at Eastbourne, and performed well against Isner. He now has a huge weapon in terms of his fearhand, and I'm sure it is only injury that has held him back since Wimby.

I haven't seen Smethurst play in the flesh so I can't judge him to a great extent, and clearly he's a decent, young prospect, with a number of good tournament performances over the past 12 months. hopefully he can start to impose himself at challengers over the coming months.

That said, he has struggled to beat anyone in the world top 250 - 1 win this year and 1 win last year I think. I do hope that changes - and just the experience of being in the US open qualies may help him - but he has consistently struggled against "challenger level" opponents.

goldenboy · Club Coach

Miriambee wrote:
goldenboy wrote:
looks like Dan C is the only brit playing today. 4th match on, so at a guess around 9-10pm UK time
excuse me correcting you technically the only male brit playing, as Naomi is playing tonight.

not at all you're absolutely right!!

paulisi · Tennis legend

I've seen Smethy many times and his is a good futures player, with a decent forehand if he can get it going. However I don't see him any higher than 200 at the moment.

I'd be quite happy if he managed a qualifying win.

I did post 12 months ago that I couldn't see him progress past 350 and he did(mainly due to fitness and confidence levels)

indiana · Tennis legend

Technically, Ashley Hewitt is also a male Brit playing today, indeed right now :)

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

But not in USO qualifying which is what this discussion was about :)

Miriambee · Futures level

Bedene (17) is playing Yann Marti on court 5 this evening too.

philwrig · Hall of fame

paulisi wrote:
I've seen Smethy many times and his is a good futures player, with a decent forehand if he can get it going. However I don't see him any higher than 200 at the moment.

I'd be quite happy if he managed a qualifying win.

I did post 12 months ago that I couldn't see him progress past 350 and he did(mainly due to fitness and confidence levels)

No doubt Smethy's forehand was to me the big difference this year. He's always been a great competitor but adding that weapon made the big difference.

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

This will be a very interesting USO qualies. It's a shame that Kyle isn't taking part, but I'm not going to question the decision until we see the results from his planned challengers. I would be disappointed if we don't get a qualifier out of the four, particularly James and Evo. But it'll certainly be exciting to watch.

Bright Spark · Lower Club Player

It often seems slam qualifying are very difficult to predict, such as at Wimbledon, where our only winner was Oli, who was playing one of the top seeds and seemed unlikely to win his match