Big win that for Milts - climbing up the rankings
Ed has taken the first set

Liam and Brydan should be top 300 making that 10.

There is a big fight for that GB no.5 position

 

* - forgot Liam had 18pts coming off this week, so will not be top 300 yet, but a final or win will put him close and will have no points to defend until end of October

-- Edited by paulisi on Thursday 11th of September 2014 03:54:41 PM

Further evidence that Liam is a man on a mission at the moment. Big win for Josh as well. Looks like a very competitive last 4, all to play for.

Liam is really starting to string together a great season. Lots of points to defend here, but he is climbing his way up to a challenger level and should be looking to start the step up next season.

Arguably the real surprise of the day:

SF:  (3) Luke Bambridge & Liam Broady CR 594 (280+314) defeated (2) Lewis Burton & Marcus Willis CR 454 (226+228) by 5-7 6-3 [10-4]

*****

Final:  (1) Ed Corrie & Dave Rice CR 369 (162+207) vs (3) Luke Bambridge & Liam Broady CR 594 (280+314)

Luke and Liam's record in doubles in pretty outstanding this year, so no surprise to me. Both are great around the net. However I don't expect the partnership to continue too much as Liam will be playing singles challengers, whereas Bambo is not quite at that level yet.

Ed and Dave should be another top pair and i'd expect them to team up more often assuming they play the same comps.

Not surprised by either result really. Some good teams coming up - if we had Messrs Corrie and Rice, Smethurst and Cox, Willis and Burton, and Bambridge and Broady playing together on a regular basis, we'd have quite a nice "second generation" of doubles teams. And that's before you consider the potential of Mr Klein and Mr Ward-Hibbert and the like.

Good to hear that Mr Broady will be trying some challengers. An interesting question as to what Mr Bambridge does. He has played well in some higher-level singles matches ... and from a doubles point of view, he could actually probably gain direct entry - with an equal or higher partner - to lower-level challengers in doubles. At this point, he can't gain additional points in doubles from a 10 K unless he makes the final: eight wins and (after this week) seven finals don't leave much scope for improvement. Might it be worth his trying some Challenger qualies in singles and Challengers in doubles?

I am not sure who Dave's ongoing most regular partner will be, because I thought Corrie / Smethurst was a much more established partnership, which I imagined continuing where circumstances allow.

It is good to have the "second generation" doubles players when the "first generation" are for now relatively faltering in comparison to their consistency of the last two or three years. Challengers though are the true testing and development ground for any seriously aspiring doubles pair ( futures doubles having relatively few real tests ), I'd say almost more so than singles ( though singles should remain most of these players' main priority for now ), so all the better if one or both of a pair is able to compete at challenger singles level.

Then of course there are decisions to be made if one player, like Luke now and Sean in the past, is a way short of challenger singles level. Concentrating too much on doubles too early and staying with the better singles player, with say challenger singles qualies becoming a sort of add in, may not be the way to go. Thus yes, I can see Liam and Luke often having to go their separate ways.