QR1: Jamie Delgado & Gilles Müller (LUX) CR 381 (218+163) vs (q2) Frank Moser & Alexander Satschko (GER/GER) CR 111 (125+86)
They've just dropped the first set by 4-6. Were they to qualify, they would face the third seeds, Granollers & (Marc) López, in the first round of the main draw...
The q2s not having it all their own way: J & G take the second set by 7-5 to redress the balance.
FQR: Pierre-Hugues Herbert & Michal Przysiezny (FRA/POL) UNR vs Jamie Delgado & Gilles Müller (LUX) CR 381 (218+163)
Potentially winnable, methinks. That said, the Franco-Polish combination, although technically unranked (because MP currently has no doubles ranking, while PHH is WR 137), did for the q1s, Golubev & Istomin (CR 162), in three in their QR1...
James won the 1st game to love and then just seemed to go to pieces. I had a feeling he might have sustained an injury in the match, but only guessing.
I hope this doesn't derail his run towards the top 100 - I seem to remember him getting hit by a late summer injury the last time he seemed to be on his way.
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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!
In general, I like the points system, even if most people would have their preferred tweeks and challenger qualifying does seem to be an issue ( though can vary from very hard to a relative dawdle ).
Of course, you will have anomalies in how easily or otherwise points are won. That really is pretty inevitable unless you go down the road of awarding points on the basis of the opponents players win and lose to, a sort of Akhenaten ( poster on here who had such a basis ) system. Now that is interesting and revealing, but I would imagine most of us would hate it as a true ranking system with the lack of clarity.
The general ATP points system is very clear, even further improved for marketing and clarity when they moved to ATP 250, 500 and 1000s ( if yes I know there are further anomalies such as Queens while it was an ATP 250 ). It is clear for the fans who like to follow rankings and it is clear to the players, who are free to make their own choices as to what tournaments they enter ( and often the "unlucky" is more poor scheduling, certainly if they were looking for ranking points ) Challengers and futures, while not having such memorable points systems are still clear and as I say players can make their choices, and some seem to make better choices than others.
Could the points system be improved ? - probably yes, although different folk will have different ideas. Is it ludicrous ? - certainly not IMO.
It essentially does what it's there for and ultimately players find their level.