I'm very glad I didn't write what I was going to write last night after posting the draw...

"Is anyone realistically looking past Dan Evans on current form for this title?"

...well played that man.

I have no idea who Jonathan Binding is so I did a bit of research. He's 22, has never made a Main Draw in a seniors event, has only entered ONE Futures in the past two years, losing out in the FQR in Preston this February, and made a career high of 1186 as a Junior... although he's ranked 53th in the LTA Combined Rankings and one AEGON British Tour victory in Hull as the 2nd seed earlier this year...

So all-in-all a damn good result for the youngster against a man in top form.

Great result for Mr Binding, well done he. I do think it fair to suspect that after the Lord Mayor's Show Evo was some considerable way off his top form

Hope he brought along his Davis Cup trophy for folk to see.

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 5th of December 2015 02:04:24 PM

Bloomer's 'old' bones will be feeling a bit creaky, I guess, tonight...

In the semis, Bloomers def. Binding, 6-7(4) 6-3 7-6(1), and

Josh W-H defeated Marcus Willis, 5-7 6-0 6-2

 

(NB and that obviously was Bloomer's second match today, as it was for Josh too, but he's a spring chicken )

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Saturday 5th of December 2015 05:24:54 PM

Well done, Josh.

That's decent cash

And same goes for Bloomers - great show.

Nice article here about Binding's win over Evo from the University of Durham's student paper, where it appears Binding studies.

www.palatinate.org.uk/durhams-jonny-binding-beats-gb-davis-cup-team-member-dan-evans/

PS I know that Matt Chadwick is a good uni player (and only lost to Marcus in three sets).

But anyone know who the other uni player is (who lost in the first round)?

lta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draw.aspx


PPS For all Tiran fans (!), Bloomers made the final - but only managed to scrape past young Tiran 7-6(4) in the first round in a third set tie-break

I don't know if this has been discussed elsewhere previously at all but I notice the LTA have slashed prize money on the British Tour again.
In 2016 a Tier 1 winner receives only £600 but worse still a Tier 2 winner receives only £200. With a minimum three nights in a hotel plus travelling expenses and food, the winner of a Tier 2 cannot even break even. Words fail me! It's no wonder Andy Murray says what he does about the LTA. With other funding cuts that have taken place over the last year (some justified) it's just become that little bit harder for the youngsters again.
Congratulations to the LTA for making life even more difficult.