Week 3 - Australian Open (men's)

LouieG · County player

RE: Week 3 - Australian Open (men's)

LouieG · County player

6-2, 0-6, 3-1*

steven · Tennis legend

Verdasco broke back and the 3rd set went into a tiebreak. James had set point at 6-5*, saved with an ace (I think - there was the odd screen freeze on the stream), and Verdasco eventually edged it 8-6

6-2 0-6 6-7(6)

RJA · Hall of fame

steven wrote:
Verdasco broke back and the 3rd set went into a tiebreak. James had set point at 6-5*, saved with an ace (I think - there was the odd screen freeze on the stream), and Verdasco eventually edged it 8-6

6-2 0-6 6-7(6)

It wasn't an ace but it was good first serve which won him the point.

steven · Tennis legend

Verdasco broke in the first game of the 4th set. James has a break back point in the 8th game but couldn't convert and then got broken for the match

L128: James Ward WR 102 lost to (31) Fernando Verdasco ESP WR 33 (CH 7 in 2009) by 2-6 6-0 7-6(6) 6-3
L128: (Q) Kyle Edmund WR 192 lost to Steve Johnson (USA) WR 39 (CH 37 last Nov) by 6-4 6-4 6-3

-- Edited by steven on Tuesday 20th of January 2015 04:36:08 AM

LouieG · County player

What next for Ward? Could he sign into a challenger week 4 qually?

steven · Tennis legend

He could if he wants to, though I'd be quite surprised if he did.

RJA · Hall of fame

LouieG wrote:
What next for Ward? Could he sign into a challenger week 4 qually?

He could do but had he wanted to play one of those events presumably he would have entered.

I assume that his next event will be qualifying for either Zagreb or Montpellier the week after the Aussie Open.

EDIT: Actually he should make the main draw of one of those events. He is currently 7th alt and 6th alt respectively. In both cases there are 2 SEs that will almost certainly clear and the same people are ahead of him on both lists. Therefore it only needs a few withdrawals and he will be in.

-- Edited by RJA on Tuesday 20th of January 2015 04:58:31 AM

Spectator · All-time great

I'd like to see him play a Challenger or two just to get over the top-100 thing. In current form, he would be highly ranked and one can't think that he wouldn't be able to pick up the requisite points. The difficulty with always playing as the last person in is that you're likely always to be playing against people who are more - or much more -highly ranked.

This looks as if he played really well: good, close match and really encouraging. Definitely a top-100 quality match!

Commiserations to both him and Mr Edmund.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I am sure both James and Kyle are gutted. James' game seemed to hinge on a few turning points and on another day it could have gone the other way. He is so much father on than last year, getting into GS on merit with a reasonable chance of progression.

What a fantastic week for Kyle, I think we were all very happy to see him qualify and given the way he gas developed so far can be optimistic that he is on track to be playing the GS main draws and begin to take sets off top 50 players. As a generalisation the youngsters that are really flying early these days are the really tall guys where there is greater margin of error when introducing the power that comes with maturing from a junior into an adult.

Kyle has weapons and they are becoming increasingly powerful and he is on track regarding delivering them consistently and at the right. I feel in the long term this is more beneficial as there is a natural pressure to practice and focus on the subtleties of the game. The tall big hitters have less pressure to develop these parts of their game and I can see Kyle continuing on his fairly consistent slope of development which may take him past contemporaries who have burst onto the scene a bit earlier.

A good start to 2015 for the three of them, Liam's reform acne last week was also very encouraging! Bring on RG just imagine how much better James will be without Arsenal in the capital cup final. Here's hoping.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Father please forgive me! Arghhhh

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Reform acne is also really really nasty. As is predictive texting!

EddietheEagle · County player

A set and a solid tie break against Verdasco is indicative, among all the other signs, that Ward can put himself in the top-100 and stay there.

Constant · Lower Club Player

Wardy stated to a reporter that after his nans funeral he would probably head to Montpellier

www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jan/20/australian-open-day-two-british-players

Jan · Hall of fame

Really hope James and Kyle can keep progressing up the rankings - I'm sure they will both be disappointed, but all in all it's been a good start to the year for them.