Week 5 - Challenger (€42,500) - The Scottish Championships, Glasgow (indoor hard)

steven · Tennis legend

Week 5 - Challenger (€42,500) - The Scottish Championships, Glasgow (indoor hard)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Yes, it seems perverse in a way, not to give Cherbourg and/or Quimper a try, especially if you live in the south of England - it's quicker and cheaper to get there from Kent, say, than it is to go to Glasgow. And both on indoor and hard courts.

And Marcus seems to have quite a few mates amongst the French players (and has played club tennis there so obviously feels reasonably at home).

The Quimper week also, I believe, has a 15k going on in France. So the Challenger level may be lower (or indeed, maybe a good idea to sign up for the 15k, hope that's weak, and get the points there instead). If the 15k is on clay, at the other end of the country, it probably won't make that much difference though (not sure).

I seem to remember, though, that his results in France weren't great (although might be getting him confused with Dave Rice, whose results there were awful).

Frankly, I think you can over-think the strategy part of it. Choose your surface, when you're free, a few together that makes traveling make sense, and go for it. Good luck !

steven · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
The Quimper week also, I believe, has a 15k going on in France. So the Challenger level may be lower (or indeed, maybe a good idea to sign up for the 15k, hope that's weak, and get the points there instead). If the 15k is on clay, at the other end of the country, it probably won't make that much difference though (not sure).

The 15K is even closer to the UK - in Lille, on indoor hard. Quimper is the only Challenger on that week (though even Cherbourg is the only Challenger in its week that is not in Asia) but it's Davis Cup week so quite a few Challenger level players may be involved in that in the lower groups, though the French Challenger players won't be, obviously. Cherbourg Challenger then Lille 15K might be a decent strategy, I guess, assuming ranking points are key, but if Marcus reacts better to playing at Challenger level, then Cherbourg followed by Quimper.

freerider · Futures level

A1 tennis academy wrote:
paulisi wrote:
A1 tennis academy wrote:
I did not get a chance to speak to Marcus in detail about schedule but definitely a number of french challengers , and maybe you guys will have a view on the easier challengers to qualify ? What about china easier or as tough as anywhere .
Key going to be achieving a ranking where straight into main draw what's that going to be for most challenger events ?
LTA Reducing player bonus's but more UK challenger events would be a welcomed trend !
The French challengers are Cherbourg and them Quimper on 23/02 and 02/03
The weaker challengers are where people don't want to travel i.e eastern Europe, Australia(distance) and far flung destinations. I'd be tempted to stay away from the far east as there are a lot of under ranked players as the Asia guys don't tend to travel far.
will do those ! How many challengers in Australia I guess they are back to back prior to Aussie open right ?

Hi Gary,

If you follow the below link and click on the "2015 calender (PDF)" link on the right you can download a pdf that shows all tournaments (atp, challenger and futures) arranged by week with the surface in brackets.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tournaments/Challenger-Tour.aspx

hope this helps

paulisi · Tennis legend

In the doubles Dan S and Sean are through.

B&B are in a real scrap with Bambo and Joe and lost the opening tie break.

paulisi · Tennis legend

B&B lost to Joe and Bambo 7-6 6-3

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

R1: (4) Dan Smethurst & Sean Thornley CR 406 (227+179) defeated Jozef Kovalik & Peter Torebko (SVK/GER) CR 1333 (800+533) by 6-7(8) 6-4 [10-6]
R1: (WC) Luke Bambridge & Joe Salisbury CR 678 (294+384) defeated (WC) Lewis Burton & Marcus Willis CR 516 (251+265) by 7-6(1) 6-3 biggrin bleh

*****

QF: Dan Cox & Dave Rice CR 569 (358+211) vs Wesley Koolhoof & Matwé Middelkoop (NED/NED) CR 449 (193+256)
QF: Sergei Bubka & Aleksandr Nevdovyesov (UKR/UZB) CR 440 (276+164) vs (4) Dan Smethurst & Sean Thornley CR 406 (227+179)
QF: (WC) Luke Bambridge & Joe Salisbury CR 678 (294+384) vs Patrick Grigoriu & Costin Paval (ROU/ROU) CR 470 (230+240)

The Romanians took out the Italian ( wink ) second seeds, Ghedin & Grassi, in straight sets.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
The Quimper week also, I believe, has a 15k going on in France. So the Challenger level may be lower (or indeed, maybe a good idea to sign up for the 15k, hope that's weak, and get the points there instead). If the 15k is on clay, at the other end of the country, it probably won't make that much difference though (not sure).

The 15K is even closer to the UK - in Lille, on indoor hard. Quimper is the only Challenger on that week (though even Cherbourg is the only Challenger in its week that is not in Asia) but it's Davis Cup week so quite a few Challenger level players may be involved in that in the lower groups, though the French Challenger players won't be, obviously. Cherbourg Challenger then Lille 15K might be a decent strategy, I guess, assuming ranking points are key, but if Marcus reacts better to playing at Challenger level, then Cherbourg followed by Quimper.

I don't know if there's an official list out but I see that, in the Cherbourg challenger, there's Mahut, PHH, de Schepper and Millot in the MD, with Lokoli and and Michon among the top alts.

emma · Strong Club Player

well done to Dan C and well, tough for Josh :)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

NB Particular good wishes to Marcus tomorrow. If (and big IF but hey) he beats Authom, he gets Guez in the quarters. Never reckoned much to Guez - he's solid enough (and took out the second seed by hanging in there and proving difficult to shift, probably, as is his wont) but really isn't much of a threat. And got his berth in the quarters thanks to the w/o of Lamasine, not through merit.

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Actually, it is tougher and more expensive to get to towns in Brittany and Normandy than you might think. From the UK this time of year you'd probably have to fly or train via Paris. You could drive, but Calais to Quimper is over 700km and the roads aren't great either - could take over 7 hours. More sensible would be the overnight boat from Portsmouth/Poole to Cherbourg, but you'd better hope its not windy!

Anyway, its good to see Marcus having some success!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

What about putting you car on the Calais Dover ferry. That's usually cheap, and quick. Then you've got the drive but Cherbourg is sort of half way between Calais and Quimper. So you've only got the long journey one time; the other way it's split into a 4 hour journey and then another 4 hours one a week later. (Lille is really close to Calais, about 1 hour I think, if you were going for the 15k).

(NB It would all be LOT better if the friggin' French government would allow coaches. Which they don't. (Or only 'international' ones). Having coaches are part of new proposals but, quelle surprise, the train drivers are threatening to strike so the gov will probably back down . . . .).

freerider · Futures level

Coup Droit wrote:
What about putting you car on the Calais Dover ferry. That's usually cheap, and quick. Then you've got the drive but Cherbourg is sort of half way between Calais and Quimper. So you've only got the long journey one time; the other way it's split into a 4 hour journey and then another 4 hours one a week later. (Lille is really close to Calais, about 1 hour I think, if you were going for the 15k).

(NB It would all be LOT better if the friggin' French government would allow coaches. Which they don't. (Or only 'international' ones). Having coaches are part of new proposals but, quelle surprise, the train drivers are threatening to strike so the gov will probably back down . . . .).

Huh, so no national express or megabus type companies in France? That is ridiculous

A1 tennis academy · Satellite level

surprised by B&B doubles result

A1 tennis academy · Satellite level

Thanks