A131 wrote:

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Not surprised Liam lost and Gonzales has beaten a couple of decent players this year (Fognini & Cuevas). But I've not actually seen him play since he lost the junior final to Luke Saville at Wimbledon a few years back. How has his game progressed since then? Is he top 50 material - top 20 even?

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I am sorry to say this but you can completely discount what you saw of Liam as junior. His game has been completely remodelled, he is nice and solid but there is no longer anything about it that excites me. He might fashion a half decent career for himself, by which I mean make a living from playing tennis, but I don't see any chance of him being Top 50.

philwrig wrote:

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RJA wrote:

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A131 wrote:

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Not surprised Liam lost and Gonzales has beaten a couple of decent players this year (Fognini & Cuevas). But I've not actually seen him play since he lost the junior final to Luke Saville at Wimbledon a few years back. How has his game progressed since then? Is he top 50 material - top 20 even?

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I am sorry to say this but you can completely discount what you saw of Liam as junior. His game has been completely remodelled, he is nice and solid but there is no longer anything about it that excites me. He might fashion a half decent career for himself, by which I mean make a living from playing tennis, but I don't see any chance of him being Top 50.

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 I think that's a bit harsh, you don't have to hit winners from all parts of the court to be a very good tennis player. I would say one of his biggest strengths is his athleticism, and his abiliity to take the ball early, thus giving his opponents less time. I agree he has remodelled his forehand and his serve, but is a more consistent player now. I firmly believe Liam has top 50 potential, and is a dead cert to be a solid top 100 player in time. It wasn't a long time ago RJA that you thought that Liam would struggle to make any impact at Challenger level, but he's clearly comfortable at this level now, and by the end of the year I expect him to be winning regularly at this level.

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 Thanks fellas - didn't realise he had remodelled his game which seems a bit strange if it was good enough to get him to 2 junior slam finals but there must have been a reason. Results wise - not had too good a year and Dustov remains the only player he has beaten that was ranked above him. Be interesting to see what does transpire.

philwrig wrote:

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RJA wrote:

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A131 wrote:

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Not surprised Liam lost and Gonzales has beaten a couple of decent players this year (Fognini & Cuevas). But I've not actually seen him play since he lost the junior final to Luke Saville at Wimbledon a few years back. How has his game progressed since then? Is he top 50 material - top 20 even?

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I am sorry to say this but you can completely discount what you saw of Liam as junior. His game has been completely remodelled, he is nice and solid but there is no longer anything about it that excites me. He might fashion a half decent career for himself, by which I mean make a living from playing tennis, but I don't see any chance of him being Top 50.

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 I think that's a bit harsh, you don't have to hit winners from all parts of the court to be a very good tennis player. I would say one of his biggest strengths is his athleticism, and his abiliity to take the ball early, thus giving his opponents less time. I agree he has remodelled his forehand and his serve, but is a more consistent player now. I firmly believe Liam has top 50 potential, and is a dead cert to be a solid top 100 player in time. It wasn't a long time ago RJA that you thought that Liam would struggle to make any impact at Challenger level, but he's clearly comfortable at this level now, and by the end of the year I expect him to be winning regularly at this level.

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I don't care whether it is harsh, it is my honest assessment. Someone asked for opinions about Liam and I gave mine.

I don't recall ever saying that "Liam would struggle to make any impact at Challenger level", certainly not in a definitive manner anyway. I would also question the assertion that he is now comfortable at this level when he has lost 6 of his last 8 challenger matches and his two wins came against Grills (WR 693) and Delic who is in quite simply atrocious form. As I said I think he might have a decent career, maybe top 100, but when I look at his game there is nothing about it that suggests to me that he is top 50 material.

RJA wrote:

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philwrig wrote:

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RJA wrote:

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A131 wrote:

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Not surprised Liam lost and Gonzales has beaten a couple of decent players this year (Fognini & Cuevas). But I've not actually seen him play since he lost the junior final to Luke Saville at Wimbledon a few years back. How has his game progressed since then? Is he top 50 material - top 20 even?

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I am sorry to say this but you can completely discount what you saw of Liam as junior. His game has been completely remodelled, he is nice and solid but there is no longer anything about it that excites me. He might fashion a half decent career for himself, by which I mean make a living from playing tennis, but I don't see any chance of him being Top 50.

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 I think that's a bit harsh, you don't have to hit winners from all parts of the court to be a very good tennis player. I would say one of his biggest strengths is his athleticism, and his abiliity to take the ball early, thus giving his opponents less time. I agree he has remodelled his forehand and his serve, but is a more consistent player now. I firmly believe Liam has top 50 potential, and is a dead cert to be a solid top 100 player in time. It wasn't a long time ago RJA that you thought that Liam would struggle to make any impact at Challenger level, but he's clearly comfortable at this level now, and by the end of the year I expect him to be winning regularly at this level.

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I don't care whether it is harsh, it is my honest assessment. Someone asked for opinions about Liam and I gave mine.

I don't recall ever saying that "Liam would struggle to make any impact at Challenger level", certainly not in a definitive manner anyway. I would also question the assertion that he is now comfortable at this level when he has lost 6 of his last 8 challenger matches and his two wins came against Grills (WR 693) and Delic who is in quite simply atrocious form. As I said I think he might have a decent career, maybe top 100, but when I look at his game there is nothing about it that suggests to me that he is top 50 material.

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 Even in the matches he's lost this year he has been competitive, should have beaten the young whiz kid from Oz Kokkinakis, played a decent qualifying tournament at the Oz open. And of course his record at the end of last year looked like he was very comfortable. He told me he felt fine with the move from futures to Challenger tennis.

Note - I wasn't being pedantic in saying that I thought Liam was far from a dead cert to become a solid top 100 player in time. In fact I specifically put "far from" to indicate that I wan't meaning the odd percentage point.

Anyway, again hope he does achieve this, I was just indicating that personally I think that there is a fair chance he won't.

I'll hold up my hand in saying that Liam's progress in the second half of last year surprised me after I was very unconvinced regarding his summer futures campaign in the US. Very pleasantly surprised - great progress.

But these are my thoughts re top 100. Top 50 at all? I'd say more likely no rather than yes.

They were also briefly up a mini break in the TB, still it was a tough draw. Fingers crossed for something better in the upcoming tournaments.