The ITF site lists over 150 'withdrawals' from this event, including a number of our own players, and as you say paulisi, the draw looks very weak as a result
Hopefully another good opportunity for some of our boys to pick up some decent points this week, I wonder whether Evo will still be fresh enough after his exploits the last 2 weeks to go deep here as well. He'll certainly be seeded but not sure at what number.
Crazy that Marcus not playing with his serve on carpet but would not be surprised if favoured county week for some compensation from his county Berkshire around £200
R1: Sam Bothwell & Robert Dudley (IRL/IRL) UNR vs Sizya Ernest Kivanda & Aneil Persad UNR
R1: (3) Julian Cash & Bradley Mousley (AUS) CR 2087 (1366+721) vs Cristian Carli & Aaron Cortés (ITA/ESP) UNR R1: Coilin MacNamara & Osgar O'Hoisin (IRL/IRL) UNR vs David Parry & Andrew Ponder UNR
R1: Charles Broom & Nicolas Rosenzweig (FRA) UNR vs Miguel Romanello & André Romanello (ITA/BRA) UNR R1: Peter Bothwell (IRL) & Lloyd Glasspool UNR vs (4) Joe Cooper & Michael-Ray Pallares (DOM) CR 2915 (1241+1674 - combined age 63 [29+34]!)
L32: Jamie Whiteford WR 1876 (CH = 1471 in July 2011) vs (8) Bradley Mousley (AUS) WR 951 (CH = 949 last week)
L32: Peter Kobelt (USA) WR 524 (CH = 459 in May) vs Lloyd Glasspool UNR (but a CH of 1075 in August 2013) L32: Aaron Cortés (ESP) WR 1023 (= CH) vs (WC) Charles Broom UNR
L32: Peter Bothwell (IRL) WR 1158 (+ CH) vs Bruce Strachan WR 1230 (CH = 1154 in October last year) L32: Adam Skalsky WR 1318 (CH = 1297 in November last year) vs (5) Mick Lescure (FRA) WR 652 (CH = 544 last month)
L32: (7) Tom Farquharson WR 630 (CH = 429 in March last year) vs (WC) Sam Bothwell (IRL) UNR
L32: (Q) Sizya Ernest Kivanda UNR vs (Q) Michael-Ray Pallares (DOM) UNR L32: (WC) Simon Carr (IRL) UNR vs (4) Dan Smethurst WR 473 (CH = 159 in July last year)
L32: (6) Dan Evans WR 491 (CH = 123 in February last year) vs (WC) Osgar O'Hoisin (IRL) UNR L32: Alex Jhun WR 1156 (= CH) vs (Q) Mark Oljaca (USA) UNR
L32: Julian Cash UNR vs Cristian Carli (ITA) WR 972 (CH = 962 last month) L32: (Q) Howard Scott UNR vs (2) Sam Barry (IRL) WR 419 (CH = 286 in September last year)
He's played a packet of tournaments, practically all the UK ones, and several foreign ones (and thanks to Sweden for the livestreaming last year), and barely got out of qualies.
So it's true this was a weakish 15k, and he drew a fellow qualifier, but still had to win it !