Hey GBJ, Eastern Bull made me laugh out loud and that is a rare thing when I'm alone in my office!  

I would be interested to learn the true reasons that Dan gave for his withdrawal.   Obviously you can't withdraw from a tournament at the last second without very good reason, and quite rightly there are sanctions if you do. Why could he not have said "DC call up"? 

I'm looking forward to watching, should be properly exciting!

GBJ wrote:

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Yeah, 70 points Evo could get for each win would look very nice on his points total right now. Am I right in thinking that Sunday is always 1v1 before the no. 2s play? In some ways it's a shame that the lower ranked players best chance of a win comes From the rubber that is often no longer live (therefore no points I believe) given that the no.1s rarely need the ranking points. Though I guess that a team like ours is a bit more extreme an example of this than many. Chance of 140 points (he has about 180 currently I think) would be very nice (though I'm sure not anyone's main concern) but is very unlikely Evo will get a chance to win a second 70 points. Can't wait to see how he does today!

How much of a factor might wanting to limit the time Aussies had to prepare for facing Evo have been in decisions made?

Is 'personal reasons' at all likely to be why Evo really withdrew from Istanbul (or Eastern Bull as an illiterate friend wonderfully calls it)? Does he face much penalty for withdrawing?

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I think this is correct.  The theory is that people want to see the 2 best players on each team playing each other.  If you leave this until the last match, this increases the chance of this being played as a "dead rubber" or even not played at all.  Of course there is still the chance the the match is over before the Sunday anyway.

There must a fair few players that get called up late for DC due to last-minute injuries and have to withdraw from challengers, can't imagine they all get punished for it?

Just caught up on everything.

I've been on the ship a couple sea days now and last I heard was that Evo had withdrawn from Turkey, citing these personal reasons, and that he was in Glasgow as a hitting partner. I didn't expect much else to be honest, given that as far as I were aware, Kyle was the most likely to play in the GB number two slot. Knowing about his injury now means that, regardless of all this talk about who was picked and originally sent to Glasgow, I do believe Evo, on current form, is the correct second pick.

I do like Wardy as a player, but just like in any other sport, I firmly believe form trumps rankings/reputation too often. It's like this constant selection of Wayne Rooney for England - at first I was of the opinion that we should give him a chance after his form deteriorated, but you can't help think if he's the right man to lead the England line when he's arguably performed better in midfield. In that case, there doesn't look to be anyone better to fill in right now.

On current form, I'd be inclined to have picked even Brydan over Wardy, given a couple of his recent scalps. But Evo has the pedigree and has made a great case to represent GB since I saw him capitulate in Ilkley at the start of the summer. His form has been nothing short of phenomenal (given how outranked he has been at times) and I do fancy him to take one of the Singles matches. Potentially against Tomic to take it to 2-0.

Regardless of who's playing, I'm 100% behind our boys. And if he plays in the final, Evo could be back within his CH by the end of the year...

emma wrote:

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Leon is such a decisive decision maker - such a good quality to have in a captain.

really looking forward to the tennis and especially watching evo :)

what an opportunity to go further.

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Couldn't agree more. Leon is not afraid to make a change, or a big call. He picks the team based solely on who he thinks will get the results - something I'm pretty sure other DC captains don't do.

Should be good fun to watch, and yes what an opportunity - if we could somehow get 2 points on the board today we can start to dream

 

thejester wrote:

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Just on a small pedantic note, I think it was mentioned way back on here that Evo (and Kyle, had he played) would get 65 points rather than 70 having not played in the previous round against France

As you say GBJ, I doubt that's anyone's major concern right now, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought exactly the same thing. 1 win today for Dan would be better than making a 100k challenger final

All in all I'm pretty pumped for today now. Would love to see Evo spring a surprise but not going to lose my head if he doesn't. Come on GB!!

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 I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it doesn't look like Evo is eligible for points this weekend due to his withdrawal from the Istanbul challenger.