Week 30 - Challenger ($50,000) - Lexington Challenger, USA (hard)

Jan · Hall of fame

RE: Week 30 - Challenger ($50,000) - Lexington Challenger, USA (hard)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

The story so far:

L32: (LL) Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) WR 248 defeated (1) James Ward WR 106 by 4 & 4 bleh
L32: Zhang Ze (CHN) WR 222 defeated Ed Corrie WR 226 by 2 & 3

L32: Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) WR 235 (CH = 208 last month) vs Brydan Klein WR 170 (= CH) - first match on Court 5 today

L32: (7) Liam Broady WR 160 defeated Saketh Myneni (IND) WR 199 by 2 & 1

One out of three ain't good. cry Now, who was it who mentioned the dreaded word "winnable" when we first saw the main draw? hmm

*****

L16: (7) Liam Broady WR 160 vs (WC) Omar Jasika (AUS) WR 281 (= CH)

indiana · Tennis legend

ling to get motivated for the smaller tournaments.

He's performed in front of big crowds at Wimbledon and DC, but not so good when playing challengers or the lesser ATPs.

If James, a player hovering around the WR 100 mark, couldn't get motivated for "lesser ATPs", a level he has been below through almost his whole career, then that would be very strange. I'd suggest more fundamental tennis issues.

OK, he no doubt gets more motivated for really big occasions, but essentially he simply hasn't been playing very well for some time and didn't actually particularly impress me at Wimbledon or in the France Davis Cup tie.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 29th of July 2015 09:32:38 AM

bigboyjumbo · Lower Club Player

completely agree indianna. I know every player has different ways to express themselves on court but the way Liam gets fired up really impresses me. Whereas for the majority of time James seems quite passive

thejester · Satellite level

James' game is somewhat in disarray at the moment. I think Indy is right though, and it's more of a problem with his tennis than it is with his motivation.
What that problem is I'm not sure, having been unable to catch much of any of his recent matches on the stream. Against Berrer he just looked weaker than his opponent on the day. I thought dropping back down to challenger level would give him a chance to get some wins under his belt but alas, yesterday's result proved me wrong there.
I just hope he can rediscover some form and consistency. He's going to have to try and work his way back up the rankings when all these points drop off, so for now it's about consolidating himself in the top 150, rather than the top 100. Can he do that? We shall see

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

I think many posters are being unduly critical of Dino and over analysing the situation. First of all, congratulations are due to him for achieving a top 90 ranking - nobody will ever be able to take that away from him. He propbably should have taken some time off after Wimbledon, but there was that pesky DC encounter and there is nothing wrong with the desire to defend the points won in Columbia and Lexington, his short term objective being to maintain his place in the top 100. I'm sure he has very good memories of Lexington, and returning to happy hunting grounds is entirely reasonable. He might have a disappointing end to the year, but he will be still the same guy with the same dedication and work ethic. I think he has every chance of dipping back into the top 100, though it may not be for a while.

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Nice and efficient from Liam :)
Disappointed Wardy couldn't get through that one :(

indiana · Tennis legend

stevemcqueen wrote:
I think many posters are being unduly critical of Dino and over analysing the situation. First of all, congratulations are due to him for achieving a top 90 ranking - nobody will ever be able to take that away from him. He propbably should have taken some time off after Wimbledon, but there was that pesky DC encounter and there is nothing wrong with the desire to defend the points won in Columbia and Lexington, his short term objective being to maintain his place in the top 100. I'm sure he has very good memories of Lexington, and returning to happy hunting grounds is entirely reasonable. He might have a disappointing end to the year, but he will be still the same guy with the same dedication and work ethic. I think he has every chance of dipping back into the top 100, though it may not be for a while.

The trouble remains that James keeps travelling to new places week to week, sometimes great distances, and his tennis remains some way below his best level, seemingly relatively in a bit of a rut.

With his aim to break the top 100 realised and a US Open main draw place secured, he could have taken a week or two out to recuperate / reassess / work on his game before the run-in weeks to the US Open and US Open itself, when it would not be so ideal, particularly now in the Catch 22 situation of not winning matches.

Clearly he was always going to at least be part of the Davis Cup set-up and near the time was clearly going to play, so that week was not an option The next two were though rather than what can certainly be considered over short termist defending of weekly points and trying to stay in the top 100.

I doubted his pre Wimbledon schedule, although understood his chasing to be top 100 ( just some thought he could have been more stategic about it, with a big window, while still keeping his game in better shape ). But that achieved, relax a bit mate, chill, and look much more to the medium to longer term, and where you want to be next year, not next week.

Ranking dropping a bit just now with all the points coming off is no huge issue if he gets more on top of his game and that ranking rises up again in the future.

I'd love to see James back playing his best tennis.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 29th of July 2015 11:52:43 AM

savva0122 · Intermediate Club Player

I don't think people are being too criticial of Ward.

His performance over the years shows him to be an average player, with one or two highlights (which happen to be in the Davis cup). Reaching 89 is an overachievement on current form (for which he should be congratulated) but his default position is probably around 200 which would explain his recent losses, rather than a perplexing problem. He lucked out at Wimbledon with Lacko and Vesely and really could and should have put away Pospisil in a poor match. Whilst like everyone I would love to see him playing well and consistently performing, I think the truth he just isn't good enough to be in or around the top 100 consistently.

I agree his schedule is strange; can't see the logic in hauling long distances, or even trying to qualify for Masters etc, just compounds a losing schedule. I've said before he should play some Challys or even Futures to build some consistency/confidence, but the performance at the grass court Challys this year make me think he's really needs to go back to basics.

But every cloud has a silver lining; Kyle's and Liam's performances are really positive and the LTA should really be looking to these guys now to support Andy in the Davis Cup, and the country moving forward.

Best thing for James is let him slip into the background and try to rebuild his game without the glare or publicity he's had. I personally think his issues are largely psychological; there are some tennis issues (that forehand) but I'm not sure he actually knows how to get where he wants to.

I know this board is really positive and supportive of all GB players, so I apologise for the negativity, but the frustration of his poor results has got to me this time.

airsmashers · County player

Brydan is on and is a break up 5-2*

-- Edited by airsmashers on Wednesday 29th of July 2015 02:58:06 PM

-- Edited by airsmashers on Wednesday 29th of July 2015 02:58:49 PM

airsmashers · County player

Brydan takes the 1st set 6-3

philwrig · Hall of fame

Wardy's a man for the big occasion, but the trouble is when you're ranked outside the top 100, you're only going to get them a few times a year.

thejester · Satellite level

On one of the threads last week I defended James in that whatever he's achieved he's done so by merit. Yes, he got lucky at Wimbledon with Ferrer pulling out, and yes he had a good chance to get past Pospisil, but he still won two rounds, and whilst Vesely's performance was underwhelming to say the least, you can only beat what's put in front of you and Vesely was still a top 50 player ranked much higher than James. So on that side of things, nobody CAN take away the fact that he broke into the Top 100, or made the 3rd round at Wimbledon, or beat Isner in an epic 5th set in the DC. I don't think that on a 52-week ranking cycle you can overachieve rankings wise. Most players in the top 100 aside from the genuine contenders have 1 or 2 strong results which stand out amongst a more even spread. James has been inside the top 200 for the last 2 years.

At the moment though, I think the 'negativity' is justified. James' form this year (aside from DC earlier in the year and at Wimbledon) has been a long way short of Top 100, and a long way short of his best. It's a concern for his supporters (on here and elsewhere) but I imagine it's more of a concern for him. He has to rediscover the consistency and level he had during the latter part of last year, or his ranking will inevitably fall further and it will be harder to bounce back and climb up again. I'd like to think that if James was able to make it once, he could make it again, but there's no doubt something has to change. His scheduling is all over the place and, as mentioned above, the long haul flights and first round losses aren't going to help matters. I suspect part of the decision to play in Bogota was the lure of being seeded at an ATP event for the first time, and another part was the $7.5k he picked up even from losing in R32.

Agree with Indy that a couple of weeks R&R and just some time to step back, evaluate and plan what he needs to do moving forward. He has a huge amount of points dropping over the next couple of months, but he has to look at the bigger picture and put some real thought into his scheduling. Scurrying around all over the globe trying to defend ranking points is not the answer (it didn't work out for him earlier this year when he was trying to accrue them), it has to be a better long term plan

I apologise for this post being rather all over the place but I'm just thinking out loud, and like others just want to see James playing his best tennis. His DC heroics over the last few years are well documented and much appreciated, and I enjoyed watching those 2 wins at Wimbledon. However with Liam and (in particular) Kyle coming through strong I'd sacrifice those occasional 'fireworks' wins to see him playing consistently well and with a more even spread of points/results.

indiana · Tennis legend

savva0122
I don't think people are being too criticial of Ward.

His performance over the years shows him to be an average player, with one or two highlights (which happen to be in the Davis cup). Reaching 89 is an overachievement on current form (for which he should be congratulated) but his default position is probably around 200 which would explain his recent losses, rather than a perplexing problem. He lucked out Wimbledon with Lacko and Vesely and really could and should have put away Pospisil in a poor matc. Whilst like everyone I would love to see him playing well and consistently performing, I think the truth he just isn't good enough to be in or around the top 100 consistently.

I agree his schedule is strange; can't see the logic in hauling long distances, or even trying to qualify for Masters etc, just compounds a losing schedule. I've said before he should play some Challys or even Futures to build some consistency/confidence, but the performance at the grass court Challys this year make me think he's really needs to go back to basics.

But every cloud has a silver lining; Kyle's and Liam's performances are really positive and the LTA should really be looking to these guys now to support Andy in the Davis Cup, and the country moving forward.

Best thing for James is let him slip into the background and try to rebuild his game without the glare or publicity he's had. I personally think his issues are largely psychological; there are some tennis issues (that forehand) but I'm not sure he actually knows how to get where he wants to.

I know this board is really positive and supportive of all GB players, so I apologise for the negativity, but the frustration of his poor results has got to me this time.

I have said my reservations about James' current form and scheduling. However I disagree with quite a lot of the above.

James did ultimately "luck out" at Wimbledon for the final step into the top 100. But you know what, over time players get good and bad luck. His consistent form in the second half of last year was generally not "luck", it was a good level of tennis, which took him to the verge of the top 100. Good stuff and although his form has dipped this year he was a bit unlucky not to have slipped into the top 100 earlier.

Yes, reaching WR 89 is greater than his current form, but rankings sensibly are based on a year's results and he deserved to reach a CH based on his last year. One can argue whether he "deserved" to be top 100 and fling stats on results about, but he won the ranking points that put him into the top 100, well done him and a target achieved. I certainly disagreed with and still do with another poster that said he was lucky to have made the top 150.

Many players go through better and worse periods in their careers, and I'm not sure of the worth of supposed "default" positions. Fact is that for a period he played consistently better and markedly raised his ranking above any average / default position.

I do think his game is in a little bit of a relative rut just now ( it happens to many ), and personally I wish he would take a bit of time out and look longer term.

And there is no reason he should not have a decent longer term, having just within the last year played the most consistently good tennis of his career. Slip into the background? Don't agree. Even play futures!? Don't agree. Re Davis Cup I wouldn't really look back or forward, but when the time comes simply ( or maybe not so simply ! ) pick the players most likely to get the WIN. Leon seems to have a good feel for that.

I have expressed my current thoughts and relative frustrations re James, but what he has done so recently he can do again, and he hardly needs put out to grass.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 29th of July 2015 04:06:32 PM

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 29th of July 2015 04:11:20 PM

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Updated results/QF draw:

L32: (LL) Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) WR 248 defeated (1) James Ward WR 106 by 4 & 4 bleh
L32: Zhang Ze (CHN) WR 222 defeated Ed Corrie WR 226 by 2 & 3

L32: Brydan Klein WR 170 defeated Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) WR 235 by 3 & 3

L32: (7) Liam Broady WR 160 defeated Saketh Myneni (IND) WR 199 by 2 & 1

*****

L16: Brydan Klein WR 170 vs (Q) Matija Pecotic (CRO) WR 291 (CH = 288 earlier this month) or (6) Yuki Bhambri (IND) WR 151 (CH = 143 in February last year)

L16: (7) Liam Broady WR 160 vs (WC) Omar Jasika (AUS) WR 281 (= CH)