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

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

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

Jan · Hall of fame

cry

theemptyvessel · Club Coach

Such a shame, I really think Liam would have won a deciding set as Jasika was starting to struggle

TMH · Futures qualifying

savva0122 wrote:
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.

Sorry but to attribute Wimbledon entirely to 'lucking out' and dismissing both his wins and his performance against Pospisil does James a massive discredit. Say what you will about the rest of his year, but he did step up at Wimbledon, took advantage of Ferrer's withdrawal and he deserves a lot of credit for his run. Pospisil played far from poorly in the final two sets (and he barely missed a serve in the final one) and then went on to take out Troicki in similar style in the 4th round to make the quarters. Dismissing that as a match he 'should have put away' is incredibly unjust and frankly really takes away from the rest of the point you are trying to make.

-- Edited by TMH on Wednesday 29th of July 2015 09:50:03 PM

Mark1968 · Intermediate Club Player

Ward pulls out of doubles AGAIN!! Ward lets his partner down AGAIN!! Waste of space. Why does anyone bother partnering him?

Broady should have partnered Corrie especially as doubles is the only chance Corrie has of making any money from the game.

thejester · Satellite level

Mark1968 wrote:
Ward pulls out of doubles AGAIN!! Ward lets his partner down AGAIN!! Waste of space. Why does anyone bother partnering him?

Broady should have partnered Corrie especially as doubles is the only chance Corrie has of making any money from the game.

Now Liam is also out of the singles I doubt he'll be too bothered by it in all honesty

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

QF: (4) Carsten Ball (AUS) & Brydan Klein CR 394 (233+161) "defeated" Liam Broady & James Ward UNR by a walkover (Dino's right heel, according to the draw sheet) hmm

Some better news:

R1: (2) Ruben Gonzales (PHI) & Darren Walsh CR 310 (160+150) defeated Bjorn Fratangelo & Nicolás Jarry (USA/CHI) CR 691 (498+193) by 2 & 3

****

QF: John Millman & Ramkumar Ramanathan (AUS/IND) UNR (0+339) vs (2) Ruben Gonzales (PHI) & Darren Walsh CR 310 (160+150)

Spectator · All-time great

That's quite a nice win for Mr Gonzales and Mr Walsh. Jarry, in particular, is a handy doubles player, though both he and Mr Fratangelo are probably better on clay.

In re: Mr Ward - if he's not well (which might also explain his singles), then he should pull out and get some treatment/rest.

bigboyjumbo · Lower Club Player

completely agree re ward. It was a lucky draw at wimbledon regardless of what anyone says.

Jeff Stelling · Club Coach

Plenty of players in the 75 - 150 bracket have one or two big counters that are the result of a fortunate draw. Not sure why it's such a crime for James to benefit in a similar way.

bigboyjumbo · Lower Club Player

its not a crime just people expect him to maintain that ranking when consistently hes not good enough

Jaffa · Challenger level

... Which still had to be taken advantage of.

indiana · Tennis legend

Jeff Stelling wrote:
Plenty of players in the 75 - 150 bracket have one or two big counters that are the result of a fortunate draw. Not sure why it's such a crime for James to benefit in a similar way.

Absolutely agree. As I said, over each year players get good and bad luck and I agree with you re often big counters resulting.

And avoiding Ferrer and, with him pulling out after the OoP was out, then hence any seed in the first two rounds at Wimbledon was good luck.

Jeff Stelling · Club Coach

bigboyjumbo wrote:
its not a crime just people expect him to maintain that ranking when consistently hes not good enough

One would have thought it was a crime to judge from some of the overblown histrionics on here and Twitter

-- Edited by Jeff Stelling on Thursday 30th of July 2015 10:13:25 AM

Spectator · All-time great

Surely after years of waiting for another GB player to get into the top-100, we shouldn't be spending the time after one does accomplish the feat griping in this way (not a response to the post above)! Mr Ward has done well. What comes next is still uncertain. But he has done well - and done great service to the GB team in the process. I vote for bunting and cake, rather than parsing of the nature of his accomplishments. A nice Victoria sponge and some GB flag bunting would do the trick.

This isn't an attempt to say that people shouldn't be analytic re: GB players ... or that the board should only be "positive" in an uncritical way. But it does seem that some of the positives are being ignored at a time when it would be lovely to cherish them.

-- Edited by Spectator on Thursday 30th of July 2015 11:00:14 AM

-- Edited by Spectator on Thursday 30th of July 2015 11:02:44 AM