Oh no, Cervantes breaks to love.

5-6*

C'mon Liam, dig !

Darn, so close, seemed to hang in very well until that penultimate game.

Bob in Spain wrote:

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Rustie wrote:

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Just me or does Liam lose (and he hasn't yet) a lot of close matches?

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I was about to post something similar but wasn't sure.  But from memory, recently at least, Liam seems to have pushed some good players very close and not quite got over the line.  I am still confident Liam will push on again before too long.  The path to the top is never a straight line.

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As somebody posted on here the other day, he's only 21. There's plenty of time for him to iron out some deficiencies in his game but he does seem to get tight in the big moments. 

He was broken to love in that penultimate match today and I think he lost in a tie break to Jasika the other week after fighting back from nowhere.

Hopefully it's just a concentration thing.

So close unlucky. Careful now spectator but I agree, this time last year he was eking out ITF semis, but progressed really well through the Autumn. So over the last 6 months expectations have risen enormously.

He has had to sustain his performance at the next tier and for the most part in terms of quality of performance done that, this hasn't really been reflected in points and wins. He doesn't really have a major weapon so is going to have to rely on summation of marginal gains to establish himself in and around the top 100, as you quite rightly point out he is right up there in terms of his peer group, unfortunately the next couple of cohorts have some very strong players who may come flying by

I don't worry too much about absolute ranking as long as he can stay at a level that will allow him to develop, admittedly he's got some work to do over the Autumn but he looks fully motivated and I am optimistic that he will establish himself in the top 100 over the next 2 years hopefully giving him the opportunity to create a few headlines during the peak years of his career. Brydan is looking close to doing the same, Bendene is already there, Evo on the come back, and Kyle (my expectations are top 50 in the same time period). Should be some good stuff to watch.

If he doesn't develop major weapons, he won't break through.

Jaffa wrote:

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Just like David Ferrer, Gilles Simon, etc etc

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Yes, exactly.

 

Although I suppose you could say that fitness and tenacity are their 'major weapons'.....

 

But, I agree, there are many ways to do it, especially if you're looking round the 50 mark, for instance, rather than the top 20.

Bedene doesn't have any 'major weapons' - nor off-the-scale fitness or tenacity. Yet he's doing very nicely - some players' games are worth far more than the sum of the parts.

Jaffa wrote:

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Just like David Ferrer, Gilles Simon, etc etc

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As examples go, I'd give that C minus. And who is etc etc?