QF:  (WC/1) Dan Evans WR 333 defeated (6) Richard Gabb WR 557 by 3 & 3
QF:  (4) Mate Pavic (CRO) WR 541 defeated (5) Dave Rice by 6-4 0-6 6-3
QF:  Neil Pauffley WR 954 defeated (7) Josh Ward-Hibbert WR 650 by 6-2 7-6(7)   

Neil was broken twice while serving for the match & was match points down in the tie-break, but got there in the end!

QF:  (2) Dan Cox WR 335 defeated Joe Salisbury WR 737 by 3 & 5

****

SF:  (WC/1) Dan Evans WR 333 vs (4) Mate Pavic (CRO) WR 541
SF:  Neil Pauffley WR 954 vs (2) Dan Cox WR 335

SF:  (3) Dan Cox & David Rice CR 1019 (792+227) defeated (2) Luke Bambridge & Richard Gabb CR 630 (336+294) by 3-6 6-3 [10-5]

^^ I also predict that

SF:  (4) Lloyd Glasspool & Josh Ward-Hibbert CR 1741 (1054+687) defeated (1) David O'Hare (IRL) & Joe Salisbury CR 547 (243+304) by 4 & 2   

A bit of a turn-up for the books!

*****

Final:  (4) Lloyd Glasspool & Josh Ward-Hibbert CR 1741 (1054+687) vs (3) Dan Cox & David Rice CR 1019 (792+227)

That second set was a bit close for my liking! So happy playing well has turned in to results this week. Wasn't expecting to be watching tennis again this weekend!

I was at Nottingham on Wednesday and again today.

Evo looks very focussed this week. His 6-1, 6-0 win in the first round was a fair reflection of the match. Gray was utterly out of his depth and after finding himself 0-2* down after not doing much wrong any belief he had seemed to evaporate. Gabb gave Evo a better test today, as one would expect from him he worked hard and put a lot of balls back in court and played his fair share of good points. Despite that the result never really looked in doubt as Evo had a couple of extra levels. As always with Evo things weren't dull. He had a massive row with the both the umpire and the referee early in the second set. The issue was that a chair on the court blew over during a point which Evo lost and he thought that this should have been called a let (Gabb said that he thought it should be a let but that it was a matter for the umpire). That caused a delay in play of around 5 minutes and was then followed by a couple of really poor call against Evo resulting in further tirades against the umpire.

I would expect Evo to win quite easily tomorrow. Pavic should have lost in R1 to Marcus Walters who led 5-2* in the deciding set. Walters had played well and looked easily the better player in the final set but played a stinker of a game trying to serve it out. He probably should won despite that. At 5-4* he got to 0-30 and then had a second serve to look at but tried to do too much a put his return wide. In the tie break he fought his way back from *0-4 to 4-5* and had a look at a second serve and again tried to hit a huge return and missed. Pavic was also unimpressive today against Rice. They both played some good points and games but both of them also played a lot of bad points and games. There really wasn't a lot between them and neither were playing anywhere near the level that Evo was on the adjacent court.

Neil was definitely good money for his win today although he made hard work of serving out the first set and was broken when serving for the second. Josh didn't seem to have much rhythm on serve, when he landed the first serve it was mostly effective but he struggled to make enough first serves and double faulted at some very bad times. Josh's overall game just isn't good enough if he isn't serving well and Neil always looked the much better player in rallies although the forehand was inconsistent. Chances are he will have to up his game further if he is to beat Cox who has looked his usual unspectacular but solid self this week.

I wouldn't read too much into Michael Shaw's heavy defeat against Mark Whitehouse in R1. Shaw had a medical time out after a few games and looked to be in a fair amount of discomfort. He carried on but his movement was clearly impeded. Mason Recci showed glimpses of being a decent player and probably deserved more than 5 games against Scott Clayton. He was probably hindered by his own coach whose witless and dull attempts to gee up his own player consisted of saying things like "be solid", "don't miss" and "be tough to beat" between almost every point and seemingly irritated Recci more that it enthused him.

Thanks for that, RJA.   Beating players into the dirt when he knows he'll win is not typical behaviour for Dan, but I think it is a very positive sign.  His rants are always amusing as well, and it further demonstrates his desire.

I hope this is the last Futures even he ever plays, he is too good for this.