QR1:  (q1) Dan Smethurst & Darren Walsh CR 564 (387+177) vs Henri Laaksonen & Luca Margaroli (SUI/SUI) CR 789 (475+314)

QR1:  (qWC) Raymond Sarmiento & Clay Thompson (USA/USA) CR 1601 (480+1121) vs (q2) Dave Rice & Marcus Willis CR 785 (318+467)

Yikes, I'm enjoying week 45 much more than week 46 to date !

Stircrazy wrote:

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QR2:  Raymond Sarmiento (USA) WR 766 defeated (q5) Dan Smethurst WR 401 by 2 & 0 

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 Sarmiento is a recent graduate of Southern California and was highly ranked in the college system.  Maybe has a slightly misleading ATP ranking....

Jonathon Ho likewise has a suspect ranking......is a senior at Wake Forest.

-- Edited by The Optimist on Sunday 15th of November 2015 08:50:04 PM

Must be hard being clay Thompson bit like being a British tennis player called Ryan Giggs.

That said so glad the real (k)lay Thompson didn't take up tennis, likely to have been a bit more of a challenge at 6'6" and hand eye that allows him to rifle 3 pointers at will and as a point guard for the NBA winning Warriors some of the best footwork on a basketball court.

heres hoping "uncle Ben" Mr Rice will sort him out! 

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Sunday 15th of November 2015 09:44:10 PM

Smethers and Walsh also won their Q doubles match and so will play off against Dave and Marcus for a MD place.

 

NB which is a match worth winning as the Q team get a WC US team I've never heard of in the main draw.

 

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Sunday 15th of November 2015 10:44:26 PM

I seemed to recall from last year that this tournament is played at the University of Illinois, and checking the university's website reveals that the team are University of Illinois players. Have no idea whether they are any good or not.

Difficult draw for Mr Milton. From what I've read on Zootennis, Mr McDonald is quite good.

stevemcqueen wrote:

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Here is questions for statisticians who have nothing to do:  Dan won a challenger in Jersey in Spring of 2009, not much less than 6 years ago. How many other players can claim such a gap between Challenger victories?

I'm guessing that the tournament organisers will be generous enough to schedule Dan's match v. BF on Wednesday.  If BF serves better than last week, it could be a very tough proposition.  48% of first serves and 9 DFs are horrible stats.  I hope than Dan can ride the wave of form and confidence to rack up some more points before coming back to Blighty and enjoying some well deserved beverages and R&R.  

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On your first point I assume that there are bigger gaps but probably not many. I did post in the Knoxville thread that the gap for Dan was 2,429 days (347 weeks).

On your second point it appear that the final is on Saturday so Dan will have to play his first round match on Tuesday.