OK. Back from Murcia. Let's start with the weather, and by saying this was your typical "four seasons in one day" type of day. We had gale force winds, dust storms, bright sunshine and rain showers all packed into a 2hr 30min spell. It made for very difficult conditions for both players and consequently the quality was not the best.

I always feel that the wind affects aggressive players more and this was true for Billy who certainly likes to attack. His opponent (and yes it was the Japanese guy after all) had a much more conservative strategy and was content to just keep the ball in play. Both players ended up using kick and slice serves even on first serve as the ball toss was particularly troublesome. The first set could really have gone either way. As I mentioned in my updates, there were 7 breaks of serve in 10 games, but Billy did just enough to run out the winner 6-4.

In the second set, Billy found himself a break down early at 1-2*, although under the circumstances that didn't mean very much. In the next game, he had 0-30 on the Sabaoun serve, but then went to pieces. I think there were UEs on the next 8 points and it was clear frustration was getting the better of him. The Japanese player ran away with the next few games to lead 5-1* without actually doing anything at all. Somehow, Billy managed a hold from 0-40 at that stage but it wasn't enough to mount a comeback and Sabaoun won the 2nd set 6-2. But that one hold towards the end of the set, suggested to me that Billy was just beginning to get his head back together and had refocused on the task. Control those controllables, Billy

At the end of the 2nd set, there was, what I thought, was a toilet break. However, it was a case of a player going to fetch new balls from the tournament directors office. It was only then that it occurred to me that they had played the entire 1st two sets (plus the warm up) with the same 4 balls.

Billy served first in the decider and those new balls acted as the catalyst for a major turnaround in momentum. He had clearly been trying to force it in the 2nd set with the older softer balls, but all to no avail. Now, with new balls in his hand and a clear power advantage over his opponent, he found a couple of big 1st serves in that opening game and the confidence that came with those serves transferred themselves into his ground strokes as well.

The rest of the set was as well as I had seen him play over the 2 days and a string of winners overpowered completely his Japanese opponent and he ran out a 6-0 3rd set victor.

On to the FQR tomorrow.

R1:  Vasile Antonescu & Mircea-Alexandru Jecan (ROU/ROU) CR 1535 (763+772) vs Rutger Cramer (NED) & Billy Harris CR 2285 (1604+681)

Madadman wrote:

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Bob in Spain wrote:

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Back home now. Saw the very end of James Allemby's match which he lost in straight sets. The 2nd was 6-4 but I don't know the 1st set score. They had moved him to another court and (confession time) I didn't know who I was looking for, I actually walked passed his court a couple of times with realizing it was him.

Billy on the other hand, simply overpowered his opponent. His is a big guy with a very powerful and effective serve. At one point in the 2nd set, he won 2 service games in a row with 8 big first serves, none of which his opponent even managed to get back into play. It was 3 aces and 5 service winners in 8 consecutive points.

He also hits with a lot of power off the ground although on occasions, I thought he was trying to force things a bit too much. But given as the result was a foregone conclusion from the very early stages, it was not a bad idea to go aggressive and test out his game.

Off the court, Billy is doing it the hard way. He is traveling around Europe in a Ford Transit, basically lives in the back of it. He sleeps, cooks and eats in the van, while traveling alone. Such a tough way to try and carve out a career. 

He is a very personable young man to talk to and we spent a lot of time chatting after his match. I am hoping to get back down tomorrow for his QR2 match. We watched a bit of the match to decide his opponent. The young Spaniard was clearly the better player and won the 1st set, but then started to struggle with injury and ended up retiring. So Billy will play someone from Uzbekistan, despite the draw sheet on the ITF site showing a Japanese opponent. Not sure what happened there.

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 Interesting, can't say he isn't trying his best by doing it that way. Might even be able to earn a few pennys by driving another player to the next tournament for Petrol Money.
Seen a few converted vans on travel blogs etc... would be interesting to see how he has done it. 
Thanks for the updates/news/insights Bob.

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 Tell Billy to get on BlaBlaCar. Great way of sharing rides around Europe!

L32:  (Q) Billy Harris WR 1196 vs Juan Lizariturry (ESP) WR 584 (CH = 304 in July 2014)

Bob in Spain wrote:

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Not sure about the Spaniards ranking though.  Think the ITF site has still to be updated.  ATP showing WR 584.

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You're right, Bob, but I got so cheesed off with the ATP site failing to show current doubles rankings for all the players when I was doing the Shrewsbury MD that I stuck with the ITF site! 

Stircrazy wrote:

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Bob in Spain wrote:

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SC is around and has beaten me to it as always.

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Not always, no:  there've been several instances recently when you've got there before me (or Steven has) & I've simply deleted my duplicate post.  

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Aha.  The secret is out.  SC IS A CHEAT