Conditions look lke they are much better today. Blue skies and the wind seems to have finally disappeared.
It will be interesting to see if Jonny & Scott actually make their doubles today. Jonny may need a day off after yesterday's efforts, although he assured me he would be fine by today - time will tell - whilst Scott is playing WC Play-offs in Loule which started yesterday. Loule is only 10 mins away so there is still a chance but it will depend on whether the times of matches clash or not.
Scott must have a good chance on making through that play-off as the draw will be made up almost exclusively of players who lost in the first two rounds of qualies in Faro. Any player who made the 3rd round of qualies was still playing in Faro yesterday and therefore was unable to enter this particular WC play-off. There will be another one later this week.
Scott came through the 1st two rounds yesterday in what I think is a 64 man draw, and his wins included one over Harry Meehan.
-- Edited by Bob in Portugal on Tuesday 1st of March 2016 08:16:19 AM
Not exactly wunderkind, but with Josh Paris turning 20 on Sunday, when the next rankings come out on Monday Joel (dob 27/11/97) will be our top ranked teenager. He is currently WR 1240 on 6 points, and will be our one teenager in the top 1500 and with more than 3 points.
-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 1st of March 2016 09:26:23 PM
Joel showed today that he has all the ability needed to go much higher in the rankings but perhaps also that he still has a lot to learn. Fought hard in the 1st set and if his BH cross court pass on BP hadn't missed the line by a whisker, he could well have found himself in a TB.
His serve didn't really fire today and the more the game went on, the more he lost confidence in his backhand, which is normally very reliable. Too many errors to really challenge in the end, but he is an excellent striker of the ball when things are going well. Unfortunately today though, all the Spanish guy had to do was keep the ball in play and wait for the mistake. Give Joel another 12 months and he will be winning matches like this.
The biggest issue for Joel at the moment is just lack of match practice at this level. His momentum at the end of last year came to an abrupt halt when a 3 week trip to Egypt was cancelled at the very last minute because of the downing of the Russian airliner coming out of Sharm and of course his early season plans this year were disrupted by injury. So he is still a bit match rusty and playing a Top 500 player really exposed that. But the talent is there and I am still very positive about the future.
PS. I have to say nice things because I know now that his mum reads the forum regularly
Oh. And yes, I am Bob in Spain again now. Made it home safely a few minutes ago.
Good luck to Jonny tomorrow. Wishing I was there to support as he takes on last week's champ and former Top 100 player. Great way to spend your 21st birthday Jonny
Perhaps you could organise a little "W" as a present to yourself.
To be honest, those were about the two worst draws imaginable for a clay 10K ... well, right up there with PCB when he started his torrid streak (also witnessed by Bob!) Ah well, upwards and onwards.
To be honest, those were about the two worst draws imaginable for a clay 10K ... well, right up there with PCB when he started his torrid streak (also witnessed by Bob!) Ah well, upwards and onwards.
Agree about the draws and remember so very well the PCB hot streak a few years ago. The only difference this time was that the Portugal futures were actually on Hard Court and not on Clay.