Boys: 27th Sarawak Chief Minister's Cup (I) ITF Junior Tennis Championship, Malaysia -Grade 1 - (Week 12)

paulisi · Tennis legend

Boys: 27th Sarawak Chief Minister's Cup (I) ITF Junior Tennis Championship, Malaysia -Grade 1 - (Week 12)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

RE: Boys: 27th Sarawak Chief Minister's Cup (I) ITF Junior Tennis Championship, Malaysia (Grade 1) - Week 12

paulisi · Tennis legend

Boys: 27th Sarawak Chief Minister's Cup (I) ITF Junior Tennis Championship, Malaysia -Grade 1 - (Week 12)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Alexis's opponent has been a frequent adversary for Brits this year: Alexis won 6-4 6-4 in India while Finn won once and lost once.

R2

(10) Finn Bass v (LL) Devanand Mohan (IND)
(3) Alexis Canter v Seon Yong Han (KOR)
(7) Alastair Gray v Rimpei Kawakami (JAP)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Wins for all three:

R2

(10) Finn Bass def. (LL) Devanand Mohan (IND) 6-1 6-0

(3) Alexis Canter def. Seon Yong Han (KOR) 7-6(2) 6-4

(7) Alastair Gray def. Rimpei Kawakami (JAP) 6-3 6-2

paulisi · Tennis legend

All three GB boys through to doubles QF.

Finn is currently at 110 in the JWR and needs a net 22pts to move up into the top 100. His lowest scorers are 30pts in singles and 20 in doubles, so a QF place in singles would be enough to break through.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Finn's Russian opponent is one Ryan Storrie edged out in a final set tiebreak in the Yeltsin Cup. Alastair's opponent split two matches with Alexis last year.

R3

(10) Finn Bass v (8) Mikhail Sokolovskiy (RUS)
(3) Alexis Canter v (15) Chengze Lyu (CHN)
(7) Alastair Gray v (11) Yi Zhou Liu (CHN)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Alexis continues to have trouble to really have a 'break-through' tournament - it's all very consistent, but nothing more (as said many times before, my own view - for what it's worth, namely nothing - is that it's unfortunately going to be a struggle to make it in pro tennis). Well done to Alistair, though.

R3:

Alastair GRAY (GBR) [7] 6-4 6-4 Yi Zhou LIU (CHN) [11]

Mikhail SOKOLOVSKIY (RUS) [8] 7-6(4) 6-4 Finn BASS (GBR) [10]

Chengze LYU (CHN) [15] 3-6 6-2 6-3 Alexis CANTER (GBR) [3]

In the dubs, however, both matches went to 10-8 in the MTB - one in our favour, one against.....

Quarterfinal

Alexis CANTER (GBR) / Mikhail SOKOLOVSKIY (RUS) [1] 6-1 1-6 [10-8] Rimpei KAWAKAMI (JPN) / James Kent TROTTER (JPN) [8]

Ye Cong MO (CHN) / Yibing WU (CHN) [5] 6-1 4-6 [10-8] Finn BASS (GBR) / Alastair GRAY (GBR) [2]

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 24th of March 2016 09:03:55 AM

Ernie · Junior player

I agree with you CD re Alexis, Finn's struggling too his last decent win was back in June 2015

Nice win for Alastair

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Agree CD that Alexis is not a breathtaking talent, but he is more than competent, very hard hard working and reasonably grounded. I also can't see him flying up the adult rankings but could see him steadily plodding upwards. No idea how high but sometimes hard work and a good mindset does better in the long term than outrageous talent. As for Finn, lord knows when he went through puberty, but he has had a man's body from an extremely young age. Quite an advantage when playing domestic age group competitions or the lower grade ITFs which tend to attract younger competitors than the higher grade ones. Maybe now he's playing the top grade competitions it's physically a more level playing field. Alistair, as I commented somewhere else, is the exact opposite to Finn. He's always had super shots (esp s/h bh) but until recently has been very small and slight for his age looking a good few years younger than his peers. It seems he has had a massive growth spurt leading to his recent good run of results.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Ernie, I'm way more positive about Finn because firstly, he's 18 months younger, or so, than Alexis and (purely personal), the two times I've seen him play, he played cracking matches (yes, the O, very physical, fit, but more than that, too) whereas the three times I've seen Alexis, it's been rather unimpressive.

And I know it sounds harsh and, yes, you're quite right, Opti, 95% perspiration and 5% inspiration and all that: hard work - and opportunity - will get you a long way. And maybe the times I've seen were not that representative (or things change). But Alexis seemed weighed down by his tennis, and I always think that's a bad sign.

indiana · Tennis legend

I have not seen Finn compete and of course there is so so much more to juniors than rankings.

But it does stand out that Finn is October 1999 born, not yet 16 and a half, whereas in a continuing relatively poor junior boys group ( though great to see such as the recent success for Ryan Storrie, a guy who does really interest me, and whom should surely should be getting more LTA support than he seems to be, though he is not alone ) all our other top 200ers are 1998 born, in their final year of juniors and also still not making any real sort of mark in seniors. Finn has more time on his side than all of them.

Ernie · Junior player

Finn had a good run of form prior to Roehampton and Wimbledon, and played a couple of cracking matches, unfortunately it seems (hopefully temporarily) to have ended there. As Opti says Finn is built like a man so the 18 month age difference is unimportant. JTC have been shrewd with his tournament scheduling assuring he's seeded and not facing strong opposition until the latter stages but disappointingly he's just not performing.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I don't think the age difference is unimportant, Ernie, no matter the physique.

Age is about maturity, experience, confidence and lots of other things, not just physical strength.

Finn's trips out to India were pretty decent - not outstanding, but some good results.

Ernie · Junior player

I agree age is about a whole lot of other things, but remember Finn has had a lot LTA help, support trips etc he's not lacking in confidence and definitely has more experience at TE, ITF and team competitions than say someone like Alistair.