Week 13 - Challenger (€42,500 +H ) - St Brieuc, France (hard)

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Week 13 - Challenger (€42,500 +H ) - St Brieuc, France (hard)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Dan serving at *4-5 and yet again the net cord is unkind to him.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Sadly it proves crucial as Dan loses 6-4 in the 3rd. What a great match though. Gutted for him.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Oh, that wasn't supposed to happen

Rustie · Junior player

Seemed a cheap way to lose it, tennis I guess.

indiana · Tennis legend

That looked a quality match from the bits I saw. Pity to just get a QF out of the week when Dan looks in really pretty good nick.

RJA · Hall of fame

Horrible to lose a match like that after playing so well for much of it. A couple of huge slices of luck for Sijsling in the last game but is was the *3-2 where Evo was a bit sloppy that really cost him.

-- Edited by RJA on Friday 1st of April 2016 08:18:08 PM

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
That looked a quality match from the bits I saw. Pity to just get a QF out of the week when Dan looks in really pretty good nick.

Worth going back and watching some more of it Indi. Cracking match. If you haven't got time to watch it all, check out the end of the 2nd when Sijsling was serving for the match at *6-5.

GBJ · Club Coach

Just watched this having been busy last night.

Wow, lots going on there.

Several mutterings from Dan as usual that I wish I could have heard better.

While he obviously played some good stuff at 5-6 second set you have to say he was a pretty lucky to stay in the match from the posiition he was in - and he looked to be on a fine line between doing what he had to to stay loose when so close to loosing and giving up completely.

Was it just me or did Dan just give up and deliberately hit the ball into the ceiling from his backhand at the end of the Sijsling service game after it went back on serve final set? Is he risking a fine by doing that?!

Pretty gutted he couldn't quite find the way through and keep the winning habit after playing consistently well like he has esp. given the chance to get so close to the top 100 without beating anyone inside it.

It would seem such a shame if Dan doesn't keep playing whilst in such good form and so close to a career high but I agree that a bit of a break might be good before the french open. I've never seen him play on clay and would be fascinated to see it if he kept the kind of motivation he has shown recently.

If he is to take a bit of a break maybe a near miss in this kind of match will be a good motivator to work on some things ready to go up a level. It does seem to me that he looks like a man who never practices being aggressive with his backhand returns on second serve and perhaps could really stop opponents having an easy way of getting the odd cheap point if he learned to do more with this - whilst Sijsling obviously played well first set he lost virtually no points behind second serve and I think this is a bit of a pattern for Dan sometimes (statistically he did seem to overcome it through the rest of the match though - I think probably due to lots of running around the backhand).

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

I've just watched the stream - it was a very high quality match, though Dan was somewhat fortunate to win the second set. He faced BPs in several games as well as the MPs. I'm sure that Sijsling will win the tournament if he can maintain anything like that level.

What next for Dan though?

Enjoy the w/e all, it is going to be a good one!

Robin · Lower Club Player

Sijsling lost the final in final set tie break.

Dan up to 124 in rankings, 1 off his CH I think.

-- Edited by Robin on Monday 4th of April 2016 04:16:35 AM

RJA · Hall of fame

RJA wrote:
stevemcqueen wrote:
We've speculated about his plans previously, I don'y thinnk anybody knows, maybe not even Dan himself. Dan doesn't like clay and he doesn't like Asia either. However, if he avoids the clay and Asia, his next tournament would probably be the Manchester grass court challenger - 8 weeks without playing. That couldn't be described as maintaining his momentum! If he does go to South Korea, he would most likely be seeded. Some good results there would put him on the cusp of the top 100 which must certainly be an objective.
It doesn't have to be South Korea. He could play Taiwan (25/4) and Uzbekistan (2/5) followed by a week off then Roland Garros qualifying (16/5) or he could look to play on clay somewhere in Europe between now and Roland Garros (where he will surely turn up even if it is just for the first round prize money). Either way I would be surprised to see him go 6 weeks without playing somewhere.

Evo has indeed entered the challenger in Taiwan.

Shhh · Challenger level

My wife is from Taiwan and I would have nothing but good things to say of the country. The food (night markets!) people are friendly, they love their tennis etc.

It is a long old journey to get there though (no direct flights), it is VERY foreign (as opposed to Europe/States) and being there on your own may not be great for some people. Oli Golding went alone and quit soon after! Not sure if this right for Dan but, being positive, if he does well (and its a strong field) it'll put down a strong marker for where hes at at the moment.

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

I'm pleased to see Dan making an effort to maintain his momentum. Taiwan is an awful long way to go to play just one week - perhaps he'll try the $50k event in Korea in the following week. I know he could also consider Uzbekistan, but travelling to and from Samarkand would not be trivial. I don't think we'll be having reports from Bob in Samarkand any time soon! Fascinating place though....

Is Dan working with a coach at the moment? I haven't read anything about this recently. Winning tennis matches (like last week's!) can depend on such fine margins that a good coach could make all the difference. Where does he practise when he's in the UK?

Edit: I've just checked the entries on MTF and Liam is entered for qualies so Dan will have a drinking buddy and hitting partner. Shhh, wouldn't you say that it is all too easy to miss out local culture in a metropolis like Taipei? From the western hotel to the tennis centre by cab might be all some players see of a city during a tournament. This would be a shame though - if you are going to be travelling a lot, you have to learn to like it...

-- Edited by stevemcqueen on Wednesday 6th of April 2016 07:28:36 AM

paulisi · Tennis legend

Mark Hilton is looking after Dan at the moment. He was training in Nottingham.