Week 20 - Challenger Bangkok 3($50k+H) - Hard

korriban · Challenger level

RE: Week 20 - Challenger Bangkok 3($50k+H) - Hard

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

How many matches has Liam lost to a bagel? Seems every 2nd tournament it so at a guess, seems to tank or throw the towel in quite a lot. His live ranking is very generous at the moment but something to build on anyway.

Good luck to Alex and Lloyd tomorrow in their quests to break the top 250 and 300 that a win for both would provide.

Hoppy · Junior player

I'm assuming that these comments are made having watched the match and seen that it was a below par performance from Liam rather than an exceptional one from Sam. The scoreboard doesnt always give a true picture of the match but I do know that Sam on form is very good.

RJA · Hall of fame

Liam's 6 week far east tour has been nothing short of bizarre. I suppose that on the results front a SF, a QF and 2 second rounds in 6 tournaments isn't at all bad and 81 points is pretty satisfactory. He has however had some very kind draws and some of the defeats have been pretty hideous looking results.

I agree with korriban that at the moment I see nothing in Liam's game to suggest that he is ever likely to breakthrough beyond challenger level. Part of the reason why he is ranked as highly as he is is that he plays so many tournaments (34 in the last 52 weeks) but I can't help feel that he would benefit from fewer tournaments and more time working on the deficiencies in his game.

Spectator · All-time great

Jaggy, if the little that I saw was representative, it's not about throwing in the towel. The two games I saw were very close: Mr Broady had break points against Sam Barry's serve, and Sam Barry broke him in a long game that had (as I recall it) a few deuces. Just looking at it - and I am very, very inexpert in comparison with others, so this may be a wholly invalid analysis - the difficulty was as Korriban hinted above. Mr Broady's serve today was not his strongest point. So he didn't get free games of his own. And his receiving style seems to be (and others have said this, so I'm not just going on what I saw!) at its strongest in terms of shot placement and consistency ... but not the kind of style where there's overwhelming power. So he was under pressure on his serve and his opponent had a good depth of shot, forcing him to rely on Barry's making mistakes in response to his consistency ... or on his being able to finish the game with a beautifully placed shot, of which he had several in what I saw (especially pulling Barry out wide). But that's a hard thing to pull off point after point if, for any reason, you're feeling a little under par or your hard-serving opponent is also having a good receiving day. So you can have quite a hard-fought set that still winds up with a discouraging scoreline.

It would not have taken a lot of points to go differently to have had a very different scoreline in the games that I saw. Onwards to grass.

-- Edited by Spectator on Thursday 19th of May 2016 07:59:59 AM

Shhh · Challenger level

I dont disagree with all thats being said but cut the guy some slack on the scoreline. Its Thailand, theres been quite a few retirements. The heat and humidity is intense, "deli belly" is common here. We cant judge a match by the scoreline alone.

I also noticed that Liams 2nd serve stats were pretty awful. If thats wasn't working, or his opponent just got into them, then once its inside your head the match can go.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/tennis/struggling-irish-tennis-remains-an-uphill-battle-fought-by-lone-soldiers-34390847.html

A shame for Liam but am pleased for Sam - it's not easy for the Irish players (half a million in TOTAL funding for all of Irish tennis ???) and I've always thought Sam's suffered form being in the shadow of McGee

RJA · Hall of fame

Yes, whatever faults Liam has he doesn't tank or give up when things are going against him. What has been a problem is this year is that when momentum has started to go against him he has been unable to turn things round, or even keep the final set close. A lot of his matches have looked competitive for a set or more only for him to lose the 2nd or 3rd set very badly, and often against players who he should be competitive against. As I said he isn't the quitting type but this pattern is disturbing and suggests a problem beyond just tactics or match up issues.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Revised list of runners & riders for the quarters:

L16: (Q) Sam Barry WR 358 defeated Liam Broady WR 252 by 4 & 0 bleh
L16: Alex Ward WR 283 defeated Adrien Bossel (SUI) WR 364 by 5 & 3
L16: (Q) Lloyd Glasspool WR 341 defeated (4) Lucas Lacko (SVK) WR 120 by 7-6(5) 4-1 retired

*****

QF: Alex Ward WR 283 vs (7) Zhang Ze (CHN) WR 189 (CH = 148 in May 2013)

QF: (6) Alexander Sarkissian (USA) WR 173 (CH = 157 last month) vs (Q) Lloyd Glasspool WR 341

Spectator · All-time great

Alexander Sarkissian currently leads 6-2 2-2. Watched my usual two games: on his own service game, Mr Glasspool had some beautiful work at the net. But on Sarkissian's service game, he simply couldn't return serve.

Spectator · All-time great

(6) Alexander Sarkissian (USA) WR 173 (CH = 157 last month) d. (Q) Lloyd Glasspool WR 341 6-2 6-2

Still a good week.

Just out of interest ... does anyone know why James Duckworth is only ranked 209? I went to see if the next GB game was on and Duckworth and Lu were still playing. Only watched one game - but really high quality.

Robin · Lower Club Player

Spectator wrote:
(6) Alexander Sarkissian (USA) WR 173 (CH = 157 last month) d. (Q) Lloyd Glasspool WR 341 6-2 6-2

Still a good week.

Just out of interest ... does anyone know why James Duckworth is only ranked 209? I went to see if the next GB game was on and Duckworth and Lu were still playing. Only watched one game - but really high quality.

I was wondering the same thing, last I remember he was around 100 and gaining ground.

GBJ · Club Coach

Before watching some of the livestream.com/atp catch up thing yesterday morning I had never really seen Alex or Lloyd play singles other than a handful of points having looked Lloyd up on youtube.

I've learned from previous experience not to judge what I think of a player too much on just one match or week but I have to say that I'd got my hopes up - as I do when any brit shows signs of moving up a level - that I would really enjoy be able to watch Alex play. Sadly I did not. Maybe I wasn't in the mood but I was not too aware of what kind of style he played and I guess hoped he would have more obvious weapons/ball striking ability than I noticed yesterday. I have always been a fan of seeing points end in winners/aggressive shots but it seemed that Alex very much won purely on the 'I'll miss less than him' strategy with very little sign of any weapons to suggest he could continue to improve and have a lot of success unless he has unusually strong in consistency and movement. Is that what he is known for? What do those who know his game think his strengths are? Hopefully today he'll prove me wrong I'll be pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoy his match.

Lloyd I can get a bit more excited about as he has some weight to his shots that I can imagine will help him do well as he gains experience at this level. I was hopeful today's match would be much closer - I probably won't get round to seeing it. Can anyone tell me where it was won and lost.

I'd also barely heard of Sam Barry.

I have always thought since I first heard of James McGee getting playing qualies that it would be nice to see the response if an Irishman managed to qualify for Wimbledon and get a win or a showcourt match. I have to say that Sam is the one I enjoyed watching the most above the three Brits yesterday and I see reason for hope that he might improve to a level where he does reach the odd tour level match. I've noticed concern maybe over his second serve though but look forward to seeing more of him. Is there any likelihood he might benefit from having more of a group of Brits travelling the challenger tour as mentioned somewhere yesterday? Watching him play Liam he seemed capable of hitting a good variety of shots and plenty of attacking play and perhaps just needs a bit more consistency.

-- Edited by GBJ on Friday 20th of May 2016 06:08:40 AM

Spectator · All-time great

Robin wrote:
Spectator wrote:
(6) Alexander Sarkissian (USA) WR 173 (CH = 157 last month) d. (Q) Lloyd Glasspool WR 341 6-2 6-2

Still a good week.

Just out of interest ... does anyone know why James Duckworth is only ranked 209? I went to see if the next GB game was on and Duckworth and Lu were still playing. Only watched one game - but really high quality.
I was wondering the same thing, last I remember he was around 100 and gaining ground.

Well I can't imagine that he's going to stay in the 200s. Beautiful court coverage. Good serving. Good shots generally. Really looked much better than his ranking to me.

DF · Tennis legend

Alex is into a final set 6-4 1-6 and 1-0