Weeks 21 & 22 - French Open 2016 (inc. Andy) (clay)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Weeks 21 & 22 - French Open 2016 (inc. Andy) (clay)

john · Top national player

No Dan Evans? He would've had automatic entry with his ranking right?

john · Top national player

Draw looks very good for Andy. Especially with Rafa in Novak's half. What a chance to make the final.

indiana · Tennis legend

john wrote:
No Dan Evans? He would've had automatic entry with his ranking right?

Dan's ranking wasn't high enough for MD entry at the time the entry list came out, 6 weeks before kick off.

And he evidently preferred hard court Far East challengers than any prep for RG qualifiers, which he has given a miss to. Seems understandable given his clay record and he was of course successful in the challengers.

-- Edited by indiana on Friday 20th of May 2016 11:20:26 AM

Spectator · All-time great

Quite a mixed bag of qualifiers so far: Stepanek, Carlos Berlocq, Dustin Brown, Steve Darcis (looking really good upon return), Marco Trungelliti, Jordi Samper-Montana, Gerald Melzer, Kenny de Schepper, Adrian Ungur, Tobias Kamke, Roberto Carballes Baena, Laslo Djere and Radu Albot. And a few yet to come - including potentially Marsel Ilhan, who's been playing on Court 8, which became an all-Turkish court today! The Turkish equivalent of our board must be quite chuffed.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Spectator wrote:
Quite a mixed bag of qualifiers so far: Stepanek, Carlos Berlocq, Dustin Brown, Steve Darcis (looking really good upon return), Marco Trungelliti, Jordi Samper-Montana, Gerald Melzer, Kenny de Schepper, Adrian Ungur, Tobias Kamke, Roberto Carballes Baena, Laslo Djere and Radu Albot. And a few yet to come - including potentially Marsel Ilhan, who's been playing on Court 8, which became an all-Turkish court today! The Turkish equivalent of our board must be quite chuffed.

Ilhan it is (8-6 in the third!) + Nikoloz Basilashvili (q14), which leaves only one qualifier unaccounted for (Jan-Lennard Struff (q4) Andrej Martin (q22)).

theemptyvessel · Club Coach

Just getting a little ahead of myself I looked at potential scenarios should Kyle and Aljaz get past their respective qualifier opponents. Not too concerned with Andy until a little later in the competition.

For Kyle his potential second round match-up is John Isner who plays the Milkman in round one. I think this is a very winnable match for Kyle should he get there, Isner will not be able to rely on his serve so much at RG and to be honest has not played well at all the last couple of months. If he gets past Isner then its Benoit Paire in the 3rd most probably and that would be a tough ask but potentially a great match up, especially if Paire has one of his more eccentric days.

For Aljaz he gets about as good a draw as a non seed can for the first 2 rounds. If he beats his qualifier he plays the winner of Carreno Busta and Delbonis, neither of whom should intimidate him. Round 3 is another story though as he is due to meet Novak and it is fair to say that he is not the British player that Djoker is losing sleep over.

Hoping for at least 2 R3 appearances from the non Andy's, especially Aljaz who has had a mare of a clay season, pray I don't jinx them both.

TMH · Futures qualifying

Andy gets Stepanek (a tricky one that), Kyle gets Basilashvili and Aljaz gets Melzer Jr.

scottie1 · Futures level

Stepanek great touch player ran out of gas after two sets against Andy last time

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Qualifiers now placed:

L128: (Q) Gerald Melzer (AUT) WR 130 (CH = 107 last month) vs Aljaz Bedene WR 66 (CH = 45 last November)

L128: (Q) Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) WR 105 (CH = 86 last October) vs Kyle Edmund WR 84 (CH = 82 in February)

L128: (Q) Radek Stepanek (CZE) WR 129 (CH = 8 in July 2006) vs (2) Andy Murray WR 2 (= CH)

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Friday 20th of May 2016 04:37:13 PM

goldenboy · Club Coach

30 is stepanek's doubles ranking. been outside top 100 for a while now in singles.
annoying when ATP site defaults like that though!

kyle/aljaz have missed the most dangerous qualifiers imo

theemptyvessel · Club Coach

Kyle has not played Basilashvili before but assuming he is not suffering any after effects from his ankle injury he should be favorite for his match. Aljaz is 3-0 lifetime over Melzer, all straight sets and on clay with the most recent being last year on his way to the Todi Challenger title so again, I would think Aljaz is looking good for a first round win.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

goldenboy wrote:
30 is stepanek's doubles ranking. been outside top 100 for a while now in singles.
annoying when ATP site defaults like that though!

Annoying indeed! My own stupid fault for not checking properly ! Error corrected.

cwej · Lower Club Player

An incredible draw for our guys... Though I see qualifiers as supremely more dangerous than special exemptions and wild cards. Those three matches won already give them such a head start psychologically.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Andy talking about why he understands why Roger's pulled out and how he (andy) had two years of utter misery with his back, stopping him from wanting to play, it was nothing but pain, and affected his whole life ......

http://www.leparisien.fr/espace-premium/sports/je-comprends-federer-21-05-2016-5815457.php#xtref=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FdJCJDmWs5y

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Saturday 21st of May 2016 11:33:41 AM