I was wondering if our man in Spain/Brazil had made it to the qualies today - clearly yes.  Hope you hung around long enough to see some tennis BiS.

Great day at qualies today despite the weather. Players aside, I managed to meet up with some old friends and make some new ones. Spent some time chatting with Liz Curran whom I hadn't seen since DC in Croatia and also spoke at length with James Trottman who is back working with the LTA.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dan Kiernan of Soto Tennis, for the first time and was also "spotted" by a forum reader who recognised my photo from here and along with my La Manga shirt, managed to recognise me - Hi Christine.

OK. As for the tennis. Dan Cox was simply on fire. He won the 1st 10 points of the match, breaking de Bakker in the process with some stunning returns. But having gone *2-0 30--0 up, he then served 3 consecutive DFs before rescuing the game with some more excellent serves. I didn't see the whole match as it overlapped with Lloyd and I was moving between the two, but from what I did see, the performance was as dominant as the scoreline suggests. I did speak to Dan S though during this match. He lost to Dan C in the final WC playoff match. Dan S told me that he played pretty well but that Dan C just played some unbelievable stuff.

As for Lloyd, this was my first time watching him. He looked a little on edge at times, and missed a few volleys early on. From then on, he was playing catch up. He served particularly well for most of the 2nd set, but in truth, Novikov was just too strong and consistent on the day. Lloyd showed some of what he could do and I think we will see further advances up the rankings over the next few months. Hopefully Lloyd can put today's experience to good use and push on from here.

Finally, as you all know, Bob loves a scoop. This has been widely hinted at so it is not exclusive but I can confirm that Dan S will be hanging up his racket once the German League season is over. He feels that the time is right to move on to pastures new, although he is not sure what those are for now. Let's hope Dan can go out with a bang this week and post a few good results.

PS I would have "morphed" into Bob in Britain, but I have run out of emaill addresses for registering new nicknames.

Yes. If you go to qualies tomorrow, it's a bit of a feast.
Thanks, Bob, for the report. Great to hear about Dan Cox. And all the best to Dan Smethurst, always someone it has been - and doubtless will be in whatever context he chooses - easy to wish well.

Just to note that Dan Cox is currently on the front page of the BBC website. Nice to see his victory celebrated!

Marcus really struggled in teh first and at the start of the second but he seems to be turning the match around possibly... 1-6 5-4* 0-30....

Wills 3-1 up in third set