Aljaz playing doubles here with his twin brother Andraz. Andraz has a career high for doubles of 818 and has not been ranked since 2012. He played a futures event at home in Slovenia last year but I think he is predominately a hitting partner for Aljaz these days.
R1: Aljaz Bedene (GBR) & Andraz Bedene (Slo) UNR (266+0) vs Dragos Dima (Rou) & Andreas Mies (Ger) 1224 (986+238)
Mies looks to be pretty useful as according to the ITF website he has 9 futures titles this year alone and appears to be one of those mid twenties players who has realized he is not going to make it in singles and is now giving doubles a crack full time. Dima is not his usual partner though and so hopefully the fact that Aljaz is playing with his brother will give him the edge. Should the twins get through this they will most likely play the top seeded pair of Horacia Zeballos and Julio Peralta in the next round, Zeballos also being the number 1 seed in the singles draw and Aljaz's projected semi final opponent there.
-- Edited by theemptyvessel on Monday 12th of September 2016 02:23:23 PM
-- Edited by theemptyvessel on Tuesday 13th of September 2016 12:43:35 PM
L16: Aljaz Bedene (GBR) WR 85 vs Dennis Novak (AUT) WR 235
Novak defeated Nikola Cacic in the first round. Cacic of course beat Aljaz in the first round at Umag in what was probably the most disappointing result of his season. Not sure if Aljaz will be relieved not to face him again or disappointed at missing out on the opportunity for revenge. Anyway, onwards and upwards, fingers crossed for a good week here.
-- Edited by theemptyvessel on Tuesday 13th of September 2016 12:47:07 PM
You are right, he lost in 3 in Kitzbuhel last year. Thankfully Novak has not been in good form of late so I am optimistic, these next few weeks are huge for Aljaz in terms of his ranking and the tournaments he will be able to play next season. If he can get good results in his final few tournaments this year he can guarantee another year of DE to all 4 slams and that takes a lot of pressure off.
QF: Aljaz Bedene (GBR) & Andraz Bedene (SLO) UNR (266+0) lost to (1) Julio Peralta (CHI) & Horacio Zeballos (ARG) 31 5-7 0-6
Not too surprising but a shame all the same. The brothers actually served for the first set at 5-4 and had 2 set points but could not take them and it was all one way traffic after that.
-- Edited by theemptyvessel on Thursday 15th of September 2016 03:24:52 PM
Poor Aljaz - with the excitement of Davis Cup, and the plethora of young female players doing so brilliantly in the US (and Emma H, too), and the great doubles exploits this week out in Asia, and young Joel out there too, Mr. Bedene's got rather overlooked ...
Well done !
-- Edited by Coup Droit on Friday 16th of September 2016 12:01:43 PM