Week 41 - Challenger ($100,000) - Fairfield, CA, USA (hard)

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Week 41 - Challenger ($100,000) - Fairfield, CA, USA (hard)

Spectator · All-time great

Not surprised by the doubles result: Bemelmans can be a very good doubles player. Bemelmans and de Loore beat Melo and Soares in DC in Brazil during the WG playoffs recently.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

It's interesting isn't it, there is a process of natural selection for those who are good enough to play singles regularly at challenger level for sometime but struggle to make top 100 consistently in the first half of their career. Due to the financial pressures of being on tour they get to play a lot of doubles to try and make ends meet, if they get some results they continue and get better.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Brydan lost the first set to Tennys, 4-6

But after a very tight second set, he managed to sneak the break right at the very last minute, winning it 7-5.

thejester · Satellite level

Would be great if Brydan could get through this one. Plenty of young talent in his section but both seeds are out, could be an opportunity to go a bit deeper.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

L32: (Q) Brydan Klein WR 329 defeated Tennys Sandgren (USA) WR 250 by 4-6 7-5 7-5 biggrin

*****

L16: Ruben Bemelmans (BEL) WR 227 (CH = 84 in September last year) vs (Q) Brydan Klein WR 329

Bemelmans took out the fourth seed, Darian King, in three sets earlier.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
L32: (Q) Brydan Klein WR 329 defeated Tennys Sandgren (USA) WR 250 by 4-6 7-5 7-5
*****
L16: Ruben Bemelmans (BEL) WR 227 (CH = 84 in September last year) vs (Q) Brydan Klein WR 329
Bemelmans took out the fourth seed, Darian King, in three sets earlier.

L32: (Q) Cam Norrie WR 278 defeated (WC) Tom Fawcett (USA) WR 1231 by 4 & 1

******

L16: (Q) Cam Norrie WR 278 vs Tommy Paul (USA) WR 248 (CH = 191 in April)

Paul took out the sixth seed, Dennis Novikov, by 4 & 4 earlier...

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Good win for Brydan, the question is did he play dirty and whip out a snickers bar and sup some cola at the end of the first set, as we know Tennys can collapse in the face of such psychological torture.

Cam too strong for Tom now faces a very interesting match up with Tommy Paul. Looking forward to it . Hopefully Cam will have too much for him although Tommy obviously progressing well, now an established teenage challenger player,

He broke top 200 as an 18 year old so if British we would be waxing lyrical but under less pressure because of the sheer volume of high quality 18-20 year old prospects they have in the U.S. For general comparison Kyle managed it in his final months as a teenager, although from his scheduling it wasn't seen as a priority.

paulisi · Tennis legend

I will be interested to see what plans Cam has for the future. We assume he is missing a semester to test the water.

Should he turn pro? He definitely has the talent. It is whether he wants that security of a degree in case things don't work out and whether there is any finance/backing from the LTA if he does go pro.

philwrig · Hall of fame

If it was me I'd definitely finish off the degree, even if I wasn't going to need it in the future.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

A little while ago I posted a link to a local newspaper to TCU (and now can't find) in which it stated Cam was taking a semester off to concentrate on pro tennis and see if he could pick up enough points to qualify for the Aussie Open. Depending on how he did he would then consider whether to stay at college (which he said he loves) or to leave early. His coach was quoted as saying they would support him either way as they saw their program as a stepping stone to professional tennis.

Quite a few athletes who leave a year or 2 early, go back to their alma mater and finish their degrees after their sporting careers. I don't know if this is at their own expense or whether there is some arrangement whereby they can do this on some sort of continuing scholarship. Best of both worlds if he could do this!

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Strikes me that Cam is doing exactly the right thing as are the coaching team at TCU, a win win for all concerned. Cam obviously wants to be an elite player on the ATP tour and has found the right environment to put himself in a good position to make a really good stab at it whilst also mitigating the risk.

Unless his degree is vocational (which his scholarship is!) I don't think too many employers will look too harshly on the fact that he quit to play a significantly higher standard of tennis. More power to his elbow (and pencil if applicable)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

R1: (4) Steven de Waard & Brydan Klein CR 372 (192+180) defeated Liam Broady & Lloyd Glasspool CR 576 (325+251) 6-3 6-7(6) [10-4]

*****

QF: Ruben Bemelmans & Kevin Krawietz (BEL/GER) CR 496 (299+197) vs (4) Steven de Waard & Brydan Klein CR 372 (192+180)

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Thursday 13th of October 2016 09:24:47 AM

Spectator · All-time great

Bemelmans ranking this week for doubles as per the ATP seems to be 299. But it's immaterial, as he's way better than his ranking anyway - only played less than a dozen tournaments in the past year.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Spectator wrote:
Bemelmans ranking this week for doubles as per the ATP seems to be 299. But it's immaterial, as he's way better than his ranking anyway - only played less than a dozen tournaments in the past year.

Sorry. Forgot to update the rankings. Oversight now rectified.