Main draw:

L32:  (4) Joris de Loore (BEL) WR 174 (= CH) vs Liam Broady WR 290 (CH = 158 in August 2015) 

L32:  Cam Norrie WR 291 (CH = 278 in September) vs (6) Ruben Bemelmans (BEL) WR 190 (CH = 84 in September last year) 

L32:  (8) Reilly Opelka (USA) WR 208 (= CH) vs Ed Corrie WR 278 (CH = 215 in October 2014)   

FQR:  (q3) Luke Bambridge WR 513 vs (q7) Marcus Giron (USA) WR 659 (CH = 368 in December 2014)

Stircrazy wrote:

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FQR:  (q3) Luke Bambridge WR 513 vs (q7) Marcus Giron (USA) WR 659 (CH = 368 in December 2014)

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FQR:  (q4) Tucker Vorster (RSA) WR 530 (CH = 278 in September 2014) vs (q6) Dan Cox WR 632 

Giron was a decent junior - similar pedigree to Luke I think, although a couple of years older. Clearly struggled to push on at the professional level, much like Luke in a way.

TMH wrote:

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Giron was a decent junior - similar pedigree to Luke I think, although a couple of years older. Clearly struggled to push on at the professional level, much like Luke in a way.

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Yes, I was a bit concerned when I saw that match-up, especially given that Luke has lost their previous meeting (Roehampton Juniors 2011, 4 & 4)

Luke went close today but he has now failed to come through qualifying at Challengers 14 times in a row - the last time he qualified for one was Samarkand in May last year, which I think was the only time he has qualified for a Challenger in 26 attempts. It's tough on the Challenger tour and the fact that you don't get any points unless you qualify just makes it even tougher.

Yep and some. NCAA singles champion and no1 in 2014, at UCLA which is probably the most prolific programme in terms of contributing pro male plays to the challenger tour. Denis Novikov also did a couple of years and then turned pro and now Mackenzie Mcdonald is ripping it up.

Giron had hip surgery iat Christmas so presently feeling his way back in but even so is in a different place to Luke. NB he put Luke out in the first round at Roehampton and went on to the quarters. He was the best junior in the US domestically but had committed to UCLA before having a decent run of form that put him close to the cusp of going pro at 18 with a JCH of 18.

Like Mitchel Franks who gave the LBs some problems when they did the summer US ITF's hard grind a couple of years ago, Giron choose UCLA because it is a great athletic program where tennis matters and he is local growing up in SoCal so he could supplement his College coaching by continuing to work with his local coach who had developed him as a junior. Exactly as Franks has done at Virginia. The USTA also stay fully engaged, many ITFs and indeed some US challengers being held at college athletic centres packed with top college players in qualifying. 

This sort of arrangement is a little different to any U.K. players using college as a stepping stone to the pro tour where the LTA appear much more hands off. The last couple of years is the first time we have had this quality of junior going in Cam and Emily and one would hope that they are both very much on the LTAs radar as potential main tour pros.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Monday 14th of November 2016 07:05:31 AM

Jaffa wrote:

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Good news: Dan qualified

Bad news: Drew Donaldson

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That's a rematch of this high quality match they had a couple of years ago. It's not shown on the video but at one point Dan got into a heated exchange with Donaldson's dad.

https://tennisnerds.com/2014/07/16/the-most-intriguing-tennis-match-that-nobody-saw/