Dan plays Thiago Monteiro (82) who came through qualies so can't be a complete mug. Looking at his record though, he is very much a clay court specialist. He played only 7 tournaments off the dirt last year and won 4 & lost 7 matches.
Both Kyle and Dan are scheduled for tomorrow, as is JoKo
Kedders on Eurosport1 at 9am, no mention of Evo's game specifically but I do hope he comes out blazing, he needs a win. I thought he started well against Fed in the Hopman but Fed turned up renewed and was mercyless. Evo wilted eventually but I felt sorry for the guy, you can see his commitment this year. Didn't see the Zerev game but Gasquet was also very good through thfe Hopman. Tuff for Dan.
Dan came through 6-3 4-6 6-3 but Kyle lost in 2 TB sets
Pleased for Evo but Kyle needs to stop this wild birthday partying and hopefully this will be a lesson for him....
Seriously though, impossible to know what happened with not seeing the match live. A bit surprising but not the end of the world. Barton probably had the confidence having come through qualifying and is on a hot streak.Will be interesting to see how he fares in the next round.
Unexpected for Kyle, especially having played so well last week, but Barton looks to be a pretty big server ( I see that he served 17 aces and there were no breaks in the match ) who can be troublesome.
He beat Kudla WR 68 and Johnson WR 32 in Auckland at the start of last year and took John Isner WR 17 to three tiebreak sets at Wimbledon. Admittedly John is not the greatest returner and there was one break apiece in the whole match, but still ...
Anyway consistency match to match and sometimes within matches looks to be something Kyle has to work towards, but I do increasingly like his top level which he showed against Stan last week.
I'm not too worried about Kyle's loss. I think everyone who posts here is confident he will be in the top 30 or better for many years. His success is really not in doubt. We all want Dan to do well and we love watching him (most of the time!) but how long will he stay in the top 100? It really is anyone's guess...Let's hope he can win another match or two here
Just seen Kedders game. He looked lethargic and just didn't make the big local boy move around the court enough. Barton was good in serve and heavy for sure but Kyle made too many return errors and just hit it straight back to him. He just didn't make him move enough, which must surely be all that was needed. There was flashes of his ranking in there but just an off day really. Occasionally an angled return easily beat Barton, just not enough of them and I didn't see enough of the fearhand either. It made me wonder if Kyle really had his heart in playing this week before the AO. It was hot and still for sure (30C) but Barton is an even bigger ginger it seems and struggled to move quickly anyway. Kedders has got to learn how to put this type of chump to bed with perhaps Pospisil coming up in the DC.. Edmund was at 65% today for me.
I agree, all part of his development. It's easy to be up for the big guns but so important to know the strengths and weaknesses of lesser players devise and take in a game plan.
There must be a temptation to just turn up in which case there is a risk of getting lulled into going through the motions in the knowledge that when firing on all cylinders your game is too good for theirs. Some days only 2 cylinders not all 4 will be firing.
I know, GB must be patient Vandenburg. We are on the verge of having two great players... It's almost overwhelming...
Seriously though, he is well up that curve now as you suggest and has come so far very quickly. I see he just went 22years old yesterday, plenty of time.