Week 2 - USA F2 ($25,000) - Long Beach, CA (hard)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Week 2 - USA F2 ($25,000) - Long Beach, CA (hard)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

QR1: (q9) Lucas Renard (SWE) WR 1418 defeated Emerson Sekban UNR by 0 & 3

QR1: (qWC) Jordan Bridge (USA) UNR defeated Toby Mitchell UNR by 7-6(5) 6-4 cry

Oakland2002 · All-time great

A short run for Emerson of Santa Barbara City community college which is one of 9 teams in in the West Coast Conference of the Californian Community College athletic association. There are 9 other all sport conferences so that gives you an idea of the depth of Californian college tennis outside of the NCAA!!

The LTA let alone BUSA have their work cut out to compete with this level of competitive high level grass roots, but heavily coached and resourced tennis. All this is fed by the best local high school players playing outside all year in beautiful sunshine, and then reinforced by overseas players trying to get into 4 year colleges. The men's individual champion is Spanish.

Danielle Garrido (San Diego Messa) won the ladies individual tournament last year (she was a three star recruit on tennis recruiting) and didn't loose a set all year.

Irvine Valley community college are the standout community programme on the men's side having one back to back team titles and this year the men's individual. They are coached by a college basketball player! (in fairness a likely sporting polymath). They do have a Brit who cropped in qualifying in one of the futures events in the autumn (fountain valley week 39), Jack Fryer so it will be interesting to see if either step up to 4 year schools. Interestingly that was Jordan Angus's first post grad futures and he now seems to be making some progress.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Sunday 8th of January 2017 08:13:43 AM

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Sunday 8th of January 2017 08:41:59 AM

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
QR1: (q9) Lucas Renard (SWE) WR 1418 defeated Emerson Sekban UNR by 0 & 3
QR1: (qWC) Jordan Bridge (USA) UNR defeated Toby Mitchell UNR by 7-6(5) 6-4

QR1: Thibault Forget (FRA) UNR defeated Jordan Angus UNR by 4 & 2

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Argh sorry jinxed Jordan with previous post. Sorry

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

L32: (WC) Brandon Holt (USA) UNR vs Luke Bambridge WR 614 (CH = 481 last May)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

L16: (1) Luke Bambridge & Joe Salisbury CR 535 (220+315) vs Dekel Bar & Nathaniel Lammons (ISR/USA) CR 1341 (727+614)

A repeat of last week's QF, which the boys won by 3 & 5

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

L32: (WC) Brandon Holt (USA) UNR defeated Luke Bambridge WR 614 by 1 & 4 bleh

indiana · Tennis legend

Luke's a conundrum. Watched him be, for me, clearly the best player in last week's 25K doubles losing final, and some of what he displayed then, such as his returning and instinctive skills look very useful for singles.

Anyone seen much of him in singles lately ? Are there particular technical issues holding him back and / or does ( lack of ) confidence seem an issue ?

steven · Tennis legend

One of my Twitter followers informs me that Brandon (junior CH 47 last Aug) is Tracy Austin's son.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Same opponents, same outcome:

L16: (1) Luke Bambridge & Joe Salisbury CR 535 (220+315) defeated Dekel Bar & Nathaniel Lammons (ISR/USA) CR 1341 (727+614) by 3 & 2 smile

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Luke's a conundrum. Watched him be, for me, clearly the best player in last week's 25K doubles losing final, and some of what he displayed then, such as his returning and instinctive skills look very useful for singles.

Anyone seen much of him in singles lately ? Are there particular technical issues holding him back and / or does ( lack of ) confidence seem an issue ?

Someone on here who knows their tennis well said last year that they thought his movement was his main issue in singles.

And, having seen only a little bit a few months ago, on livestream, they've got a good point - I didn't see enough to really have a judgment but the little I saw did show him being a bit flat-footed and just not dynamic enough from the back of the court...

Spectator · All-time great

As Steven noted, Brandon Holt has good tennis genes.

In terms of movement, what actually struck me last week in Luke Bambridge's doubles was that in the (very) little I'd seen of him earlier, that had appeared not to be a strength. But I thought that on the doubles court last week, in the bit (again not enough really to make a judgement) that I saw he was moving really well. Who knows.

But anyway, at least they're progressing in the doubles. So he's got something to be happy about. And Tracy Austin (as per her Twitter) is a very happy mum.

Timothy · Improver

Coup Droit wrote:
indiana wrote:
Luke's a conundrum. Watched him be, for me, clearly the best player in last week's 25K doubles losing final, and some of what he displayed then, such as his returning and instinctive skills look very useful for singles.

Anyone seen much of him in singles lately ? Are there particular technical issues holding him back and / or does ( lack of ) confidence seem an issue ?

Someone on here who knows their tennis well said last year that they thought his movement was his main issue in singles.
And, having seen only a little bit a few months ago, on livestream, they've got a good point - I didn't see enough to really have a judgement but the little I saw did show him being a bit flat-footed and just not dynamic enough from the back of the court...

Luke's problem isn't his straight line speed, his transition from forward to backhand and driving out of the corners is where the problem lies, too much momentum is lost. It is well known amongst players that if they draw Luke all that's needed is to keep hitting the corners and not to give him the ball, he has very good hands hence his success at doubles!

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

QF: (1) Luke Bambridge & Joe Salisbury CR 535 (220+315) vs Sebastian Bader & Sebastian Fanselow (AUT/GER) CR 1405 (606+797)