indiana wrote:

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Stircrazy wrote:

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I see David O'Hare has a WC alongside James McGee, but they've had the misfortune to draw the third seeds, Nestor & ERV!

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Be good if David O'Hare picked up some big points. He's currently WR 131 ( edit: up to WR 128 in the 27/02 rankings ). Would push him closer to the top 100 and help with CRs for entries with hopefully Joe Salisbury in the future.

I can't recall an Irish top 100 player ?

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The third seeds proved far too strong for the Irish boys, winning by 1 & 1.   

Yay, great to see Dan over 1,000 points too. From where he was just a couple of years ago, talented as everyone knew he was, that's a tremendous effort and no doubt even surpassing many supporters' best expectations.

Yes, main tour clay will be an issue, and he has all these hard court challenger points to defend, but I assume he will give it a good go so should get better over the weeks, and then ready to shock at the French Open !

Stircrazy wrote:

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L32:  Dan Evans WR 44 defeated Dustin Brown (GER) WR 84 by 2 & 3 

*****

Bit of a test in the next round:

L16:  Dan Evans WR 44 vs (4) Gaël Monfils (FRA) WR 12 (CH = 6 last November) 

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L32:  (1) Andy Murray WR 1 defeated Malek Jaziri (TUN) WR 47 by 4 & 1 

*****

L16:  (1) Andy Murray WR 1 vs Guillermo García (ESP) WR 97 (CH = 23 in February 2011)

Given that GGL is now 33, it's perhaps a bit surprising that he & Andy have met only three times.  Andy won the first two (last 16 at Queen's in 2009 - 4 & 4 - & the last 32 of the Oz Open in 2011 - 1, 1 & 2) & GGL the third (last 64 of Indian Wells in 2012 - 4 & 2).

I take it Dan will have to play 2/3 clay masters as they are mandatory?

cecil wrote:

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I take it Dan will have to play 2/3 clay masters as they are mandatory?

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 I think he could take them the three masters series events as "zero pointers", ie they would be included in his 16 counting tournaments for ranking purposes.   If I was in Dan's position, I wouldn't train too hard for the dirt but probably would travel to all of them to keep sponsors and the ATP happy.  More interesting is whether he will choose to play all 4 weeks of grass.  After Wimbledon, he could play on hard every week if he chose to.   

He has a hard day tmrw - doubles after his match against Gael

First 8 points were alarmingly one-sided (Dan won one with an ace) but since then it's been fairly even. Only the one break point in the set.

Dan with an awful 2nd serve return at 15-30 as Monfils takes the opening set 4-6

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Terrible game from Dan to start the 2nd set. 2 forehand errors then a df and a smash into the net to give away the break 0-1*

Dan responds with a sublime return game to break to love, including 2 return winners and a brilliant running forehand pass winner 1-1

DE challenges a call and sees his backhand down the line has found the line for a winner 2-1*

Dan with a well constructed point finishing at the net for 0-30 then really works hard to stay in a long rally, rewarded by a soft GM error. Monfils with a wild drop shot error for the break to love *3-1

Dan's level drops, misses a couple of shots he was making, then sees GM crush a brutal backhand down the line for a winner to break 3-2*

GM with 2 dfs then a shocking smash into the net for the break *4-2

Not seeing many first serves landed so far this set. Dan carelessly hands GM a bp then comes up with a decent volley winner to save it, more good play to hold 5-2*

Monfils finally comes up with a competent service game, holding to love *5-3

Dan with a rare unreturned first serve as he holds to 15 to take the 2nd set 6-3

-- Edited by kundalini on Wednesday 1st of March 2017 04:10:41 PM