Stircrazy wrote:

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Bob in Spain wrote:

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Quick shout out for Yuchi Sugita, who sneaked into the MD on a lucky loser spot having been beaten in qualies by Steven Diez. Sugita has now taken out Robredo, Gasquet and Carreño Busta to reach the QFs.

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I've been watching his progress with some interest, Bob.    It'll be interesting to see how Dominic Thiem deals with him.

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Thursday 27th of April 2017 04:04:26 PM

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Apparently quite well, Thiem won 6-1 6-2.

So having already accounted for two Brits, Thiem will in the SF play Andy or err Ramos-Vinolas.

Andy's first serve in 37% ( 19/51) !

His serve, having improved yesterday on last week, seems to have gone into sharp reverse 

Andy played his best game so far takes set 6-4 one set all

Service percentage gradually picking up from a terrible start in the first set. 43% in the second - keeps the match alive at 2-6 6-4

bad start at the beginning of set loses serve 0-1

Oakland2002 wrote:

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Jeff Stelling wrote:

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Strongly agree with both. I've produced a list of horrid over-ranked players who cheapened themselves and their nations by playing a pathetic quantity of risible tournaments.

If they were football teams they'd have been playing in the cranberry sauce leagues, but as it is they ended up being "world class" tennis players.

Rainer Schuettler
Fernando Vicente
Albert Montanes
Kenny de Schepper
Nikolay Davydenko (although it mitigation he could ball a bit)
Lars Burgsmuller
Anthony Dupuis
Bjorn Phau
Bohdan Ulihrach
Andrea Gaudenzi
Marcelo Fillipini
Sargis Sargsian

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 If they were footballers having been consistently in the world top 150 players they would be playing in the premiership for the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool. Tennis must be the toughest high profile sports at which to make a living when you consider world rank v's capacity to earn a living, I don't think you can criticise those that try to make some cash by playing tournaments they know they might progress in or even win. Surely that's just common sense

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I agree with that Oakland and I feel the language used about them is way OTT.

Some may well have been "overranked" but the ranking system is what is and not their problem as professional players trying to make the best of what they have.

There are some better players, who as mentioned may have scheduled better ( though one size certainly doesn't best fit all ). One wonders for instance if David Ferrer might have done better in Slams had he targetted them more, he hasn't just over the years played a multitude of tournaments he has often played in the week before Slams, but maybe he too has also got overall the best of what he had. Thiem of current top ranked players seems unable to resist a tournament and it did seem to catch up on him latterly last year 

Ramos will now serve for the match at *5-4. Really need that scoreboard pressure to make it's mark now.