Week 26 - Wimbledon men's qualifying

hoots · Intermediate Club Player

RE: Week 26 - Wimbledon men's qualifying

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Well done Alex Ward. Perseverance and talent - great combination. Pity for Jay - excellent run though and will be great to watch as he progresses. Sad for Marcus - tough to be injured when so close to a major but a proper schedule for the next year will see where he really is in the rankings.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

I am truly delighted for Alex. I have been following his career since I met him in La Manga on a training camp a few years back. As the regular readers here will know, I have seen him play live in 4 different tournaments (Marseille ATP qualies, Vale do Lobo Futures QF, Wimbledon 2016, Madrid Futures SF) and I have yet to see him win a match. Needless to say I have no intention of flying over to jinx him again at this year's Wimbledon.

As people have said, there are few players more dedicated than Alex, and few that have been through so many injury layoffs and still come back to play at this level. Last year he played Wimbledon as a WC and I hope that experience stands him in good stead this year, where he has earned his own place as of right this time.

And as others have said, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

indiana · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
SMC1809 wrote:
A1 tennis academy wrote:
Best of 5 marcus wins he's a genius on this surface
ranking 1017 - Dec 2012 117kg
ranking 320 - end 2015. 101kg
ranking 420 - july 2016. 92kg
current I estimate 95kg so arguably at his fighting weight
i believe that marcus best weight is always going to be 90kg + with more activity on tour hopefully post Wimbledon 2017 he will improve his fitness . Marcus is a powerful athlete /tennis player not a cat walk model

As I'm 6ft 1in and 95kg, I can tell there's no way that Marcus is 95kg. I'm not criticising his weight in any way, but given that he's 6ft 3ish he must be around 110kg ish.
The ATP says he's 6 feet 3 inches & 91 kg!
A quote from him in today's Times:
I will go out there and everything I have got. I am very awkward to play when I play well. I am a better player than last year - I'm fitter, I'm faster, I'm moving better. I was still a very good player last year, but Mr Federer tipped me out in the end. I still stick by it. If I hadn't played him, I could have won some more matches.
Nothing if not self-confident!

Or delusional !

indiana · Tennis legend

By the way Gary protests too much and re not being given fair recognition. Actually that itself is unfair, many people on here have made many comments on how good he was for Marcus and the noticeable big climb up the rankings to a much more reasonable level for his rankings. And he certainly did clearly work at fitness and lose weight. He has just as clearly put weight back on.

While comments re take care re weight remarks are reasonable, the clear fact is to anyone with decent eyesight he is carrying too much flab. He actually does indeed move pretty well with it and has often shown good stamina but any idea that he wouldn't have much more chance of making strides as a pro tennis player much lighter is again absolutely delusional.

Jiwan · Club Coach

indiana wrote:
hoots wrote:
Jaffa-Castle always IS insufferable. [Today he put the commentator's curse on Jay by thinking he'd won when he went two sets up then realising he hadn't]Should have been replaced long ago.John Lloyd's a pain to listen to too .

-- Edited by hoots on Thursday 29th of June 2017 04:23:29 PM
Quelle surprise !
I think it was a couple of years ago during Queen's he displayed his ignorance re the Wimbledon Q WC play-offs clearly thinking that these play-offs were to get into the main draw.
It's pretty close to unacceptable that he thinks he can away with a bit of patter and clearly so little research re the tournaments he is directly commentating on or discussing ( though some things you would just think he would know ). Or indeed often players.

Andrew C's brother runs an 'antique' shop around the corner form me in Brixton. He's equally bonkers

GBJ · Club Coach

I'm assuming (but hoping I'm wrong) that Jay and Marcus don't go into a draw for LL spots. Someone asked how that worked earlier but I missed the answer

thejester · Satellite level

GBJ wrote:
I'm assuming (but hoping I'm wrong) that Jay and Marcus don't go into a draw for LL spots. Someone asked how that worked earlier but I missed the answer

I asked the question, and also missed the answer (if indeed it was given). My (fairly unreliable) memory tells me the draw for LL spots is a 'lucky dip' of the better ranked FQR losers. Obviously our two guys being wild cards wouldn't be in the mix if that is the case.

Kounosuke · Intermediate Club Player

It's the top 4 ranked losers of the final qualifying round who go in to the draw, so it will be Lacko, King, Polansky and Bublik this time.

Mervatron2 · Challenger qualifying

Gutted for Jay but what a leap in the past 12 months. Hope this drives him on even further.

So happy for Alex. He's been working so hard for years and always got an injury when was at a career high or near abouts.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Something happened at 5-2 in the 2nd set in Jay's match, because up until then he was comfortably the better player, but from that moment on Ofner seemed to get on top, Jay edged the TB, but Ofner had started to make his mark. Gutted for Jay, spent alot of time chatting to him recently, and was suggesting that a qualie WC might be best for him in the long term, in that he would have a real shot of qualifying and it would be a great way to keep building his career, instead of a MDWC where he could get a top seed, and potentially not gain anything from a tennis perspective, the upside being a much bigger pay cheque. He will get the Wimby experience assuming Marcus is ok via the doubles WC. Finances are obviously always important etc., but I'm pretty sure Jay is heading for a very good career, and finances will shortly not be as important.

Shame for Marcus, who was undone by the scheduling and the injury, still he's playing well, and if he wants it he can still have a very rewarding career.

Really chuffed for Alex, who wasn't given any hope of qualifying but on his best form, is very capable of doing what he's just done. I spoke to hime very very briefly at Notts and he said he was 100% physically but was not quite match tight yet, I think he's proven he's sorted that bit out now !

Michael D · All-time great

Yes, at the end of the second set of Jay's match I was really wondering what might be going through his head. In a best of 3 match, with Ofner's come back late in the second set, Jay would just have been highly relieved to get the job done before his opponent really started picking up his game. Thus at that point I was wondering whether he was psychologically ready for potentially a very long match. Somehow a straights sets win did not seem really on the cards after Ofner's uptick in that last part of the second set. Jay will think a lot about that match now in retrospect, so I hope next time he faces a potential 5-setter he will know what it's about now in terms of stamina and will be psychologically better prepared. it's been great to see his promise, especially after some of the racist twitter ---- he's already having to endure.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

So, they say that it's always the quiet one to watch out for....

And didn't Alex prove them right... biggrin

Given the fact that he must have been last - or joint last - on the list of wildcards, for him to be the one to get through it pretty amazing !

And, again, he thoroughly deserved it. It's true that Gab had heavy strapping on his thigh, and he got the guy on to re-strap it in the first set. But he didn't have any actual treatment on it. And, although he would sometimes hop and grimace after he lost a point, he (like nearly all players) strangely never did it after winning a point hmm

Having seen a bit of his match yesterday, I thought Gab was moving pretty much as well as normal today. And he's a big hitter, not a guy who relies on crafting out a point. The only time where I thought it really relevant was at the beginning of the fourth set where, having lost the third set T-B (which was very close), Gab just didn't look like a guy who fancied going the distance and playing five. There was something about him.... Although I couldn't help feeling that, if Alex made the fourth set easy for him, he;d manage to dredge up the energy from somewhere without too much difficulty, he was very motivated.

But luckily Alex didn't. A good, tight, professional match - helped by much encouragement from Jonny O and Scott. And a big hug from Fran Jones at the end. smile

Brilliant result for him, just so well-deserved.

Nix · Futures level

Jiwan wrote:
indiana wrote:
hoots wrote:
Jaffa-Castle always IS insufferable. [Today he put the commentator's curse on Jay by thinking he'd won when he went two sets up then realising he hadn't]Should have been replaced long ago.John Lloyd's a pain to listen to too .

-- Edited by hoots on Thursday 29th of June 2017 04:23:29 PM
Quelle surprise !
I think it was a couple of years ago during Queen's he displayed his ignorance re the Wimbledon Q WC play-offs clearly thinking that these play-offs were to get into the main draw.
It's pretty close to unacceptable that he thinks he can away with a bit of patter and clearly so little research re the tournaments he is directly commentating on or discussing ( though some things you would just think he would know ). Or indeed often players.
Andrew C's brother runs an 'antique' shop around the corner form me in Brixton. He's equally bonkers.
Jiwan, I met the brothet on hols a few years ago. He was indeed bonkers. His son was beaten in a table tennis competition (for kids) and he insisted on playing (beating) the poor winner. Bit embarrassing for a grown man.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Jay's a treasure. His team will know what to work on and no doubt will have a list of 'take-aways' from today's match, it's all work in progress. And Ofner deserves credit for playing progressively better and better and changing tactics (he began really peppering Jay's backhand).
But, overall, the level of tennis, and fitness, and application, etc. that Jay brought to the court today was a joy.

Of course, there were some other very gifted teenagers displaying their skills too - 18 year-old Tsitsipas, 19 year-old Rublev, 19 year-old Fritz, for example - so one doesn't want to get carried away. But it's all good !