LordBrownof wrote:

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Jaggy1876 wrote:

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LordBrownof wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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I have kind of gathered that folk's definitions of a challenger player rather vary

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Not those folks that think the definition of a Challenger player is anyone not seeded at a slam. 

-- Edited by LordBrownof on Wednesday 23rd of August 2017 05:19:13 PM

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 Roughly speaking that's fairly accurate.

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 Feliciano Lopez, ranked outside of the top 32 and therefore a Challenger player in Jaggy's world, has earned just over $1m dollars in the first 8 months of 2017. Nice work if you can get it! 

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Gawd knows when Lopez last played a challenger. He really does need told to get back to where he belongs and stop taking money out of the pockets of true ATP players. I know the ATP doesn't help with this daft top 50 have to ask for dispensation to play in events which are clearly the true place for many of them, but just ask, Feliciano.

As Bambo says:

Luke BambridgeVerified account @Bambo290 Aug 22

"So if you're 19, inside 150 ATP and American. You don't get a WC main draw into the US Open? Tough crowd @stefankozlov"

He then breaks to take the set 6-4

Coup Droit wrote:

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As Bambo says:

Luke BambridgeVerified account @Bambo290 Aug 22

"So if you're 19, inside 150 ATP and American. You don't get a WC main draw into the US Open? Tough crowd @stefankozlov"

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Probably rather more chance though than if you are Canadian, miss the MD cut but are then top 70 and clearly a very big prospect.

 

Yes, I noticed Kozlov's omission. But I don't, to be honest, find it problematic in the way Mr Bambridge's own omission was. The US system offers two reciprocal WCs (France/Australia), one to the winner of the university championships, one to the winner of the most points in the tournaments before the Open, and one to the winner of the Boys 18s National Championships. This leaves them with only three MD WCs to give to others. Taylor Fritz was an obvious choice: he had an off 'second year' as so many do, but his ranking's inching higher, and he belongs at that level. Bjorn Fratangelo is the 'next highest' US man in both the ATP race and the ATP rankings. Which leaves the last card. They could have given it to Kozlov, but he's had a lot of WCs over the years. And Christopher Eubanks, who got the WC, is exactly the kind of player we'd tend to like to see honoured here: a top university player entering the Tour after finishing his university career, so a little bit older and lower-ranked - but still only 21 and with some very handy results at Tour level. Feels like a good decision to me.

As for Shapovalov ... the WC news story came out on the 15th, the week after Shapovalov's run, but they may well have told players earlier. As noted on the WCs thread, I'd favour two places held in the event that there are two people who miss the cut when it's made but would make it at the time of the qualifying tournament - I don't think for this tournament, for example, that having Shapovalov and Mayer in qualies helps them or anyone else. But since there aren't such cards, and given the constraints noted above and the range of US players who fit a MD WC profile, it would have been quite a difficult situation.

-- Edited by Spectator on Thursday 24th of August 2017 06:58:22 PM

Meanwhile, back on the court ........

Cam finally gets the break and will serve for the match 6-4 *6-5