Week 42 - ATP 250 - European Open, Antwerp, Belgium (indoor hard)

SuperT · Futures qualifying

Week 42 - ATP 250 - European Open, Antwerp, Belgium (indoor hard)

flamingowings · All-time great

Earlier in the evening, Monfils pulled off this shot in a way that only Monfils can do. Monfils beat Tsonga in 3 sets. Nice to see Tsonga back on court.

Priesty · Challenger level

Wow, that was pretty convincing.....

JonH · All-time great

Nice one for Kyle and Ivashka should be beatable in next round. Draw now looks like this:

Edmund - Ivashka

Gasquet - Struff - Kyle leads Gasquet 2-1 H2H, although Gasquet won in Antwerp in 2016; Kyle leads Struff 1-0 (Vienna last season)

Monfils - Pospisil - Monfils leads Kyle 1-0 (Wimbledon 2017);

Simon - Schwartzman - Simon leads Kyle 2-1; 1-1 with Schwartzmann for Kyle

indiana · Tennis legend

Priesty wrote:
Wow, that was pretty convincing.....

A good way to cut down on court time if playing quite a lot of matches over successive weeks

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Thats the next step for Kyle if he is truely to become the undisputed best challenger player of all time. Putting away non seeded players in straight sets, no tie breaks and ideally breaking them twice. Sustaining his rank and pushing on deep into the top 10 is all about arriving in the second week of slams with plenty in the tank ready for an all out attritional battle with the top ten.

To get into the last 8 of slams consistently would be a realistic target over the next couple of years, once you are there, a bit of luck (Kyle works hard enough to have loads ) and anything can happen.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Friday 19th of October 2018 06:03:41 AM

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

Surely putting away these challenger players hes plays in ATPs would make him the best Challenger player of all time Oakland or am I missing something?

He certainly does get them on draws. Ivashka in a quarter final for example. AVR is on the wane as well, he looked barely a futures player yesterday. If Cam had his luck in draws hed be top 32 now as well.

When he is beating the likes of Zverev, Thiem, Fed, Novak, Rafa, Stan, Andy, Del Potro etc regularly then well talk.

indiana · Tennis legend

Cam's done well ( currently close to my prediction for this year ). Kyle is well ahead of my prediction for him mainly because he has improved much more than I expected him to do.

AND even since the Australian Open ( not of course that that run and some of the wins are remotely worth dismissing ) Kyle has scored 1280 ranking points and Cam 627.

So such a clear difference will just be luck etc. like the team that loses 6-0 due to a couple of offside goals, a handball and a dubious penalty. It was actually really close, guv. Maybe more delusion. No Cam would not be top 32 with similar draws.

I am sorry your prediction of the Cam takeover from Kyle by next May looks on such dodgy ground but this continual lack of recognition for Kyle even when he blasts a decent player ( yes, no doubt Ramos chose his Kyle match just to have an awful day and isn't what he was, just like so many players Kyle beats, eh ) is a bit sad really. WR 15, race #13.

All the best to Kyle and Cam and hope they both continue to move forward. Great that Kyle has picked things up again at this time of the year to bookend an overall great year of progress, if occasional hiccups.

-- Edited by indiana on Friday 19th of October 2018 02:55:46 PM

christ · Futures qualifying

Jaggy1876 wrote:
When he is beating the likes of ... Fed, Novak, Rafa, Stan, Andy, Del Potro etc regularly then well talk.

... and someone will say they are past it now, he couldnt beat them when they were good, he was just lucky to be born so late ...

-- Edited by christ on Friday 19th of October 2018 03:26:11 PM

the addict · Tennis legend

christ wrote:
Jaggy1876 wrote:
When he is beating the likes of ... Fed, Novak, Rafa, Stan, Andy, Del Potro etc regularly then well talk.
... and someone will say they are past it now, he couldnt beat them when they were good, he was just lucky to be born so late ...

Trying to think of players outside of those mentioned that DO regularly beat them. OK, Cilic, Thiem, Dimitrov, Anderson do sometimes - oh hang on, they are all top 10 players, and Kyle is just a lowly WR15

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, he could have played the top players a bit more this year and on balance has had decent draws, though not as dead lucky as made out, and not particularly played them more than last year.

But this year, for the first time, he has held his own in results against top 16 players when he has met them, as I indicated when Jaggy asked recently what was his record against top 10 and 16 players.

Against top 16, it is now won 5, lost 5 this year - not a huge number but certainly no indication that he hasn't belonged for most of the year around the WR 20 mark and recently just inside the top 16.

With their rankings at the time, this year Kyle has beaten: Dimitrov (3), Goffin (10), Anderson (12), Djokovic (12) and Pouille (16), and lost to Dimitrov (3), Zverev (3), Zverev (5), Cilic (6) and Schwartzman (12).

Yes it would be good to play more top 16 players, indeed more particularly top 10, against whom he is 2-4 this year. But he hadn't beaten anyone above WR 14 before this year ( one thing I brought up before ) and now has his best 4 ranking wins coming this year.

It is another indication of his clear progress. Onward ...

Jan · Hall of fame

I just sat down to watch Kyle's match to discover he's won by a walkover.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Kyle gets a walkover into the semis. Nice for him perhaps, but I was just settling down for a nice viewing

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Jaggy in absolute ruins biggrin

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Snap ^^^^^