Week 9 - ATP 500 - Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships - UAE (hard)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Week 9 - ATP 500 - Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships - UAE (hard)

flamingowings · All-time great

There's an (now unranked) Irishman in the draw, after receiving a WC, turns out Dubai Duty Free's CEO is Irish. Nice bit of money.

-- Edited by flamingowings on Friday 22nd of February 2019 11:55:49 PM

Jaffa · Challenger level

James McGee often received wildcards for this event too!

Madadman · Masters Series Champion

Cant believe Geoffrey Howe didnt get a WC!

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Madadman wrote:
Cant believe Geoffrey Howe didnt get a WC!

biggrin biggrin biggrin

Although you may have meant Gregory Howe. wink

-- Edited by Bob in Spain on Saturday 23rd of February 2019 07:49:38 AM

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

L16: Dominic Inglot & Franko Skugor (CRO) CR 52 (23+29) vs Ben McLachlan & Jan-Lennard Struff (JPN/GER) CR 57 (27+30)

L16: Karen Khachanov & Daniil Medvedev (RUS/RUS) CR 516 (126+390) vs (4) Rajeev Ram (USA) & Joe Salisbury CR 45 (21+24)

Madadman · Masters Series Champion

Bob in Spain wrote:
Madadman wrote:
Cant believe Geoffrey Howe didnt get a WC!

Although you may have meant Gregory Howe.

-- Edited by Bob in Spain on Saturday 23rd of February 2019 07:49:38 AM

Yeah him as well!

flamingowings · All-time great

Ward should be up shortly.

the addict · Tennis legend

Gregory may not have got a WC, but he's there watching Wardy

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

First set down the pan by 7-6(4) after Dino served for it at 6-5. cry

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

QR1: (q3) Jiri Vesely (CZE) WR 94 defeated James Ward WR 179 by 7-6(4) 7-6(4)

flamingowings · All-time great

He was up in that 2nd TB

Shhh · Challenger level

James keeps getting quite close but he's not picking up the wins. His schedule strikes me as someone who is going for the bigger events and will not bother to try to build via challengers so much, more conscious that time is not on his side?

gh · Social player

flamingowings wrote:
There's an (now unranked) Irishman in the draw, after receiving a WC, turns out Dubai Duty Free's CEO is Irish. Nice bit of money.

-- Edited by flamingowings on Friday 22nd of February 2019 11:55:49 PM

There is a bit of contraversy down here at the moment regarding the allocation of WC into the qualies - not so much with the Irishman (former 800 ranking I've heard), but the unranked Egyptian in the draw. Probably not even in top 40 in UAE rankings. I beat him in a local event a little while ago. Meanwhile the number one Emirati, whose also a 1.1 rating in the UK and number one in the UAE rankings was overlooked at the last minute. Interestingly, the unranked Egyptian has been in charge of the ball kids at the event for the past few years...just as an aside.

gh · Social player

Shhh wrote:
James keeps getting quite close but he's not picking up the wins. His schedule strikes me as someone who is going for the bigger events and will not bother to try to build via challengers so much, more conscious that time is not on his side?

It was quite hard to watch it today. He was easily in the match and had half chances to pull ahead, and for much of the match looked really good. And then, out of nowhere he shanked a couple of forehands and made a couple of unforced errors during the tiebreak and it was gone. He looked like a player who just doesn't have enough wins under his belt and got tight at the wrong times. The worst thing was, from up in the stands it felt inevitable that somehow he'd lose each tiebreak.