Week 9 - Oracle Challenger ($162,480+H) - Indian Wells, CA, USA (hard)

Sheddie · administrator

Week 9 - Oracle Challenger ($162,480+H) - Indian Wells, CA, USA (hard)

Sheddie · administrator

Rublev breaks again for 5-2. Just too good from the Russian today

Kyle will have to play well to beat him

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Dan is broken again, Rublev serves for the match. This isn't the same level of performance as we have seen of late

wolf · Tennis legend

Dan's knackered, that's it really 12th match in 14 days.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
For the record:
SF: (WC/1) Kyle Edmund WR 27 defeated (5) Lloyd Harris (RSA) WR 99 by 6-2 4-6 6-1

Dan's heroics over the last couple of weeks seem finally to have caught up with him:

SF: (7) Andrei Rublev (RUS) WR 112 defeated Daniel Evans WR 105 by 2 & 2

*****

Final: (WC/1) Kyle Edmund WR 27 vs (7) Andrei Rublev (RUS) WR 112

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Rublev was rock solid and had great success with his big forehand. Dan made too many errors.

It has still been a decent week for Dan, he can chill before next week.

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Disappointing loss today but the extra time off will be good for Dan. Just didn't seem to have the energy for One more battle and Rublev wasn't giving in. Fantastic couple of weeks though.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Think all the matches will have finally caught up. Great couple of weeks and should be fresher for next week and I guess the forum won't be as split npw in tomorrow's final.

Rublev missed a fair bit of last season including 2 slams, but I was still surprised to see him ranked outside the top 100 at 112. He was circa 30 this time last year and is a lot better than his current ranking. If he takes the title, he'll climb above Dan and back into the top 100.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Sunday 3rd of March 2019 01:06:24 AM

Michael D · All-time great

Ace Ventura wrote:
Think all the matches will have finally caught up. Great couple of weeks and should be fresher for next week and I guess the forum won't be as split npw in tomorrow's final.

Rublev missed a fair bit of last season including 2 slams, but I was still surprised to see him ranked outside the top 100 at 112. He was circa 30 this time last year and is a lot better than his current ranking. If he takes the title, he'll climb above Dan and back into the top 100.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Sunday 3rd of March 2019 01:06:24 AM

Yes, so ironically although Dan has been LR 100 for all of his last 3 wins (he first got there with his R32 win and has added another 35 pts since then), he could still end up the week ranked outside the top 100 at 101!

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Ace Ventura wrote:
Think all the matches will have finally caught up. Great couple of weeks and should be fresher for next week and I guess the forum won't be as split npw in tomorrow's final.

Rublev missed a fair bit of last season including 2 slams, but I was still surprised to see him ranked outside the top 100 at 112. He was circa 30 this time last year and is a lot better than his current ranking. If he takes the title, he'll climb above Dan and back into the top 100.

This was my concern about him playing this week too. Not worth the points or energy compared to IW proper. I just hope he can regroup and recover in time for IW qualies.

Jan · Hall of fame

Good news about Kyle!
When you consider that Dan might not have played this week at all then it's been good for him too.
And no divided loyalties in the final!!

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Agree with Jan. Would love to have seen an all GB final but at least there will be no divided loyalties.

JonH · All-time great

The points this week certainly help him and he is also v match tight now. The weeks from quimper, through Delray and here have been excellent. Sets him up well for qualies, no travelling needed, day or so rest and used to courts of course. Excellent.

Go Kyle now!

SuperT · Futures level

I think this has been an excellent week for both players. The points won have helped Dan's ranking, but in all honestly he probably needs the extra day's rest before qualies start. By contrast, the points Kyle has accumulated are not that significant, but he's really benefited from the match practice in the same environment where he'll be for the main tournament. Also must have got lots of confidence from getting wins under his belt, and even more if he can win the tournament tonight. Go Kyle!!!

indiana · Tennis legend

Jaggy1876 wrote:
Kyle has raised the bar here looks a bit more aggressive 2-0 decider. Should win this now. Would be his first win against a top 100 player on a long time. Not that he gets fortunate draws of course.....

biggrin

Kyle had only played in 2 tournaments this year before this week due to injury before returning in this Challenger. His last match before this week was his Aus Open R1 loss to Berdych.

Now let's go chronologically backwards through his last 4 tournaments of 2018 :

Vienna : beat Schwartzman, WR 17, his previous top 100 win, then lost to Verdasco.

Antwerp : his 3 matches were all against top 100 players. Won the title, beating Monfils in the final.

Shanghai : his 4 matches were all against top 100 players, he lost to Sasha Zverev in the QF.

Beijing: his 4 matches were all against top 100 players, lost to Basilashvili in the SF.

So in those last 4 tournaments of 2018, before his only 2 tournaments previously this year, all 13 of his matches were against top 100 opponents and he won 10 of them.