Week 16 - Challenger ($108,320+H) - Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open - FL, USA (clay)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Week 16 - Challenger ($108,320+H) - Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open - FL, USA (clay)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

In the doubles:

L16: (1) Luke Bambridge & Jonny O'Mara CR 94 (46+48) vs Tennys Sandgren (USA) & James Ward CR 683 (140+543)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

L32: (14) James Ward WR 187 (CH = 89 in July 2015) vs (WC) Sebastian Korda (USA) WR 514 (= CH)

JonH · All-time great

Ward is on now, 3-0 down and two breaks. Doesnt look at all good. In fact the tennis on the ATP Stream looks pretty awful from James.

I also realise I hate green clay or asphalt or whatever it officially is. Yuk

JonH · All-time great

Wardy has kept it pretty close and is heading to 2nd set tb, lost first 6-4 eventually

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

First set down the pan by 4-6, but Dino redresses the balance by taking the second by 7-6(3).

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
First set down the pan by 4-6, but Dino redresses the balance by taking the second by 7-6(3).

Oh dear! Things clearly went downhill from there:

L32: (WC) Sebastian Korda (USA) WR 514 defeated (14) James Ward WR 187 by 6-4 6-7(3) 6-1 bleh

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

L16: (1) Luke Bambridge & Jonny O'Mara CR 94 (46+48) defeated Tennys Sandgren (USA) & James Ward CR 683 (140+543) by 6-2 3-6 [10-6] smile cry

******

QF: (1) Luke Bambridge & Jonny O'Mara CR 94 (46+48) vs Alex Lawson & Peter Polansky (USA/CAN) CR 314 (167+147)

wolf · Tennis legend

QF: (1) Luke Bambridge & Jonny O'Mara CR 94 (46+48) beat Alex Lawson & Peter Polansky (USA/CAN) CR 314 (167+147) 6-3 6-3

indiana · Tennis legend

wolf wrote:
QF: (1) Luke Bambridge & Jonny O'Mara CR 94 (46+48) beat Alex Lawson & Peter Polansky (USA/CAN) CR 314 (167+147) 6-3 6-3

Net they will each now be up a whole 2 ranking points. The SF here last year earned them 33 points, this year it is 35 points.

Hopefully they will add a few more. The winners get 100 points, the runners up 60.

As a regular partnership they have just recently passed their first anniversary. Their rankings on 09/04/18 were Luke 125, Jonny 154. Their current 15/04/19 rankings are Luke 48, Jonny 51. I'd say it's gone rather well.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

SF: (1) Luke Bambridge & Jonny O'Mara CR 99 (48+51) vs (3) Nathaniel Lammons & Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (USA/PAK) CR 156 (102+54)

JonH · All-time great

Stircrazy wrote:
SF: (1) Luke Bambridge & Jonny O'Mara CR 99 (48+51) vs (3) Nathaniel Lammons & Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (USA/PAK) CR 156 (102+54)

Qureshi is a decent player , he won in Houston last week with Gonzalez, so this could be tough. I reckon the Brits will win but feels like a MTB situation!

wolf · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
wolf wrote:
QF: (1) Luke Bambridge & Jonny O'Mara CR 94 (46+48) beat Alex Lawson & Peter Polansky (USA/CAN) CR 314 (167+147) 6-3 6-3
Net they will each now be up a whole 2 ranking points. The SF here last year earned them 33 points, this year it is 35 points.
Hopefully they will add a few more. The winners get 100 points, the runners up 60.
As a regular partnership they have just recently passed their first anniversary. Their rankings on 09/04/18 were Luke 125, Jonny 154. Their current 15/04/19 rankings are Luke 48, Jonny 51. I'd say it's gone rather well.

While they have done excellently the system must be hugely frustrating for them.

Since they began their partnership they have played in 11 250 events and made the finals in 4 of them, winning 2. That is pretty darn good. Yet they still can't get into any Masters events and have only been able to enter one 500 event and thus are forced to drop down to challengers a fair amount.

With no qualifying (except a small 4 pair draw in 500s) or SE's in doubles and players allowed to enter with their singles ranking the system is just not fluid enough.

The players above them in the rankings have the massive advantage of being able to play the bigger events and have the chance to score huge points on a consistent basis (points at a Masters are of course 4x bigger than a 250, and 10x more than the challengers that Luke and Jonny are having to play at the parallel time).

Basically the only way you can break through is going very deep at a Slam like Joe and Dom did at Wimbledon last year by reaching the semis.

The rule change to increase the size of Masters draws helps greatly but maybe not enough.

Allowing players to enter with their singles ranking in those 500 qualifying draws is just stupidity in my view, as the whole idea behind that was to help the situation I've been talking about.

For me the ways around this is to either change the points tables or have big qualifying events and SE's.

Meanwhile in this event, they were due to play their semi today but were rained off so are back on tomorrow, 3rd after the two singles semis which start at 16:30 BST.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

wolf wrote:
indiana wrote:
wolf wrote:
QF: (1) Luke Bambridge & Jonny O'Mara CR 94 (46+48) beat Alex Lawson & Peter Polansky (USA/CAN) CR 314 (167+147) 6-3 6-3
Net they will each now be up a whole 2 ranking points. The SF here last year earned them 33 points, this year it is 35 points.
Hopefully they will add a few more. The winners get 100 points, the runners up 60.
As a regular partnership they have just recently passed their first anniversary. Their rankings on 09/04/18 were Luke 125, Jonny 154. Their current 15/04/19 rankings are Luke 48, Jonny 51. I'd say it's gone rather well.
While they have done excellently the system must be hugely frustrating for them.
Since they began their partnership they have played in 11 250 events and made the finals in 4 of them, winning 2. That is pretty darn good. Yet they still can't get into any Masters events and have only been able to enter one 500 event and thus are forced to drop down to challengers a fair amount.
With no qualifying (except a small 4 pair draw in 500s) or SE's in doubles and players allowed to enter with their singles ranking the system is just not fluid enough.
The players above them in the rankings have the massive advantage of being able to play the bigger events and have the chance to score huge points on a consistent basis (points at a Masters are of course 4x bigger than a 250, and 10x more than the challengers that Luke and Jonny are having to play at the parallel time).
Basically the only way you can break through is going very deep at a Slam like Joe and Dom did at Wimbledon last year by reaching the semis.
The rule change to increase the size of Masters draws helps greatly but maybe not enough.
Allowing players to enter with their singles ranking in those 500 qualifying draws is just stupidity in my view, as the whole idea behind that was to help the situation I've been talking about.
For me the ways around this is to either change the points tables or have big qualifying events and SE's.
Meanwhile in this event, they were due to play their semi today but were rained off so are back on tomorrow, 3rd after the two singles semis which start at 16:30 BST.

I remember having that same conversation with Ken Skupski a few years back when he was explaining how difficult it was to make that next step up because of the points and entry systems. You've hit the nail on the head Wolf.

Madadman · Masters Series Champion

To get to the point you can qualify for most tournaments you probably need the equivalent of 11/12 250 titles to get there. Obviously this can be helped by doing well in the Slams but its one of those systems were you need a good draw in one of the slams at the right time to get you to the next level. From 250 to 500 for doubles players its almost like double promotion to get there.

Will be interesting to see who gets doubles WCs for Queens. Probably give it to Hewitt instead.