L16:  (Q) Luke Bambridge & Ben McLachlan (JPN) CR 102 (53+49) defeated (WC) Sebastian Ofner & Tristan-Samuel Weissborn (AUT/AUT) CR 590 (487+103) by 2 & 4 

Frustrating but he started strongly taking the first set in short order. It's been 5 matches since he last won a first set.

indiana wrote:

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Jaggy1876 wrote:

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ROSAMUND wrote:

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8th defeat in a row I'm afraid. 

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 On the plus side if he starts next year well he will have just about nothing to defend in the 2nd half of the year. I often think this plays on players minds. He will have that freedom next year.

I was shot down on here when I suggested he was overranked at 14 and that the Aus Open semi was fortuitous and a bad thing. My point was that there would be pressure to maintain such a haul when his game wasnt anywhere near top 10 status. I think Ive been proven right there. Contrast this with Dan Evans who is rolling along on par with his ability in the rankings and will slowly get to where he should sit in the top 30 in time.

Andy will catch them all of course if he stays healthy, but there is no reason that we cant have 4 males in the top 50 come Wimbledon time.

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Not sure about things being proven re the connection between events. I'd suggest still some speculation.

But yes, it would be great to have 4 British men in the top 50. This century there have only been a total of 16 weeks when we have even had 3 in the top 50 at the same time - 3 weeks in 2006 for Andy, Tim and Greg and 13 weeks in 2017 for Andy, Kyle and Dan.

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 Being honest, although I see Kyle will get back there and , Jaggy is probably right, somewhere in the 30-50 range will be his natural position; Re Dan, I think he will make Top 30 and hopefully drive to a seeding for Wimbledon ( I cant see him doing it in time for Melbourne although would love to be proven wrong) but somewhere in the 20-30 range feels about where he will get to. Don't see top 20 for Dan, his game just isnt big enough to maintain that. 

Andy, the way things are heading and with his determination, I do see top 10 for him again, possibly not higher as I feel he wont play enough to rest his body and focus on slams in due course and Olympics. I reckon we will see Andy  go to Wimbledon 2021, and then call it a day, but again hope I am wrong.

Cam I dont know - at the moment, I dont  see him getting much beyond 50 and  think his natural  home is probably going to be 50-75, just instinct and  a hope he would have made more headway in this latter part of the season makes me concerned he is at about his peak.   

Think my explanation is fairly explanatory Rosamund if you would care to read again, or maybe take on board. 720 points is a lot to defend, especially when its above your current level of playing. If you manage to accumulate a decent ranking one year through tournament selection and decent draws then it can sometimes inflate your ranking and actually have a negative effect in the coming year. It adds pressure to the following year to go further when your game is not quite ready. Had he not got that far or to the cusp of the top 10 then I suspect he would perhaps have pushed on a bit this year.

Andy Murray went all out to get the number 1 ranking and it had a negative effect on him as well as well later found out.

While clearly very possible, Jaggy, and I do see where you are coming from, it is still speculation from you and some others I have read/heard that defending these points was such a negative.

A very big factor to me this year was losing his coach of last year who so helped him into becoming a genuine top 30 player and at times looking better than that. And injury issues for a time didn't help.

Plus once a player starts losing they clearly often lose confidence. Yes, the extra downward ranking fall as big points fall away, may exacerbate things but the form may have been about as bad anyway.

Not uninteresting to speculate and I am doing it myself. Just suggesting that reasons for Kyle's sharp drop off in form may be for various other reasons and possibly more because of them.

Andy's fall from #1 is of course a very different scenario. He maybe overplayed to get there for 2016 year-end but nothing then to do with pressure of holding that spot. But some initial relatively poor 2017 form then of course major injury, both maybe exacerbated by playing so many tournaments one after another, was what did for him. 

JonH comes home wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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Jaggy1876 wrote:

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ROSAMUND wrote:

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8th defeat in a row I'm afraid. 

---

 On the plus side if he starts next year well he will have just about nothing to defend in the 2nd half of the year. I often think this plays on players minds. He will have that freedom next year.

I was shot down on here when I suggested he was overranked at 14 and that the Aus Open semi was fortuitous and a bad thing. My point was that there would be pressure to maintain such a haul when his game wasnt anywhere near top 10 status. I think Ive been proven right there. Contrast this with Dan Evans who is rolling along on par with his ability in the rankings and will slowly get to where he should sit in the top 30 in time.

Andy will catch them all of course if he stays healthy, but there is no reason that we cant have 4 males in the top 50 come Wimbledon time.

---

Not sure about things being proven re the connection between events. I'd suggest still some speculation.

But yes, it would be great to have 4 British men in the top 50. This century there have only been a total of 16 weeks when we have even had 3 in the top 50 at the same time - 3 weeks in 2006 for Andy, Tim and Greg and 13 weeks in 2017 for Andy, Kyle and Dan.

---

 Being honest, although I see Kyle will get back there and , Jaggy is probably right, somewhere in the 30-50 range will be his natural position; Re Dan, I think he will make Top 30 and hopefully drive to a seeding for Wimbledon ( I cant see him doing it in time for Melbourne although would love to be proven wrong) but somewhere in the 20-30 range feels about where he will get to. Don't see top 20 for Dan, his game just isnt big enough to maintain that. 

Andy, the way things are heading and with his determination, I do see top 10 for him again, possibly not higher as I feel he wont play enough to rest his body and focus on slams in due course and Olympics. I reckon we will see Andy  go to Wimbledon 2021, and then call it a day, but again hope I am wrong.

Cam I dont know - at the moment, I dont  see him getting much beyond 50 and  think his natural  home is probably going to be 50-75, just instinct and  a hope he would have made more headway in this latter part of the season makes me concerned he is at about his peak.   

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 Re. Cam. I think to kick on he might need a different coach. I dont know his coach at all. However sometimes fresh ideas are needed to improve your game. Its a fine balance though as his coach, a fellow student from TCU I understand, appears to be a friend. Touring the world playing tennis while a friend tags along might help with the rigour of the tour. It might just be another part time coach who can look at cams game and get those marginal gains that make all the difference at top level sport.