SF:  (Q) Stuart Parker WR 636 vs (JR) Lilian Marmousez (FRA) WR 1190 (= CH)

No doubt CD will have some thoughts on the French JR, who beat the Austrian fourth seed, Erler (WR 440), by 5 & 2 in his QF.

Spireman wrote:

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Stircrazy wrote:

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QF:  (Q) Stuart Parker WR 636 defeated (5) Renta Tokuda (JPN) WR 499 by 6-7(7) 7-6(2) 6-0 

Tha Japanese served for it at 5-3 in the second set!  I wonder whether he'd picked up an injury.

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 Yes, as I put in earlier he was 40-15 down in that game (could have been 40-0 but didnt have live scores on at that point), so 2 mp saved.

Also just looked at his ITF profile and it says he plays ambidextrous. Is this behind his run of success, or is it just a wind up of the itf website ?

I played someone years ago who served left handed then swapped hands to right as he came into the net (in doubles), took us quite a while to notice!

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Luke Jensen (French Open doubles champion) played like that as well and did ok with it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Jensen

Coup Droit wrote:

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Lilian M is a very promising youngster.

Although he's got JR place, he's actually 19 already so not a 'real' junior.

He was champion of France in the under 16s.

And is part of a very good 2002 French group (Mayot, Cazaux etc)

Very much part of the system - went off to the National training centre at age 12, I think. Did 4 years there. Then moved to the adult version at age 16.

Quite tall guy, one-handed backhand.

And claims that lockdown has done him a lot of good as he's been able to rest certain injuries and things.

At the end of 2019, he opted to be trained by Thierry Tulasne (famous French coach of lots of top French players) and Tarik Benhabiles, ex ATP 22, who's also trained Andy Roddick, Richard Gasquet and. Gaël Monfils.

Tulasne said, basically, that Lilian's been lazy in the past, especially in physical training, which is partly the reason he's got injured a lot. And he needs to be quicker, stronger etc., as well to take everything more seriously (lifestyle, food etc etc). And to get stronger in his head. Gave him quite a rollicking, really, in the press. In fact, it was implied that basically Lilian was a bit of a spoilt brat.

But I guess that's what they've been working on.

www.leparisien.fr/sports/oise/tennis-pour-tulasne-lilian-marmousez-a-le-potentiel-d-un-grand-25-09-2019-8159814.php

Despite that, his results have not been off the scale.

I'd say Stuart has a very good chance.

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 Tulasne was also an excellent young talent in his time, just after Noah around the Leconte era. He came to prominence as a complete outside, young 18 year old, when he beat Vitas Gerulaitus, I believe, at the Italian Open in Rome. I am sure he reached top 10 in the world although, like many French players, never lived up to the talent he clearly had