A shame but not too surprised. Must be so tough playing your 'mates' and as I mentioned, Santillan is very good when he is focused.

Kyle on tomorrow - not before 15.30 hrs UK time. Hoping to get down there for that one.

Stircrazy wrote:

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L32:  Marco Trungelliti (ARG) WR 217 defeated (WC) Kyle Edmund WR 512 by 1-6 6-3 6-3 

He was an early break up in that decider, too.  

I wonder whether Bob was our man on the spot today.

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 I cannot see Kyle ever re-entering the top 100.  4-5 games now, and all he has to show is one set.  He is not even challenger level now.  He should go down to futures and and play some games to get sharp again.

Well that was a shame wasn't it. No doubt that even a 50% fit Kyle wins that match.

For a set and a half, he was in control and playing well. The ball striking is still there when everything was in sync, but the rustiness was very apparent. There were a lot of mistimed shots and when he missed, he often missed big. Despite that he still had too much game for Trungelliti.

But having missed an a BP in the middle of 2nd set, things started to go downhill and it was ALL down to fitness. I have no idea how he managed to go 3-0 up at the start of the 3rd as the legs had already gone. Perhaps the new balls gave him some cheaper points, but Trungelliti knew by this stage that if he could stay in the rally for mare than about 3 shots, Kyle would eventually run out of steam in the point - and that is what happened.

I spoke to Beechy at some length. They were both reasonably happy with Kyle's fitness when he was in Australia, but once he got home there was a setback. Kyle couldn't pick up a racket for 6 weeks and has only just started to get back on court. I have my fears that his body may simply not be up to the task as it seems every time he ups the intensity on his training, it gives out. I hope he is able to prove me wrong.

As for Vandenburg's suggestion of Futures, that is exactly the plan. He needs miles in his legs, so over the next two weeks, he is playing Italy 25ks in Santa Margherita before using his next PR for Munich. He apparently has 5 PRs left.

Bob in Spain wrote:

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[...]

I spoke to Beechy at some length. They were both reasonably happy with Kyle's fitness when he was in Australia, but once he got home there was a setback. Kyle couldn't pick up a racket for 6 weeks and has only just started to get back on court. I have my fears that his body may simply not be up to the task as it seems every time he ups the intensity on his training, it gives out. I hope he is able to prove me wrong.

As for Vandenburg's suggestion of Futures, that is exactly the plan. He needs miles in his legs, so over the next two weeks, he is playing Italy 25ks in Santa Margherita before using his next PR for Munich. He apparently has 5 PRs left.

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Thanks for both reports, Bob, much appreciated.  The first paragraph of the one on Kyle which I've left in above is particularly alarming.  I sincerely hope that he & Beechy can get to the bottom of his physical problem & fix it.

I'm sure that you will pass on the best wishes of the regulars on this board (I don't count Vandenburg as one!  He's just an intermittent pain in the proverbial!   ) to both Kyle & Billy & tell them that we're rooting for them, no matter what, though our disappointment when things go awry/not according to plan probably doesn't come anywhere near theirs!  

Bob in Spain wrote:

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As for Vandenburg's suggestion of Futures, that is exactly the plan. He needs miles in his legs, so over the next two weeks, he is playing Italy 25ks in Santa Margherita before using his next PR for Munich. He apparently has 5 PRs left.

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Got my dates a bit mixed up.  It's only 1 * 25k that Kyle is playing in Italy.

L16:  Billy Harris & Akira Santillan (AUS) CR 538 (313+225) defeated Borna Gojo & Evgeny Karlovskiy (CRO/***) UNR (0+289) by 7-6(4) 7-5 

A little something to cheer up Bob!

QF:  Billy Harris & Akira Santillan (AUS) CR 538 (313+225) vs (4) Arjun Kadhe & Kaichi Uchida (IND/JPN) CR 297 (126+171)