Spain F16 - 10K [Reus]

Sheddie · administrator

Spain F16 - 10K [Reus]

steven · Tennis legend

Alex got a bye in QR1 and then made it to the main draw with ease, dropping just six games in four sets.

If you want your email translated into Spanish, just let me know - or better still, ask Luke on the Rusedski site who lives in Spain and whose Spanish must be a lot less rusty than mine!

-- Edited by steven at 19:06, 2006-05-20

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

steven wrote:

Alex got a bye in QR1 and then made it to the main draw with ease, dropping just six games in four sets.

That sounds promising, let's hope it's a sign of whats to come during the rest of the tournament!

Sheddie · administrator

As steven says, Alex was in a different class to his opponents yesterday who were both unranked. Alex was seeded 1st so he got a bye through rd1 which was played on Friday morning.

I'm surprised that Daniel Cox and James Ward didn't play this tournament

I hope Alan Wright is ok after retiring after just 5 games of his rd3 match yesterday.

There were still lots of British players in action in rd1 but as usual very little success. I must give my congratulations to Robert Dee who won 4 games in a set for the first time on the pro tour:

Rd1:

R Balk [Ned] bt A Johnson [GB] 6-0, 6-0

K Zak v bye

X Morera [Esp] bt B Levi [GB] 6-1, 6-3

P Clad [GB] bt G Alvarez [Esp] 6-4, 6-3

D Catala [Esp] bt N Sego [GB] 6-3, 6-1

A Michel [Brz] bt R Dee [GB] 6-1, 6-4

A Wright [GB] [8] v bye

P Barlow [GB] bt J Campana [Esp] 6-3, 6-3

O Podlewski [GB] bt M Hayes [Ire] 6-1, 6-2

Rd2:

A Slabinsky [GB][1] bt G Granollers [Esp] 6-1, 6-2

R Balk [Ned] bt K Zak [GB] 6-3, 6-1

B Rodriguez [Mex] [5] [wr:932] bt P Clad [GB] 6-4, 6-3

A Wright [GB][8] bt P Barlow [GB] 6-1, 6-3

R Varga [Ukr] bt O Podlewski [GB] 6-2, 6-3

Rd3:

A Slabinsky [GB][1] bt R Balk [Ned] 6-2, 6-1

Y Shirshov [Rus] bt A Wright [GB] [8] 3-2 ret

Sheddie · administrator

Haven't heard from Alex yet today but this is his final qualifying round match which was played this morning:

Rd4: A Slabinsky [GB] [1] v E Rodriguez Navarro [Esp]
Preview: Alex faces 17 year old Spaniard Emilio Rodriguez Navarro for a place in the main draw. Rodriguez Navarro is unranked, he's been playing futures qualifying events in Spain since he was 15 but he's yet to qualify for a main draw. Both players have been impressive in qualifying so far, Alex has cruised through his first two matches with the minimum of trouble and Rodriguez Navarro has also yet to drop a set. The Spaniard is unseeded and so he didn't get a bye through rd1 and he's had to play 3 matches in the last two days. In the 3rd qualifying round he beat the 9th seed, South African Benjamin Janse Van Rensburg [wr: 1201], 7-5, 6-1, his toughest match came in rd1 against another unranked Spaniard who he beat 7-6, 6-2. Slabinsky v Rodriguez Navarro is first on court 5 on Sunday morning, starting at 9am GMT.

Even if Alex loses he's virtually certain of a spot in the main draw as there's virtually always a lucky loser spot and he'll be first in line.

However, hopefully he's won very convincingly as that'll bode well for his chances of progress later this week.

Steven, could you or Luke translate this into Spanish for me:

"Dear Mr Gomez,

I run the official website of the British player Alex Slabinsky who is competing in your tournament, Spain F16, this week: www.freewebs.com/alexslabinsky.

I was wondering if it might be possible for someone at the tournament to take some photos of Alex during his matches this week, which I could use for his official website ? This would be greatly appreciated.

With Thanks

David Cox"

-- Edited by Penaino Baker! sunthlibo Goodall parakalo at 17:03, 2006-05-21

johnnylad · Tennis legend

According to tenniseurope Alex lost 64 16 60 which seems an extremely erratic result. Lets hope for that lucky loser spot!

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Alex has made the main draw as a lucky loser and plays Rafael Arevalo who is an SE. Does that mean he did well last week? His ranking is 657 to Alexs' 588 so lets hope for a good win for Alex.

steven · Tennis legend

Arevalo qualified for the Balaguer Future last week and reached the QFs with three set victories over players ranked 589 and 590 (an amazing coincidence given that Alex was ranked 588 this week!) and then lost to a Spaniard ranked 730 in the QFs. So, not tooooo scary. QFs don't usually get you a SE for the following week, so I wonder if Balaguer was running late and he was still in QF action there on Friday evening.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

So it would appear to be a winnable match. The top seed fell to a qualifier yesterday, so maybe these courts are slightly faster than the spaniards are used to. (Some hope)

Drew · May 23, 2006

johnnylad wrote:

Alex has made the main draw as a lucky loser and plays Rafael Arevalo who is an SE. Does that mean he did well last week? His ranking is 657 to Alexs' 588 so lets hope for a good win for Alex.

Lucky Mr Slabinsky....

hope he makes the most of it....!

Sheddie · administrator

johnnylad wrote:

According to tenniseurope Alex lost 64 16 60 which seems an extremely erratic result. Lets hope for that lucky loser spot!

Alex has told me that he won his match against Arevalo when the El Salvadorian retired in bizarre circumstances in the first set tiebreak.

To read a brief account of what happened and for info on Alex's loss in qualifying go to:
http://www.freewebs.com/alexslabinsky

Alex now faces the Chinese 6th seed in rd2 - 20 year old Xin Yuan-Yu who's ranked 412 in the world. Yu beat a qualifier 6-3, 6-0 in rd1 so he's in good form this week. Prior to this tournament, Yu has played several tournaments on clay in Spain with relatively little success his best result has been reaching rd2 once. His best result of the year came in China when he won a futures event on outdoor hard courts.
I reckon it's a winnable match for Alex.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

How strange!! Oh well, a win is a win!

Good luck to Alex in rd2.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

What a weird victory!?!

Maybe that chaps is a bit of a Lownsbrough mentally anyway.

All the best for round two Alex

Sheddie · administrator

It was a weird victory, I've never heard of an opponent give up just like that especially on the futures circuit where they're all struggling to make ends meet and each match is desperately important in terms of points and money. Alex said that his opponent was a strange guy but at the end of the day it means that he's secured a ranking point and he was able to conserve some energy for his rd2 match.

I reckon that Alex has a good chance today against the 6th seed as long as his concentration doesn't waver. He can hit some phenomenal winners and completely hit opponents off the court in sets but when he loses concentration he makes too many ue. The guy he's playing hasn't done too well on clay this year. Alex has been working hard on his game and on fitness at Sutton so hopefully that will pay off.

The match started at 2pm GMT so it will have finished by now. Alex will have texted me the result but unfortunately my mum has gone off shopping and has borrowed my mobile without asking so I won't be able to post the result until about 6pm.

Mothers...

Sheddie · administrator

Rd2: A Slabinsky [GB] bt X Yu [Chi] [6] 6-3, 6-4

Woohoo !!!!!! For me this makes up for the Boggo match, though my perspective is biased, lol !!

Fantastic win for Slabba, Yu is ranked nearly 200 places higher at 412 and Alex beat him easily. Alex says, "I played really well, was serving good and hitting really hard. I outpowered him."

That's 2 more ranking points for the Slabba and a quarter-final on clay.

In the quarters he says that he plays the 4th seed which will be Spain's Marc Fornell-Mestres who's ranked 356. That'll be on Friday. I'll post more of a preview a bit later