R1:

Alex Slabinsky v (4) Alessandro Piccari

(Q) James Feaver v Tommaso Sanna

-- Edited by Sally at 11:21, 2006-06-05

Nice one boys!

Fantastic news from Udine !

Rd1: A Slabinsky [GB] bt A Piccari [It][4] 6-0, 6-0

I haven't heard from Alex himself yet but from what I have heard, it seems that Piccari wasn't injured/ill or anything, Alex just blasted him off the court. Against a clay-court specialist ranked 100 places higher at 502 that's some result !

Great chance for Alex to make the semis now this week.

Good win for him and Konstantinos in the doubles. They're friends from Sutton academy, they've practised a lot together so have a good knowledge of each other's games. Alex decided that he might aswell play doubles this week as he's going to be in Italy for the next couple of weeks.

Well done Alex on your first double bagel of the year !!!!

R2: Alex Slabinsky WR 603 v Enrico Burzi (ITA) WR 632 - winnable match this so lets have some more good results this week please !!!

Alex really seems to be finding form on the European clay, his aggressive baseline style and attacking net play is causing a lot of problems for the clay-courters. He's outhitting a lot of them from the back of the court which is great.

Burzi is 25 and has never been higher than 623 in the world. Burzi beat qualifier Robert Varga 6-2, 6-2 in rd1. Burzi was impressive last week in Italy F16 beating opponents ranked 474 and 345 in 3 sets before losing in straights to former world junior no 3 Robin Haase. He's also reached a futures qf in Romania and earlier this year he reached a couple of semis in Italian futures.

It'll be a tough match but after his rd1 win Alex must be strong favourite.

steven wrote:

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Unfortunately R2's now been played as well: R2: Alex Slabinsky WR 603 lost to Enrico Burzi (ITA) WR 632 by 6-2 7-6(5) What a difference a day makes.  Also in R1: R1: (Q) James Feaver UNR lost to Tommaso Sanna (ITA) WR 661 by 1 & 3

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dam & dam....whats going lads.... 

-- Edited by Drew at 22:27, 2006-06-07

That is really great news, it'll be a welcome boost for their bank balances ! It should also move Alex into the top 1000 doubles though that's quite irrelevant as Alex isn't interested in trying to become a doubles specialist, his sole focus is on the singles. He just plays doubles for extra match practise and dosh.

Real, real shame about the rd2 singles loss Was hoping that he could go all the way this week. To be fair, Burzi is a tough player and has a good record recently, although only ranked in the 600s he has been beating players ranked in the 300s.
I haven't heard from Alex but it looks like he played a poor 1st set, managed to raise his game in set 2 but got edged out in the breaker