British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

I managed to go to Ilkley today and enjoyed some good tennis after a wash out morning. Some general observations before commenting on matches:

- courts are immaculate and the whole presentation is exceptional. Well done Ilkley.
- parking away from club for unreserved spaces was fine. I got free parking on a side road around 5 mins away
- crowds were very large - centre court was 80 percent full and Id say the outside courts also . Maybe twice as many people as last year.
- corporate hospitality is the big thing this year; Id say 1/3rd of the crown were on hospitality; not like queens where the tennis doesnt matter, people watched the tennis but its clearly a big part of the event

Jake - started off very error prone and not seeming focused and a bit tight. Something clicked earlier in set two when he broke and went on a ten game rampage. He changed his whole game, attacked, positive, approached the net and took control. Kept it going until just near the end, stuttered a little with a double fault or two but regained control and saw it over the line. It was a good performance and Ill be interested as he progresses against maybe tougher grass court opponents. nardi has beaten Djokovic before as the MC said so

Ps who is the MC this year, a blonde lady who sounds like Annabel croft but isnt

Nice to see Jake actually win a match! Thanks for thoughts Jon, looking forward to reading the rest

Jubby - it was a nice match and Jubby fought well. He and Schoolkate know each other well, obviously, lots of respect. But Schoolkate is a good grass court player and showed it. Jubby was, being honest, underpowered and it told. Schoolkate always looked like the winner and could go all the way again.

Hamish - up and down match, Hamish hits a big serve but Riedi was too accurate and controlled for him and Hamish made too many errors.

Charles - Rocha is a bit of a hulk, if Haas was baby Federer, Rocha is baby Feliciano. Hes well built, muscly and just dominated, hit hard, and Broom was never even close. Rocha isnt a grass court player though and someone will beat him here, I havent seen his draw but needs someone with a bigger game and grass court smarts. Rocha is a strong clay player and dont think he will win this but Charles wasnt having any impact and had lost from game one

Lajal v Zheng - didnt watch much but it was a tight game and Lajal, Estonian, spoke perfectly accented English or so it seemed. Cant find anything to suggest he has any links to Britain but he got his accent from somewhere!

Alex Bolt - as mentioned by someone he played when Katie played and I went on to see that match for a bit. Alex looked like hes eaten a few too many donuts though, sorry! A few pounds could come off for sure. No doubt someone will have a go at me for saying that, but hes a pro sportsman and looked a bit too comfortable.

Bu - saw from afar but he looks good on grass and looked like a samurai warrior - he could win this and follow up his good week at Birmingham