As expected the chances of a home win don't look great. Our only seed is Richard Irwin and that has got to be a first for him. Hopefully one of Irwin, Rushby and Kennaugh will come through that quarter and give us a semi-finalist.
As usual Daniel Cox has been given a wild card drawn a seed and will probably lose in three sets. I hope not but that is the way it goes with GB Futures.
David Rice has drawn Tim Bradshaw so one of our wildcards will pick up their first ranking point. I'm hoping for Rice as he is four years younger and therefore a better prospect.
Naim Lalji (Gbr) bt (q) Ross Connolly (Gbr) 2-6 6-4 7-6(8) (8) Richard Irwin (Gbr) bt Chris Llewellyn 6-1 6-0 Shane La Porte (USA) bt (q) Konstantinos Kalaitzis (Gbr) 7-6(0) 6-2 (q) Nick Cavaday (Gbr) bt (3) Fabrice Martin (Fra) 7-5 6-7(9), 6-4 (5) Julien Maes (Fra) bt (q) Nikki Peel(Gbr) 6-3 6-0 Claudio Grassi (Ita) bt (q) Aiden Fitzgerald (Aus) 7-6(5) 4-6 6-1
2nd Round:
(1) Andrew Coelho (Aus) vs (q) Robert Searle (Gbr) Naim Lalji (Gbr) vs (7) Enrico Iannuzi (Ita) (4) Lester Cook (USA) vs Andrew Kennaugh (Gbr) Tom Rushby (Gbr) vs (8) Richard Irwin (Gbr) (6) Daniel King-Turner (Nzl) vs Samuel Groth (Aus) Shane La Porte (USA) vs (q) Nick Cavaday (Gbr) (5) Julien Maes (Fra) vs Claudio Grassi (Ita) Tim Bradshaw (Gbr) vs (2) Riccardo Ghedin (Ita)
As a footnote, the doubles first round has also been completed and out of the numerous Brits, only Kennaugh/Rushby the 2nd seeds and Peel/Thornley (with a walk over) survive.
Another great result for Searle and at least 6 world ranking points for both himself and Rushby. And they play each other in the semis so we are guaranteed a finalist - very much a long shot at the start of the week.