Some impressive wins this week for Jamie Baker, the victory over Mergea was superb. Mergea won the Wimbledon junior title in 2003 and reached the Aussie Open junior final that year aswell. He played Andy Murray in Granby last year and afterwards Andy remarked that Mergea has a big forehand and a great topspin serve for hard courts but his backhand is weak and his movement is suspect. For Jamie to win that one 6-1, 6-4 was really great, from the sound of things he returned really well and outplayed the Romanian in the rallies. I was disappointed with the loss against Cakl as the Czech has been on a bad run of form since Feburary when he won a challenger. However, Cakl looks to have returned to something like his best this week, in the quarters he pushed Phillippoussis really close. In the Baker-Cakl match, Jamie was a break up in the 1st set but Cakl broke straight back and then again at 5-5 and he served out the set to love. Jamie played a poor 2nd set and it was routine for Cakl.

According to a poster on the Rusedski site, Bloomfield's poor form on this tour has been down to homesickness I believe. He's not been enjoying the trip and wanted to come home during the Aptos challenger but spoke to his coach during county week who persuaded him to stay on. He's been trying to grit out results but not succeeding. Hopefully he can avoid Alun Jones in the Bronx draw this week.

Lee gave Phillippousis an almighty battle in rd1, here's a report of the match taken from: http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060809/SPORTS/608090335/1003/SPORTS

BINGHAMTON -- They came to see the big serve and the powerful ground strokes that made Mark Philippoussis one of the world's best tennis players.

But the estimated 500 fans who came to Tuesday night's action at the dBI Tennis Challenger at Rec Park were also treated to an entertaining, back-and-forth match.

Philippoussis, a two-time Grand Slam finalist and former top-10 player who's working his way back from injuries, had just enough shots to outlast Martin Lee of Great Britain, 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 6-3 in a first-round match of the $50,000 Challenger.

"The first match is always the toughest," said Philippoussis, the top seed who will face Noam Okun of Israel in Thursday's second round. "You're in a new place, a new atmosphere, new courts. But once you get used to it, you can get on a roll. I'm happy with the win."

Philippoussis has won 11 titles on the ATP Tour, including the Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, R.I., last month. In his prime he was ranked as high as No. 8 in the world and reached the finals of the U.S. Open and Wimbledon. He's by far the most decorated player to take part in the dBI Tennis Challenger's 13-year history.

But a series of knee injuries derailed his career. Last week back spasms forced the 29-year-old to withdraw from the Vancouver Open.

Philippoussis said he's healthy and felt 100 percent for Tuesday's match.

"I need to play a lot of matches," Philippoussis said. "It's a long way back up the mountain. I'm prepared to do it."

Philippoussis' main weapon -- his blink-and-you'll-miss-it cannon of a serve, the tennis equivalent of a Roger Clemens fastball --was on full display Tuesday. It's a serve that seems to gain speed after it bounces, and he can move it around the service box at will.

He had 22 aces and, in the first set, lost just six points off his serve. On one service winner, the ball rolled off Lee's racket and went over the backstop behind him.

"With a serve that big, pretty much all you can do is guess one way or the other," Lee said. "It's one of the biggest serves in the world."

Lee, a 28-year-old from London who won the Wimbledon Juniors Doubles title in 1995, held his own serve throughout the first set to force the tiebreaker, which Philippoussis won.

After that, the left-handed Lee picked up his game. He broke Philippoussis twice in the second set to even the match.

"When you're playing against a big serve like that, all you can do is concentrate on your own serve," Lee said. "I thought I played pretty well."

While spectators may have been surprised when Lee took the second set, Philippoussis wasn't shocked.

"He's a talented guy," Philippoussis said. "Lefties are a little difficult to play against, and he hit the ball great. But after I won the first set, I relaxed a little out there. I dropped down a couple gears instead of staying on him or turning it up a few gears. If you give them an inch, they take a lot."

But in the third set, Philippoussis recovered. He broke Lee twice in the third set, taking a 4-2 lead when Lee double-faulted on break point. Philippoussis closed out the match with a huge forehand winner down the line.

"I've just got to play relaxed and keep the pressure on them the whole match." Philippoussis said.

Philippoussis received an obscenity warning in the third set after yelling a mild profanity. Upset at the call, he summoned a tournament referee to complain, but there were no further incidents.

Just wanted to say, happy birthday to Colin Fleming who's 22 today

Hopefully he can celebrate in style with a doubles title win today

They should be well into the match right now, it started at 5pm

Happy birthday to Colin!!! A great week for him and Jamie in the doubles

i got the result from the draw sheet on the atp site under challangers & futures

http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2006/670/mdd.pdf

Ah ok, didn't think of checking there for some reason

Yeah, sure thing johnny. I'm hoping to get some quotes from Colin to go with the report but the chances of that are unfortunately not likely as he has never yet told me anything about the matches which he's lost on msn, lol.