Josh was 3rd on the alts list but he's now made the main draw:
Entry list:
1 Kendrick, Robert USA 143 2 Delic, Amer USA 145 3 Reynolds, Bobby USA 148 4 Morrison, Jeff USA 157 5 Russell, Michael USA 160 6 Dorsch, Benedikt GER 166 7 Querrey, Sam USA 174 8 Odesnik, Wayne USA 181 9 Guccione, Chris AUS 185 10 Witten, Jesse USA 189 11 Healey, Nathan AUS 195 12 Bogomolov Jr., Alex USA 204 13 Levy, Harel ISR 210 14 Mamiit, Cecil PHI 221 15 Warburg, Sam USA 238 16 Simmonds, Phillip USA 240 17 Lammer, Michael SUI 242 18 Heuberger, Ivo SUI 244 19 Weiner, Glenn USA 254 20 Okun, Noam ISR 255 21 Oudsema, Scott USA 256 22. Kindlmann, Dieter GER 257 23. Goodall, Joshua GBR 260 24 (SE) 25 (WC) 26 (WC) 27 (WC) 28 (WC) 29 (Q) 30 (Q) 31 (Q) 32 (Q)
S Markovic [Bih] [WC] bt R Hutchins [GB] 4-6, 5-3 ret
Ross retired due to dizzyness and dehydration, it's been a scorcher of a weekend in Lubbock. I remember reading something about Ross in British tennis a couple of years ago [this player might not have been Ross but I'm pretty sure that it was]. I believe that Ross suffers from a dehydration problem which means that during matches he loses a lot more fluid than normal. The condition badly affected him in India a few years ago when he collapsed in the shower after a match, luckily David Brewer found him. Since then he's been taking extra salt and things to help the problem. I hope Ross is ok and he's going to be able to play the doubles with Josh. It's a shame that he had to retire as he probably would have won, Markovic is 19 and unranked. The top seed who Ross had been due to play in rd2 qualies, lost in rd1.
Another absolute stinker of a draw for Josh. 6th seeded 18 year old Sam Querrey is America's next great hope. He burst onto the scene in 2004 when he won a wildcard into the US Open juniors by winning the national high-school championships. He shocked everyone by reaching the quarters before losing to Andy Murray 2-6, 7-6, 6-1. In 2005, Querrey reached a high of no 10 in juniors. This year he has rocketed up the rankings in the seniors to his current ranking, a career high of 157. He's won two challengers on US hard courts and this summer he has been playing entirely on the ATP tour, benefitting from wildcards from all of the events on the North American hard court swing bar Toronto. He's done extremely well too, beating Danai Udomchoke, Janko Tipsarevic, Vince Spadea, Alberto Martin and Philipp Kohlschreiber [in the US Open]. In Cincinatti, he took a set off Rafael Nadal. I think Querrey is the favourite to win this challenger, Josh will have to play the match of his life to win. Like most Americans, Querrey is an aggressive all-court player, his main weapons being his big first serve and heavy, topspin forehand.
The Lubbock challenger has managed to surpass most of the other USA challengers in crass tournament coverage. For most of them, there is at least a website advertising the local sports centre and spa facilities with at best a box office number for the challenger and maybe an order of play if you hunt hard enough. However, Lubbock doesn't even have a website !
Compare this to the Poland 125K challenger this week which provides live scoreboard, live streaming, photo gallery, match reports etc.
Josh did extremely well to take a set off Querrey on US hard courts as Querrey has been in red-hot form this summer. I reckon Josh got the toughest rd1 draw possible here, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Querrey went on to win this challenger.
As you say, Querrey will be top 100 very soon. Josh has been extremely unlucky with his draws in the past couple of weeks, first Guccione who must be a nightmare to face on fast courts and now Querrey.
Hopefully Ross is well enough for them to play the doubles and hopefully have a good run. They've got a tricky rd1 draw, they face US wildcards Alex Kuznetsov and Scott Oudsema and could play the top seeds in the quarters.
It is worth noting that Josh was the only person to take a set off Querry, who won the title in fine style, losing a total of only 12 games in the QF, SF and F. I know Josh is playing well, I just want to see him win some matches! Hopefully this week!
