This time last year, Robert played the African futures circuit - Botswana, Rwanda, Kenya and Sudan before moving on to Iran. The main draws are so weak that you can get in with just 1 ranking point and so although Robert lost in rd1 every time, he was able to earn some prize money at each tournament. The best he did was win 3 games in a set to a South African named Gregg le Sueur which was his career best set score to date. He surpassed that this May in Spain when he got 4 games in a set.
It's a shame he hasn't been back this year, with a bit of luck in the draw he might have won a set.
Robert has only been double-bagelled once in his career to-date
I have got to say that my heart sank when I saw the draw for the final qualifying round but the boys rose to the occasion and claimed a couple of fine victories.
Final Qualifying Round (14)Richard Brooks (GBR) d. (1)Tomislav Peric (CRO) 7-5 7-6(4) Alan Wright (GBR) d. (2)Ralph Grambow (GER) 7-6(3) 4-6 6-3
Unfortunately both players have drawn even tougher opponents in the main draw but in this form they have to be confident.
1st Round (6)Augustin Gensse (FRA) (427) vs (q)Alan Wright (GBR) Miguel Angel Lopez-Jaen (ESP) (579) vs (q)Richard Brooks (GBR)
Yeh that is one thing, which has really suprised me, which has only been double bagled once. His LTA rating is 6.2, which you would think looking from that, he would be double bagled more often. Why do you think he decided to stay in spain this year, besides safety reasons?
Yeh that is one thing, which has really suprised me, which has only been double bagled once. His LTA rating is 6.2, which you would think looking from that, he would be double bagled more often. Why do you think he decided to stay in spain this year, besides safety reasons?
A lot of Dee's losses are 6-0, 6-1 or 6-0, 6-2. Maybe his opponents have been winning the set extremely easily and they've got to 5-0 and lost concentration and he's been able to win a couple of games.
Maybe Robert's joined one of the Spanish academies like a lot of the Brits who play in the futures over there - James Ward, Morgan Phillips, Oscar Podlewski etc.
Superb results for the British lads. That will give them a load of confidence.
I wonder where James Ward is??
It is very surprising that he isn't competing here. Maybe it was part of his schedule to take a week's break for training purposes.
I'm stunned at those results from Alan and Richard, absolutely fantastic. They must be career-best wins for both players. Knowing that they can beat players ranked close to the top 600 must now give them a lot of confidence.
Looking at their main draw matches:
I think that Richard has the better chance of getting through given that his opponent is only ranked 39 places higher than the top seed he beat yesterday. Having said that, I've just seen the ITF profile of Miguel Angel Lopez-Jaen. He reached a high of 276 back in 2003, he's played entirely in Spain this year. He's reached 2 futures final and two semis. Last week he lost in rd2 of Spain F29 in 3 sets to one of the seeds. He's played Morgan Phillips twice this year, losing 7-6, 6-4 earlier on and then beating him 6-3, 6-2 in July.
Alan's opponent has reached 4 futures finals on clay this year, winning two.
Doesn't look particularly promising, but then I thought that about the final qualifying matches.