Players in italics gained places on Saturday Underlinedplayers were knocked out on Saturday.
-- Edited by RobC at 20:40, 2006-10-07 -- Edited by RobC at 06:41, 2006-10-10 -- Edited by RobC at 15:36, 2006-10-11 -- Edited by RobC at 15:47, 2006-10-11 -- Edited by RobC at 15:50, 2006-10-11 -- Edited by RobC at 07:15, 2006-10-12 -- Edited by RobC at 08:23, 2006-10-13 -- Edited by RobC at 19:37, 2006-10-13
Loads of points being defended around Alex at the start of next week. If he beats Tipsy, Ill have to redo the table, but he'll kick off by jumping 2 places to 106, as Pavel & Vicente drop. If he loses, then he'll get a 5 place boost from 119 to 114 as Waske, Daniel, Berlocq, Delgardo and deVoest take a tumble.
Unfortunately, there's plenty who can overtake, down to Igor Kunitsyn at WR159, playing in Moscow, plus a bunch of potential qualifiers in all three ATP tournaments.
With a new world ranking of 119, Al will be seeded for the upcoming indoor tournaments. He has 50 points to come off in mid November fron his challenger win in Sunderland last year, but hopefully he will have defended those by then. I know he is playing in Denmark next week, then Nottingham the following week. Immediately after that there are two indoor carpet challengers in Germany. Is he going to have a go at those? I'd like to see him give it a go as it is his favourite surface, but it would mean playing 4 consecutive weeks. The reward would be there though, with direct entry into the Aus open and almost certainly Chennai as well if he fancied that.
Anyway, he is probably looking forward to an easy week after all this fortnight's exertions. How much prize money did he win, by the way?
I have a week back training and then its Denmark, Nottingham, Slovenia and Ukraine.
think alex made a slight mix-up of countries - having had a look at the calendar, after nottingham he'll take a week off, then go to the 100k+h challenger in bratislavia, slovakia, then the 125k+h challenger in somewhere unpronounceable in ukraine the week after!
he has a fair few points (77) to defend before the end of 2006, so to break into the top 100 by the end of the year, he'll need approx 130 points, which is a lot! however, if he can just make enough to scrape into the aussie open then could v possibly be top 100 by end of jan 2007!
I think he means Slovakia! Anyway, he is certainly setting his sights high - The Bratislava Challenger in Slovakia is a $100k+H, and the Ukraine is $125k+H. I imagine after Ukraine, he rest for a week then play in shrewsbury.
So, he currently has 367 points, and is defending 77 between now and the end of the year. If he gets to 390, he should gain direct entry to the Aus open (Currently 390 points is 110th). So, 99 points then! Two small challenger victories will do it nicely! Being more realistic, I think he needs to achieve consistency, and make the most of his seeded position in the Denmark and Nottingham. If he doesn't, he will not be seeded in Slovakia and Ukraine and that will really hurt his chances.... Anyway, it should be interesting!
yeah i think he means slovakia, still an easy mistake, it looks like he has either forgotten germany indoors or will take a week off,
the slovakia/ukraine duo are both big pointers, so maybe he has decided to take the week off b4 to make sure he is fresh for those 2. Also the germany is carpet, the other are hard so maybe he wants to stick to the one surface? then i guess he will finish up in shewsbury (i dont think there a week break b4 that tho), where is that btw?
it is tough to make the top 100, but still doable ithink, a fwe more weeks like this one :) we expect him to make good ground at both nottingham and shewsbury
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
Falla, Gabashvili, Kubot, Llodra and Hartfield advance. Muller, Berlocq, Bolelli and Navarro- Pastor go out.
Alex's threats this week are: Economidis who needs to win his R1 in Rennes, Novak, who must do the same in Moscow. Then come Gabashvili, Kubot, Llodra and Moodie who must reach the quarters in Moscow, Vienna, Stockholm and Moscow respectively. Next are Philippousis, de Voest and Kendrick who must reach the final in Sacramento, and finally Fraile, Portas, Delic, Querrey and Bozoljac who must win their tournaments.
Of these 14, a maximum of 9 will overtake, knocking Boggo down to 123rd. Best case is that none of them do, and he ends the week up at 114th!
does anyone think alex may go for the paris masters? last the the Q cut was 130 so he could make it if it drops that low this time, and paris isnt too far away to take the risk, esp if he doesnt make the prgoess at nottingham we hope (and expect).
is this one where you turn up for qualies or has a qualie draw like viena did?
edit: looks like there was a qualie entry deadline of the 9th oct, so probably he wont be in it or he migh have mentioned it in his schdeule to the lta.
-- Edited by Count Zero at 11:41, 2006-10-10
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
I thought that as Paris is a master series it would have a separate qualies entry list but from steveg, it doesn't appear so. Alex surprisingly didn't mention going for the Aachen challenger that week in his interview with the LTA so maybe he's keeping Paris as an option.
Is the final of Nottingham on the Saturday or the Sunday ? It a pretty strong field so Alex will have to be at his best to reach the semis or further.
Where did you see the qualies entry deadline, Count ?