Boggo's competitors week 41

RobC · All-time great

RE: Boggo's competitors week 41

RobC · All-time great

Well Kubot's knocked out by Melzer!

Vinciguerra's a set up against Berdych

Bladetiger · Pro player

RobC wrote:

Bladetiger wrote:

Wow! That's really dedicated!!
More important than his week by week progress is that he's got a load of points to drop and not that many tournies to defend them in between now and Bergamo.

I think it would be a big achievement if he can just get to end of feb still in top 120-140 range. If so I'd back him to be a DA by wimbledon, which I think will be a realistic target.

Has CZ had any feedback from Alex as to what his targets are for the remainder of this year?

Would be very interested to know, on the whole I think he's had a good year, just hope he's learnt that DC isnt for him and sticks to just playing the tour!! It's set him back 2 years running inow and he cant afford it again.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing Boggo and Mike at Nottingham, quite a tough looking draw but not unwinnable by any means.

"Dedicated" is one word for it. Mad is probably more like it: Imoen, Madeline & I slipped into it when Greg had his big dive down the rankings earlier in the summer. We were following Greg's ranking (along with Andy & Tim's), so while he & Boggo were around the same level at USO time, it made sense to extend the spreadsheet down past 100 to about 160- 170 and keep track of them both. Now that Greg seems to have retired, and is certainly not in the same range as Alex, we've still got our spreadsheets set up to cover his bit of the rankings......

All I can say is that he'd better get into the top 60 quickly, so I can just keep track of the ATP events & not have to worry about all the challengers any more!

I can see the point of it when you're in the run up to a big event, but pretty pointless on a week by week basis, all of the players I know are far more interested in how many points they've got and what they're defending than worrying about the vagaries of other people's performance affecting their ranking by the odd place or two.

Where do you see Boggo ending the year?

RobC · All-time great

The table's updated.

Kubot goes out as does Vinciguerra.

Kendrick advances in Sacramento.

Just Kendrick, de Voest and Kunitsyn (in Moscow) left to worry about. All must reach their respective finals to overtake Alex. So worst case this week is to drop back 3 places to 117th - stilla career high. If all goes well, he'll be sitting pretty at 114!

Bladetiger wrote:

I can see the point of it when you're in the run up to a big event, but pretty pointless on a week by week basis, all of the players I know are far more interested in how many points they've got and what they're defending than worrying about the vagaries of other people's performance affecting their ranking by the odd place or two.

Where do you see Boggo ending the year?

As much as anything, it's a way of maintaining interest in the other matches going on around the Brits in the rankings and it has certainly meant that I've got a much better idea of who's on form, and who's going backwards. It's also, of course interesting in a trainspotter- ish way, to see that your spreadsheet can predict what the ATP computer's going to come up with!

As for Boggo's end of year, well he seems to have the beating of most of the players around him - certainly of those up to the top 60 or so, and he is on good form with some good tournaments coming up. He's also only 50 points away from the top 100 now, and still has low 16th/17th/18th scores....

If he can defend his Sunderland points, and pick up a number of challenger semis & finals, then I'd say he stands a good chance of getting into the top 100, which will get him into most ATP events.....

- but what do I know?

Bladetiger · Pro player

RobC wrote:

As for Boggo's end of year, well he seems to have the beating of most of the players around him - certainly of those up to the top 60 or so, and he is on good form with some good tournaments coming up. He's also only 50 points away from the top 100 now, and still has low 16th/17th/18th scores....

If he can defend his Sunderland points, and pick up a number of challenger semis & finals, then I'd say he stands a good chance of getting into the top 100, which will get him into most ATP events.....

- but what do I know?

Hope you are right, you certainly sound pretty bullish, but I think you would be well advised to show a bit of caution, he had a great week last week, and scraped through some real tight encounters, which is a real good sign.

However he still has best part of 140 odd points to defend between now and feb (I think) and only about 8 or 9 weeks to defend them in. Think it would be a big achievement if he could get to feb still in the top 120.

Do you know if Boggo/ Mike has set any targets for this period of the season, it would be very interesting to know?

RobC · All-time great

Ripped straight off Count Zero's Official Boggo site:

"Alex will be hoping to continue his recent form as he prepares to enter the final 6 weeks of the season; he's entered a series of indoor tournaments across Central and Eastern Europe - Kolding, Nottingham, Aachen, Bratislava, Dnepropetrovsk and Shrewsbury. Alex will be hoping that his new career high ranking of 119 will ensure that he's seeded in most of these tournaments and also that he can stay injury free and build on his recent performances. His aim is to gain direct entry into the Australian Open in January. The cut usually extends down to about 115 but in order to make absolutely sure Alex will need to get into the top 110. This requires him to win 23 more ranking points and he's also defending 77 points from tournaments in autumn 2005. Alex will probably need to do well in one of the big money tournaments in Slovakia or the Ukraine and to make the latter stages of both the British challengers. Alex has a fine record in British 25Ks, having won 3 out of the last 5 which he has entered.

Alex is also hoping to line up some court time in the off-season with Andy Murray’s world class coach Brad Gilbert. This will surely be extremely beneficial to a player often regarded as having an abundance of natural talent, but who has not always been able to make full use of it in matches. Gilbert is also superb on the fitness side of the game and Alex will need to be at his physical peak for the tournaments down under at the start of 2007 as they are played at the height of the Australian summer and on-court temperatures have been known to reach up to 45 degrees celsius."

Edit: I love the line: "he's entered a series of indoor tournaments across Central and Eastern Europe - Kolding, Nottingham, Aachen, Bratislava, Dnepropetrovsk and Shrewsbury."

That's Nottingham in Hungary, of course and the Shrewsbury on the River Danube!

-- Edited by RobC at 14:19, 2006-10-13

RobC · All-time great

Kunitsyn, who'll overtake Alex if he gets to the final in Moscow is half way to the semis: he's 64 22 up against Tim's competitor Clement.

RobC · All-time great

The table's updated for the European action: Kunitsyn won, Dlouhy lost.

Kunitsyn is just one win away from overtaking. Next up is Safin. Kendrick & deVoest play tonight in Sacramento.

RobC · All-time great

The table's updated for the New World

Mixed news overnight: Kendrick won in Sacramento, while deVoest went out Hernandez also went out in Medellin. Kendrick's now just 5 points behind.

So it's all down to the next match: Kunitsyn against Safin, and Kendrick against Rajeev Ram.

If they both win, then Alex's ranking will be 116th.

Fingers crossed. Pins into dolls!

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Kunitsyn lost

As did Kendrick

So Alex ends the week at 114, a new career high. Excellent pin work all round I think!

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I haven't much time to post at the minute, but pin-sticking I can do. . .

RobC · All-time great

Great work ladies!