Drew wrote: way to go james ! What is the highest ranked brit to qualify for a chall' ?
You mean lowest, I assume. This year, that would be Alex Miotto, who qualified for one of the Nottingham Challengers when ranked 1111 - he beat a player ranked 1140 in QR1 and his next two opponents retired!
There's a long way to go for James Ward, and even if he wins another match and reaches QR3, Adam L managed that in Telde with a bye in QR1 and a w/o in QR2 before he himself retired 6-0 3-0 down in the final qualifying round.
Apart from jammy situations like that, the lowest ranked GB qualifiers for Challengers this year are (I think) Jonny Marray and Lee Childs, who both qualified while ranked in the 500s.
-- Edited by steven at 20:57, 2006-10-28
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Talking of low-ranked players, the WCs for James Ward in qualifying and Aucks in the main draw are nothing compared to the main draw WC they've given to Kevin McDuffee (USA) WR 1175.
I dug a bit deeper and found out that McDuffee has had SEVEN Challenger main draw WCs in the last year (Prague, Lanzarote, Ostrava, Forest Hills, Braunschweig, Oberstaufen and now Aachen) despite not winning a set in any of his R1 matches in those events or in any Futures main draw match. i.e. he has got 6 ranking points despite never winning even a set in a match in which ranking points were at stake.
On the face of it, it's diabolical, and makes the Dee/Brighten/Lownsborough 'scandal' from last year look like a teddy bears' picnic. I wonder what the real story is.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
match has started on live feed, boggo wi the one with black bits on his shoes, i think both players hled their opening game, but cilic looked more comfortable.
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
The streaming is good!! Good sound too, can hear the ball being hit really well, and also the score being called. Sorry I cant do a commentary, have loads of work to do!