GB F17 - Redbridge 15K

Sheddie · administrator

GB F17 - Redbridge 15K

leanmachine · Improver

Due to Simon Childs's performances in Mexico the rumour is hat he has a wild card into mains. Now all he has to do is confirm he is a player of promise

Sheddie · administrator

That's great news, Simon really deserves a wildcard, it'll be the first one of his career. Hopefully he gets a decent draw and the chance for another ranking point. I wonder who he'll team up with for the doubles, on current form he'll be one of the contenders for the title.

So who will the remaining 3 wildcards go to: Slabba, Bamford, Brewer, Searle, Rushby or Cox. My prediction is that they'll go to Slabba, Rushby and Cox.

One of the talking points ahead of this tournament, has to be whether Dan Cox should get a wildcard ? What do we think ?

There are two possible arguments: [1] Greenleaf reckons that he should get a wildcard as he's done extremely well in juniors in Asia and he's our highest ranked U18 in the seniors and a couple of good wins could see him close to the top 1000 by the end of 2007. I believe he's the youngest Brit ever to reach a futures quarter-final.

[2] Niall reckons that he shouldn't get a wildcard as it'd be better for him to go through qualifying and get some wins under his belt and match practise on the surface. Also, if he does get a wildcard, the odds are that he'd draw Mackin in rd1

However, then again he's one of our most promising prospects and qualifying will be extremely tough as it's no means certain that he would get through. Niall's repost to that is: if he's not good enough to win matches in qualifying then he's not good enough to win them in the main draw.

Bladetiger · Pro player

ultimateshedman wrote:

That's great news, Simon really deserves a wildcard, it'll be the first one of his career. Hopefully he gets a decent draw and the chance for another ranking point. I wonder who he'll team up with for the doubles, on current form he'll be one of the contenders for the title.

So who will the remaining 3 wildcards go to: Slabba, Bamford, Brewer, Searle, Rushby or Cox. My prediction is that they'll go to Slabba, Rushby and Cox.

One of the talking points ahead of this tournament, has to be whether Dan Cox should get a wildcard ? What do we think ?

There are two possible arguments: [1] Greenleaf reckons that he should get a wildcard as he's done extremely well in juniors in Asia and he's our highest ranked U18 in the seniors and a couple of good wins could see him close to the top 1000 by the end of 2007. I believe he's the youngest Brit ever to reach a futures quarter-final.

[2] Niall reckons that he shouldn't get a wildcard as it'd be better for him to go through qualifying and get some wins under his belt and match practise on the surface. Also, if he does get a wildcard, the odds are that he'd draw Mackin in rd1
However, then again he's one of our most promising prospects and qualifying will be extremely tough as it's no means certain that he would get through. Niall's repost to that is: if he's not good enough to win matches in qualifying then he's not good enough to win them in the main draw.

I cant see any harm in Daniel Cox getting a WC he's played plenty of qualies, and it's not as though he's been frgihtened to put himself out there. None of the others have really put up a compelling case for getting one. Was suprised by Hewitt getting 1 at Nottingham, but it looks like the message is coming down, give them to the young ones, which isnt a bad thing.

Would like to see Slabba get one because he's really staring down the barrel and if he doesnt get points this next 2 weeks he's gonna be down to around #800, so he deserves a last chance to do something with a Wc before he has to try and drag himself back from the depths.

-- Edited by Bladetiger at 15:29, 2006-11-02

Salmon · Tennis legend

You must give Dan the wild card because he has been world class during the last twelve months. There is little chance that Childs would succeed in the qualies if Cox fails, so you can't really give one to Simon without giving one to Dan.

My wild cards would be -

Slabba.
Childs.
Cox.
Evans.

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 15:48, 2006-11-02

leanmachine · Improver

I think we all need to remember than daniel Cox is highly promising but young and small. To put him in with 400 and under world rankings is asking alot - including Childs

leanmachine · Improver

Remember there is a world of difference between men who have been on the mens circuit and top juniors. Don't expect too much too soon.

Salmon · Tennis legend

We can't expect too much from Dan in the next twelve months, but surely he must be given the opportunities? That's the way all top players come up.

Dan has a win against a player who is taller than 6 and a half feet and gave Lee Childs a close match by the look of the scoreline. He can adjust himself to big hitters.

I'd be really angry if they gave him a wild card for Wimbly as that would be pampering. But Futures wild cards should be given to promising juniors every now and then.

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 19:37, 2006-11-02

Salmon · Tennis legend

Qualies draw in pdf format.

Several of the names are missing - Rushby, Slabba, Cox, Evans, Simon Childs, Flanagan.

So my guess is that the wild cards will go to Rushby, Slabba, Cox and Childs.

Josh Milton is back to Britain from Asia, which means that he won't be able to get a direct entry into the Australian Open Juniors unless he does something spectacular in Eddie Herr.

It will also be interesting to see what Daniel Smethurst does here.

Robert Searle returns to action after missing quite a few events.

Akhenaten · Pro player

2nd Rnd Qualifying

Rob Searle bt Sabate-Breton 76(7) 63 Searle plays top seed Gregorc (440) in final qualifying rd.

Tom Burn bt Winderickx 64 63
David Brewer bt Lalji 62 62 Burn now plays Brewer

Oliver Kalaitzis bt VanDer Dum (ranked 550) 62 62
Pavlovs Dog bt Illingworth 63 63 That great win sets Kalaitzis vs Pavlovs Dog (907).
(Illingworth bt Josh Milton 62 61 in 1sr rd)

Neil Bamford bt Blom 63 62
Blocker bt Jim May 63 76. Bamford plays Blocker (1418)

Authom bt Tom Knights 62 62

Richard Irwin bt Sean Thornley 64 61 Irwin plays Paukku (833)

Vonce · Club Coach

A very good win in the Qualies for Kalaitzis beating the young Dutchman, fair play to him considering he's 700 places below him

Sheddie · administrator

leanmachine wrote:

I think we all need to remember than daniel Cox is highly promising but young and small. To put him in with 400 and under world rankings is asking alot - including Childs

Dan has regularly competed on the men's circuit this year and he hasn't been outpowered apart from a couple of matches in the first half of the year. Despite being so small he is still able to match the guys shot for shot. He made the quarters of a 15K in August beating two top 550 players and then taking a set off the eventual runner-up. In July he took a set off Harsh Mankad.

The field for this tournament is really tough, I don't think Dan will beat players in the top 400 just yet but it'll be excellent experience, interesting to see how he does and a great reward for doing so well in Asia. Hopefully he gets lucky for once with the draw and faces a qualifier in rd1.

Sheddie · administrator

Slabba, Cox and Childs definately have the wildcards. It looks like Rushby has the final one, we will see for sure, later this afternoon when the main draw is done.

I was surprised that Evans, Willis, Pauffley and Richardson didn't play qualies here but maybe they could get a flight back from Finland in time to make the sign-in.

Josh Milton was probably jetlagged from the flight back from Asia, going from outdoor hard to indoor acrylic must be tough aswell, normally I reckon his match v Illingworth would have been a lot closer.

Great to see Searle back in action. Tricky final round for him, Gregorc is ranked over 400 places higher at 440 and Rob needs to win as he's not first in line for a lucky loser place. Gregorc hasn't won a main draw match since July but he's been playing entirely challengers. His best results have come on slow surfaces, he won a futures on South American clay, made the semis of a 10K in China and the quarters of a clay challenger in the States.

Simon Harston made an appearance in the qualies, but lost in 3 sets in rd1 to Naim Lalji.

Interesting final round match between Burn and Brewer. Burn won their only previous match in 3 sets on clay in 2005. My money's on Brewer in 3 given his form this autumn.

Superb win for Kalaitzis, great chance for him to make the main draw

Dan Smethurst won a round beating Sweden's David Nylen 6-3, 7-6 in rd1 but lost in rd2 to Ralph Granbow, ranked in the 600s.

I reckon 4 Brits will qualify.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

A Finnish poster on MTF says Willis definitely has a wildcard. Don't know whether he said something to him last week

Salmon · Tennis legend

Willis deserves a wild card into one of these two Futures. As do Evans, Cox and Childs.