Shewsbury challenger

Drew · Nov 18, 2006

RE: Shewsbury challenger

steven · Tennis legend

Qualifying draw, with comparative rankings:

(the only Brit, or higher-ranked of two Brits, in each match is shown on the left)

QR1: (WC) Maniel Bains UNR v (q1) Frederik Nielsen (DEN) WR 323
QR1: Naim Lalji WR 1017 v Charles Crisp UNR
QR1: Tom Rushby WR 654 v (WC) Alexander Parry UNR
     (winner to play (q8) Luka Gregorc (SLO) WR 442 or (WC) Frederik Sletting-Johnsen (NOR) UNR)
QR1: (WC) David Rice UNR v Victor Hanescu (ROM) WR 511
     (winner to play (q2) Andis Juska (LAT) WR 366 or Ralph Grambow (GER) WR 685)
QR1: Alex Slabinsky WR 612 v Matthew Illingworth WR 1542
QR1: Ross Hutchins WR 621 v (q5) Sergeei Bubka (UKR) WR 426
QR1: Richard Irwin WR 981 v (q3) Michael Ryderstedt (SWE) WR 367
QR1: Edward Corrie WR 1429 v (WC) Scott Dickson UNR
QR1: Neil Bamford WR 625 v Robert Varga (UKR) WR 1542
QR1: James May WR 882 v (q7) Tobias Kamke (GER) WR 450
QR1: Rob Searle WR 890 v Ross Connolly WR 1064
     (winner to play (q4) Ladislav Chramosta (CZE) WR 418 or Ervin Eleskovic (SWE) WR 489)
QR1: Daniel Cox WR 1205 v (WC) Charlie Goode UNR
QR1: Edward Allinson WR 1542 v (q8) Philipp Marx (GER) WR 463

R1: (?) Alex Bogdanovic WR 120 v TBA
R1: Richard Bloomfield WR 205 v TBA
R1: Josh Goodall WR 251 v TBA
R1: (DA/WC?) Alan Mackin WR 277 v TBA (WC if Jonny got the SE, DA otherwise)
R1: (SE/WC?) Jonny Marray WR 308 v TBA

+ 3 more WCs (I wish tournaments had to say who the MD WCs are on the Q draw!)

One WC must have gone to Lee Childs, one may have gone to Aucks (but I keep being told his season is over!), I guess it's just about possible one may have gone to Jamie Delgado, or maybe Morgan Phillips is going to resurface and play in the UK to end the season.

Other possibilities are Ian Flanagan, who is actually up over 300 places on the year (though still well below his career high) or one of the other players in the GB top 30 who's gone up a lot this year, i.e. David Brewer or James Ward, who entered for the Maspalomas Future but was way off making the cut. or perhaps we're going to find that rumours of Arvind's retirement were exaggerated ... or maybe even Greg has asked for a WC!

That mystery will be solved tomorrow ...

Bladetiger · Pro player

Very interesting, re WC's, hard to see who's missing, none for slabba, hutchins or rushby!

My guess would be :
1.Mackin/ Marray

2. Delgado

3. Childs

4. No idea (someone like Hewitt, Ive never heard of probably.)Maybe Aucks tho' I'd heard he wasnt playing here.

Slabba's got a pretty good 1st rd draw, and 2nd rd's not bad, but 3Qr looks pretty tough Juska's a good player. Good luck to him, lets hoep he ends on a high.

Salmon · Tennis legend

I think that Greg asked for one. Daniel Evans isn't in qualifying, so he can have a WC.

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 02:05, 2006-11-19

steven · Tennis legend

Another WC possibility is Matt Smith back from injury. Not sure what's going on there, or even if he intends to come back at all.

Or maybe they've given one to Mark Philippoussis ... (I hope that's a joke!)

Or maybe they've now decided they'd better sell WCs to help fund Roehampton / Brad Gilbert / etc and Adam's going to make a comeback!

Sheddie · administrator

Qualies draw is packed with Brits but no seeds so we'll have to hope for some upsets this weekend.

Good first round draw for Slabba, I expect him to beat Illingworth, who got his first ranking point in September, beating qualifier Matt Lowe in rd1 of the 1st Nottingham 15K. Illingworth beat Josh Milton 2 and 1 recently but lost to Alex's friend and occasional doubles partner Kostas Kalaitzis recently. Last week he lost 6-1, 6-2 to Grambow in qualifying, got into the main draw as a lucky loser but lost in straights to Rushby in rd1. Harry Skinner and Dan Cox have beaten him this year and Ed Corrie double-bagelled him in April.

I can't see Hutchins stopping Bubka who will be a formidable obstacle in rd2 having beaten Daniele Bracciali in straight sets last week. However, Alex did beat him in 3 sets last year in the final of the Wrexham satellite.

I reckon that Grambow will beat Juska again in rd1 and it'll be an interesting match between him and Hanescu in rd2. It'll be excellent experience for David Rice, playing Hanescu in rd1 as the Romanian was ranked 35 in the world earlier this year but has fallen outside the top 500 due to injury.

Tom Rushby is probably the best chance of a Brit in the final qualies round, he has the game to beat Gregorc in rd2.

In the other all-British ties, I predict Lalji to beat Crisp for the 3rd time this year, Corrie to beat Dickson [very interesting match between two of our best 18 year olds], Cox to beat Goode and Searle to beat Connolly [though the latter's big serve could make it a 3 setter]. I reckon Cox could have an outside chance of upsetting Marx in rd2, the German was beaten 3 and 1 by Flanagan recently. Ladislav Chramosta's recent form has been a little patchy so maybe Searle will have an outside chance against him in rd2 aswell.

Bamford plays Varga, he should win that one but I can't see either him or Jim May beating 7th seed Kamke who beat Lee Childs in straights a couple of weeks ago.

Sheddie · administrator

Re wildcards: I know for certain that Macca and Childs have wildcards which leaves several possibilities over the final two....

To be ruled out: Auckland [I know for definate that his season has finished], Parmar has definately retired and not making a surprise comeback here, I heard aswell that Matt Smith isn't playing here; not quite sure what's happened to him.

Possiblities: Marray but surely he has a SE place having reached the semis of Dnepropetrovsk. Bladetiger, can you shed some light on this, did you ask him yesterday about Shrewsbury ?
I'd be amazed if Greg played here, despite his creaking body he's still odds-on to make the latter stages and if he reached the semis he'd have to pull out for the Aberdeen Cup. Greenleaf, where did you hear he was playing Shrewsbury ?
I'd be amazed if Dan Evans got one, he hasn't won a main draw futures match yet and challenger level is a massive step up from that. However, they gave a wildcard to Tim Hewitt in Nottingham so who knows. Marcus Willis is another conspicuous absentee from the qualies as is Josh Milton.
My predictions are Flanagan and Delgado.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

md out, wc's to: evans, childs, aucks, marray

mackin made it in.

draws:

bottom half

marray v berrer

josh vs stakhovsky

boggo(4) v chardy

alan v popp

aucks v q

top half

childs v evans wc play off :)

blooms vs guez

http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2006/3506/mds.pdf

Count Zero · Tennis legend

ultimateshedman wrote:

Re wildcards: I know for certain that Macca and Childs have wildcards which leaves several possibilities over the final two....

To be ruled out: Auckland [I know for definate that his season has finished],

Possiblities: Marray but surely he has a SE place having reached the semis of Dnepropetrovsk.
My predictions are Flanagan and Delgado.

good work there

Sheddie · administrator

Count Zero wrote:

ultimateshedman wrote:

Re wildcards: I know for certain that Macca and Childs have wildcards which leaves several possibilities over the final two....

To be ruled out: Auckland [I know for definate that his season has finished],

Possiblities: Marray but surely he has a SE place having reached the semis of Dnepropetrovsk.
My predictions are Flanagan and Delgado.

good work there

Lol, ok, I was totally wrong but to be fair, when I spoke to Auckland last week he said that his 2006 season was over and that he would be spending some more time with Mrs Auckland having hardly seen her since they got married.

How was I to know that Jonny wouldn't get a SE aswell, I still don't understand that.

Regarding Evans, all I can say is that Hilton must have pulled some strings for him. Why give him a wildcard into a challenger when he hasn't won a futures match yet. If they were going to give a junior a wildcard, Daniel Cox seems like a better option or Ed Corrie. Both have won a lot more matches at senior level. Evans did extremely well in Finland and Denmark but Cox did equally well in Asia in higher level junior events

Count Zero · Tennis legend

possibly,by giving jonny the wc it cleraed the se spot and alowed alan in?

so maybe it didnt make any differecne, but worked easier that way for some reason.

Salmon · Tennis legend

I can't believe it that they gave a WC to Evans ahead of Cox.

And he is missing Eddie Herr for this.

goldenboy · Club Coach

Count Zero wrote:

possibly,by giving jonny the wc it cleraed the se spot and alowed alan in?

so maybe it didnt make any differecne, but worked easier that way for some reason.

yeah thats what i thought - either way one of them would have had to get a WC! though i reckon its prob more luck than judgement that alan was last in.

looking at the draws, i think brits have a decent chance of progressing.

good that alex is in top 4 seeds so can only meet top 2 in semis. could be some intreguing encounters in the 2nd round / quarters between our guys in the bottom half!

woudl expect alex to play alan in round 2, then hopefully meet aucks in quarters, then the winner to play goodall or marray in semis! definitely possible though goodall / marray will have to play well to get that far - stakhovsky and potentially norman are no slouches.

bloomfield in with a decent chance of making the quarters at least, and a good opportunity for daniel evans against lee, who hasn't done a great deal recently, though will still be fave

gonna be v optimistic and say 6 brits in 2nd round! and 3 in quarters.

-- Edited by goldenboy at 12:09, 2006-11-19

Sheddie · administrator

Yeah, the draw looks good for Boggo.

Mackin in rd2 and then Auckland in the quarters. James will be in good form having brushed aside Labadze but he'll have to let Alex win as he'll need to head to Scotland for the Aberdeen Cup. Then the winner of the Goodall-Marray quarter-final which shouldn't prove too difficult for Alex as he's got such a good record in Brit v Brit matches and then in the final it looks like he'll face Slabinsky having qualified and then sensationally destroyed the top half of the field but Boggo will win as he knows he has 50 points to defend.

Sheddie · administrator

Results so far from qualifying:

V Hanescu [Rom] bt D Rice [GB] 6-1, 6-2

A Slabinsky [GB] bt M Illingworth [GB] 6-3, 1-6, 6-3

But what happened in that 2nd set, Alex must have really lost focus

S Bubka [Ukr][5] bt R Hutchins [GB] 6-2, 6-4

So Slabba v Bubka in rd2 later today