Boggo's competitors week 45

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

RE: Boggo's competitors week 45

RobC · All-time great

imoen wrote:

Right, I'll get the overnight pins in nice a deep this evening. Looks like they worked relatively well against Economidis so I'll see if we can emulate that with the next few.

Sorry I haven't been around to help you out Rob I'm having a manic couple of weeks at the moment!

As long as those pins keep going in..... Take that Amer Delic!, Take that Sam Querrey!

RobC · All-time great

Hmmm.......something went wrong with the voodoo curses last night.

Looks like Monday's strategy, to clear a path ahead of Alex has worked really well.....

Kendrick & Philippoussis join Vicente on the plane home, meaning that all seven players above Alex are no longer in action

Unfortunately, as ALex is not in action either, that's not much use to him this week

Meanwhile, the threats have been busy Delic won in Nashville, and moves a step closer. Querrey won in Busan, and is now two games away from overtaking. Lu is still in the game as well.

Today, Sluiter can do Alex a favour for once, if he can take out threat number 3, Bolelli in Bratislava. Threats 6, 8 & 11, Kubot, Carlsen and Zib take on Del Potro, Koubeck and Greul respectively.

This afternoon, threat 7, Navarro- Pastor plays Marin in Argentina.

Later this evening, threat number 1, Delic plays Simmonds in Nashville. He'll overtake if he wins. Threat 9, Bozoljac plays Capdeville.

Early tommorow, threat 4, Lu takes on Chadaj in Korea.

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Alex has done much less well than many of us expected. After he got to the final in Mons, things looked very good for him. He was fit, playing well with half a dozen indoor tournaments before the end of the season. He has had some opportunities in some matches but not taken them, the end result is that he is only won 4 matches out of 8 since Mons, which is a disappointment, I am sure he and Mikle Raphael were hoping that he could push on and make the cut for the Aus Open. He only has two tournaments left now, and something tells me he won't do much in the Ukraine. Alex was never much of a giant killer. Come to think of it, I am not sure that he does particularly well against players ranked above him. What does everyomne else think?

Count Zero · Tennis legend

i think giant killers in tennis are a differnt matter, a regular giant killer will soon become a giant himslef, unlike in football, where say southend (oh sorry all you man u fans heres ) could still be giant killer sofr many years, whilst hovering around league 1 and Championship lvl.

i think alex ha won his share of good matches, its just frustrating when he loses after he has shown us what he is capablw of. He has beaten seppi this year, kunisten, sluiter, beating cliic was good too, he has pushed henman, turnsunov, miryani, and tipsy, and got a set of melzer in his frist atp qf. And in the past he has beaten karlovc on grass!!, beaten johansson on grass, beaten JM gambill, last year bt Udomchoke, Gruel, bagdathis, clemet, phau.

so whilst not all of those guys are giants i would say he often does well against people ranked higher than him, but we cant expect him to beat every top player he comes against. his best results have all come on the quick surfaces and he needs to improve on the slower courts, change his mentaility and become more agrsseive into the net i think.

i think maybe he should have the played the easier challengers as well, but i also like the fact he is testing himself against the tougher guys which may pay off in the long run, he has often been criticised for not trying enough atp events, well these two are almost atp lvl, yes he will have a lot of points to defend over the 1st couple of (tennis) weeks, but also he hasnt played that many tournmnets, and what we are seeing is him being more consistent recently and that should pay off as well. If he can spend some time working with gilbert and andy i think that will pay dividends too.

with regards to ukraine and shewsbury, i think will will really have to wait and see the draws, being dranw against Sluiter 1st round was alawys going to be tough as he knew that he threw the last match away.

Bladetiger · Pro player

Count Zero wrote:

i think alex ha won his share of good matches, its just frustrating when he loses after he has shown us what he is capablw of. He has beaten seppi this year, kunisten, sluiter, beating cliic was good too, he has pushed henman, turnsunov, miryani, and tipsy, and got a set of melzer in his frist atp qf. And in the past he has beaten karlovc on grass!!, beaten johansson on grass, beaten JM gambill, last year bt Udomchoke, Gruel, bagdathis, clemet, phau.

so whilst not all of those guys are giants i would say he often does well against people ranked higher than him, but we cant expect him to beat every top player he comes against. his best results have all come on the quick surfaces and he needs to improve on the slower courts, change his mentaility and become more agrsseive into the net i think.

i think maybe he should have the played the easier challengers as well, but i also like the fact he is testing himself against the tougher guys which may pay off in the long run, he has often been criticised for not trying enough atp events, well these two are almost atp lvl, yes he will have a lot of points to defend over the 1st couple of (tennis) weeks, but also he hasnt played that many tournmnets, and what we are seeing is him being more consistent recently and that should pay off as well. If he can spend some time working with gilbert and andy i think that will pay dividends too.

with regards to ukraine and shewsbury, i think will will really have to wait and see the draws, being dranw against Sluiter 1st round was alawys going to be tough as he knew that he threw the last match away.

I agree with CZ's comments about his performances against top players, obviously he loses to them more often than not, because they are better players, but I think he has shown he can raise his game. I think Alex has had a pretty good winter in general. Problem is that he's not much better or much worse than those around him, so he needs to play well all the time to consistently win tournaments, a point I was trying to make when Boggo-euphoria was at it's peak.

Making the Top 100 in the world is a huge achievement and he's never done it yet. I hope he will, but if he's going to get there for any sustained period of time he needs to win 210 points in the next 3-4 months, that's more than half of what he's got all year, so I dont think he's actually all that close to becoming a regular top 100 player, tho' he does have the game to get there I wouldnt expect him to get there for any sustained period much before wimbledon.

As for the level of tournamnents he's played Aachen was a 50K+H event and he went out in the Quarters to someone that's not even seeded in a 15K Futures so you cant blame the level of the tournament, Sluiter wasnt a terrible draw for a 100K+H event either, it's just that Boggo's level has dipped a bit and on slower courts he needs to really be at the top of his game to go deep.

So, my message is: be patient people, he can get there but he might well go backwards before he goes forwards.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

RobC wrote:

Threats 6, 8 & 11, Kubot, Carlsen and Zib take on Del Potro, Koubeck and Greul respectively.

Something's going wrong with the Kubot, Del Potro match. Kubot has taken the first set 61. Not in the plan.

Come on Del Potro, you're supposed to be up-and-coming, you can't lose to Kubot.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Koubek bt Carlsen though

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Looks like Del Potro retired at 61 43 down

RobC · All-time great

johnnylad wrote:

Looks like Del Potro retired at 61 43 down

After Zib getting through with a walkover against Greul as well.

- Looks like there's some more powerful Voodoo that Mads & Bethan's out there, putting the hex on Boggo's Competitors' competitors......

RobC · All-time great

Well, Boggo's old friend Raemon's at least doing us a favour. He's 4-1 up against Bolelli

(And Wang - v remote threat for next week - is out in Eckental)

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Sluiter won 62 62

RobC · All-time great

I've updated the table for the European results.

Bolelli went out 2 & 2 to Sluiter and gives up his threat number 3 status to Kubot, who along with Zib, advanced when his opponent retired.

Carlsen also went out

So nine threats remain

Next up is threat number 6, Navarro-Pastor, whose match starts about now in Buenos Aires, then.......

Later this evening, threat number 1, Delic plays Simmonds in Nashville. He'll overtake if he wins. Threat 7, Bozoljac plays Capdeville.

Early tommorow, threat 4, Lu takes on Chadaj in Korea.

-- Edited by RobC at 21:36, 2006-11-08

RobC · All-time great

According to MTF, Delic won in Nashville Boggo's back down to 120.

Bozoljac also won, and comes onto the bottom of the table.

On a better note, Navarro Pastor is out of BA.

.....So next up is Korea: Lu & Querrey

RobC · All-time great

Lu won and joins Querrey at just 16 points behind Boggo. Querrey didn't play his QF after all.

So.... the threats now are:

Lu & Querrey in Busan, who both need to reach the final to overtake Alex, but would meet in the semis first. Lu plays local wildcard Jun, Querrey plays Goldstein in the Quarters tomorrow morning. So the ideal scenario is for Goldstein to take out Querrey tomorrow & Lu on Saturday.

Kubot in Bratislava, who also needs to reach the final. He plays Koubek tomorrow, then probably Becker or Korolev on Saturday.

Berlocq in Buenos Aires, who again needs to reach the final. He plays his R2 against local qualifier Galdon today, then Ghem or Canas (yes that Canas!) in the QF, and then Di Mauro or, Marin in the Semi.

Bozoljac in Nashville, who needs to win the tournament. He plays Pless today, then Delic or Spadea on Friday, and probably Dancevic in the final.

Zib in Bratislava also needs to win the tournament. He'll face Starace or Cervenak tomorrow, then probably Sluiter or Tipsarevic, then the finalist from Becker, Kubot & Koubek's half in the final.

Of the six, only five can overtake, so that's a worst case 125th at the end of the week for Alex.

So today's targets are : Berlocq & Bozoljac, then Lu & Querrey overnight.

If you've some spare animosity, please direct it at Dlouhy, Waske, Pashanski and Kim to stop them putting too much distance between themselves & Boggo.