Looks like Martin is going for the 125K+H in the Ukraine.

I wonder why, maybe he knows that the qualies draw will be weaker than the Helsinki one; as was the case this week when the Bratislava qualies draw was weaker than the Eckental one.

steven wrote:

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It was pretty clear that he was going to end up as a DA in Helsinki, so I fear Martin's still injured and pulled out of Helsinki because of that, but didn't bother pulling out of Dnepro because it was obvious he was never going to get to the top of the Alt list there.

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The qualies draw is now out and it appears that you're right Steven. Martin hasn't entered any qualies this week

Josh must have got in direct. James isn't in qualies, he must have either missed the cut or just decided to focus on doubles this week. There is a chance he may be taking a week off, he was very uncertain about his plans for this week.

Lee Childs is the only Brit in qualies, he plays Austrian Martin Haider-Maurer in the first round tomorrow.

I thought that he might have just been able to make it as the doubles finished at 5pm and the sign-in was 9pm but maybe he couldn't get a flight.

More info on Lee's round 1 opponent in qualifying: Haider-Maurer is ranked 1030. When he lost in straights in rd1 of Bratislava challenger qualifying last week, it was his first match since August. He's on a 5 match losing streak. His 2006 highlights are a couple of futures quarters in Austria on clay and indoor carpet. Should be a comfortable win for Lee.

The match is 4th on court 4, starting at about 3pm GMT. 2nd round qualies matches are after that.

ultimateshedman wrote:

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Helsinki tournament website:
http://www.ippopen.net

Unfortunately as with Eckental it appears that there will be no live scores I may be wrong though due to not speaking Finnish. Maybe our master linguists, steven and bethan can find something

I think there will be regularly updated results throughout the day which makes up a bit.

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I have several contacts in Finland and will try and get scores when they can !

Main draw:

R1: Josh Goodall WR 251 v Uros Vico (ITA) WR 201

A reasonable draw for Josh, who certainly is not in the hardest quarter of the draw, and plenty of incentive for Lee to qualify, because two of the qualifiers are drawn against WCs.

Vico has lost 9 of his last 12 matches, including losses to Boggo and Mackin, and one of his 3 wins was against Kevin McDuffee, so that doesn't really count.

QR1: (q5) Lee Childs WR 393 beat Mario Haider-Maurer (AUT) WR 1020 by 6-3 1-6 6-3
QR2: (q5) Lee Childs WR 393 beat Jaak Poldma (EST) WR 1290 by 5 & 1

QR3: (q5) Lee Childs WR 393 v (q4) Kamil Capkovic (SVK) WR 375

R1: Josh Goodall WR 251 v Uros Vico (ITA) WR 201

Plenty of incentive for Lee to qualify, because two of the qualifiers are drawn against WCs.

Lee is 2nd on Center on Sunday at about 10.30 GMT.