Hmm... that's possible. Even though there must be loads of players who had successful Juniors careers after starting to play 18s full time at the age of 16, it's not natural.

But it could be that he that he won't get a WC into Wimbly Juniors unless he gets his ranking up by a bit.

Arka wrote:

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Hmm... that's possible. Even though there must be loads of players who had successful Juniors careers after starting to play 18s full time at the age of 16, it's not natural.

But it could be that he that he won't get a WC into Wimbly Juniors unless he gets his ranking up by a bit.

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I very much doubt he'll get a Wimbledon junior wildcard (maybe a qualies one but not a main draw one) - Cox, Dyce, Evans, Rice, Willis etc are all ahead of him and there are only so many places available.

I'm surprised that he isn't in Britain playing the British tour and futures qualies. However, the fields at the start of the year tend to be tough, especially with players coming over, preparing for the Wrexham challenger.

I think he'll get his first senior points sometime this year, came very close in 2006 as Arka said. Hopefully the same will happen for Pauffley.

Arka, who do you reckon will win between Jones and James ? Smethurst should qualify based on his futures qualies results so far but he'll have to beat the no 2 seed to do so.

ultimateshedman wrote:

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I very much doubt he'll get a Wimbledon junior wildcard (maybe a qualies one but not a main draw one) - Cox, Dyce, Evans, Rice, Willis etc are all ahead of him and there are only so many places available.

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Well... there are eight WC spots, so he has an outside chance.

I'm assuming that Cox and Dyce will be direct entrants. Evans can get in if he tries hard.

I guess that the ones who are almost guaranteed wild cards are:

1) Daniel Evans.
2) Marcus Willis.
3) Joshua Milton.
4) David Rice.

What's terrible is that they gave wild cards to THREE foreigners this year. Even Evans had to miss out on one!

My choices for the other four are:

5) Neil Pauffley.
6) Daniel Smethurst.
7) Michael Thompson.
8) and a play off winner.

But I think that you are right about the fact that Smethurst has little chance of getting in with this ranking.

-- Edited by Arka at 21:38, 2006-12-30

-- Edited by Arka at 21:35, 2007-01-01

Qualies second round:

Ed Jones beat world number 1053 Jonas Brobeck of Sweden at 3 and 4.
Smethurst won 60 62.



In the final round of qualifiers:

Jones plays world number 959 Jonathan Kidane of Sweden.

Smethurst plays Dusan Lajovic of Serbia and Montenegro who is ranked 860, compared to his 1224. Hopefully there will be an upset.

Barnes, Pauffley, Tom Knights and qualifiers Smethurst and Ed Jones in the main draw.

This is just terrible..... four of them play seeds.



Barnes (469) plays fourth seed Jakub Cymorek (269) of Czech Republic.

Pauffley (480) plays fifth seed Rasmus Jonasson (284) of Sweden.

The worst is yet to come....

Knights (486) plays second seed Jan Blecha (162) of Czech Republic

And here comes the harshest draw of all....

Smethurst (1224) plays Haari Heliovaara (51) of Finland....... of all people he could get.

Ed Jones (1890) gets a more decent draw in the form of Mark Bowtell (499) of Ireland.

http://w2.salk.se/salkopen/lottn-bilder/PS18MD_1_0.pdf


I seriously don't know what Heliovaara is doing out here. He will be ranked in the top 30 tomorrow after the yearly drop outs! He has a nasty habit of playing small fry tournaments in Scandinavia. Since reaching the finals of a Grade A, he has played two Grade 4s and now this Grade 3.

It'll be extremely impressive if Smethurst gets a set. Good luck to him for winning the match though! Luck to other British boys, too.



N.B. Remember all these rankings will change by even a few hundred places tomorrow as all 1988 born players will drop out of the tables.

Arka wrote:

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N.B. Remember all these rankings will change by even a few hundred places tomorrow as all 1988 born players will drop out of the tables.

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Why tomorrow? Tuesday 2nd Jan??