GBF1 - Sheffield - 2007.

Sheddie · administrator

RE: GBF1 - Sheffield - 2007.

Sheddie · administrator

Slabba bt Flanagan 6-4, 6-4

Tom Rushby also won, he beat the Norwegian geezer 7-6, 6-4

Main draw will be made at 5.30 pm today

Bladetiger · Pro player

Gr8 noos

Sheddie · administrator

Do you think you might go along tomorrow ?

All the marquee names in action ! Childs, Slabba, Rushby, Thornley, Milton, Willis etc. Surely an unmissable days play !

Bladetiger · Pro player

no . possibility of weds, deffo not 2morro'

steven · Tennis legend

Lee Childs gets lucky in the MD, drawing (WC) Andrew Kennaugh. Slabba gets lucky too - he faces fellow qualifier Adrien Bossel (SUI), with the winners of those two matches to play each other.

I'll post the rest GB matches in the main draw with comparative rankings in a few minutes.

steven · Tennis legend

Confirmation of QR3 results:

QR3: (q11) Alex Slabinsky WR 804 beat (q4) Ian Flanagan WR 659 by 4 & 4
QR3: (q5) Tom Rushby WR 669 beat Frederik Sletting-Johnssen (NOR) UNR by 7-6(4) 6-4

All in all, a good day (not that we had many players to start with!), because in addition, Flan is first in line for a LL place.

Main draw:

R1 Q1: (Q) Tom Rushby WR 669 v Fabio Colangelo (ITA) WR 571 (winner to meet winner of the match below)
R1 Q1: (WC) Joshua Milton UNR v (6) Thomas Oger (FRA) WR 367

R1 Q2: (WC) David Rice UNR v (3) Michael Ryderstedt Gulgowski (SWE) WR 344 (not sure where the 'Gulgowski' has come from!)

R1 Q4: (7) Lee Childs WR 413 v (WC) Andrew Kennaugh WR 764 (winner to meet winner of the match below)
R1 Q4: (Q) Alex Slabinsky WR 804 v (Q) Adrien Bossel (SUI) WR 1541
R1 Q4: (WC) Sean Thornley WR 1541 v Antal van der Duim (NED) WR 567 (winner will probably meet (2) Bastian Knittel (GER) WR 310)

I fear we can expect severe thrashings for LWWCs(*) Milton and Rice (go on, prove me wrong!), while if the seedings work out, the most important match of the week would be a QF between Childs and Knittel. The German beat Mackin twice in the autumn (a year after losing to him twice) and Matt Smith, but lost to Jamie Baker and Tom Burn back in September.

(*) LWWCs = LTA wasted wild cards

Salmon · Tennis legend

Giving WCs to younger players is a good move. If you are older than 22 or 23 and you are wandering outside the top 500, there isn't much chance that you'll make it to the top.

It may well be that Milton or Rice will be no diferent from where Flanagan is now, but there's a better chance that they'll be good pros because they have time in their hands.

Rice getting thrashed 2 and 1 and gaining some experience will be a better investment for British tennis than Flanagan losing 76 67 76.

But Rushby and Slabba should have had WCs.

-- Edited by Arka at 18:51, 2007-01-08

steven · Tennis legend

I don't think we disagree on this as much as it first appeared - I don't think there's much point giving Futures WCs to players in their mid-20s either, I just think they've set the age limit (if that's what there is) a bit too low this year.

I'd give them to those players in their early 20s or younger who are on their way up or those who are coming back from injury or some other crisis. I'm surprised someone like Chris Eaton didn't get one and I'd have given one to Matt Smith if he's serious about making a run at the top 300 again. Whether he is or not, I'm not sure.

I'm glad they gave one to Kennaugh though.

Salmon · Tennis legend

steven wrote:

I don't think we disagree on this as much as it first appeared - I don't think there's much point giving Futures WCs to players in their mid-20s either, I just think they've set the age limit (if that's what there is) a bit too low this year.

Good point. I'd like to see an age limit of around 20. And special circumstances like injuries and college students should also be entertained.

Giving WCs to three 17 year olds can be a bit silly.

Why not introduce a few 10Ks?

Then giving WCs to 17 year olds would make more sense.

-- Edited by Arka at 19:27, 2007-01-08

Bladetiger · Pro player

Would be interested to see Slabba v Bossel match. I enjoyed watching Bossel yesterday, not got loads of power but he is an interesting left handed player. He's 20 but looks about 17 or 18, if he grew stronger I reckon he could be a good player, could be a very interesting match.

Having looked at his record he has hardly played outside switzerland and so I wouldnt read too much into that ranking he beat an Aussie ranked 700 in qualies, and I think he'd be capable of making top 5-600 for definite if he played the tour regularly.

Bladetiger · Pro player

steven wrote:

I don't think we disagree on this as much as it first appeared - I don't think there's much point giving Futures WCs to players in their mid-20s either, I just think they've set the age limit (if that's what there is) a bit too low this year.

I'd give them to those players in their early 20s or younger who are on their way up or those who are coming back from injury or some other crisis. I'm surprised someone like Chris Eaton didn't get one and I'd have given one to Matt Smith if he's serious about making a run at the top 300 again. Whether he is or not, I'm not sure.

I'm glad they gave one to Kennaugh though.

I sort of agree with both of you.

I think we have a tendency in this country to think that anyone who is young is by definition better than anyone who is older, and an unhealthy level of optimism is placed on the shoulders of some of our young players which possibly doesnt help them. I'm not going to re-opne the Dan Cox debate but I fear he's a symptom of this.

Wc's are an important part of young players education as are qualies.

Not sure whether a specific age limit has been placed on Wc's but certainly there has been a move away from it being the next four on the ALTS list, and the likes of Slabba, Smith, Childs etc wont be getting them till they win games.

Also I understand that the Sutton academy lot will be having a trip to Portugal this year rather than Australia, possibly that would be clay which would be interesting.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Dan is good enough to qualify for Futures and win a round. WCs can just help his ranking. He should be thrown into the odd qualies, too. But he may have to do that if he plays in Spain like he did last summer.
Usually they give him one wild card and make him qualify for another in the back to back Futures.

I doubt that there's much presure on Dyce, Dan, Dan, Willis, Milton etc. because it's not like the media is interested. Even people like Goodall, Marray and Bloomfield hardly make the papers.

I'm surprised that Kasiri wasn't given one.

And also... why isn't Matt Smith in qualies?

It'll be hard to get wild cards if you don't show interest in competing.
Hope that he isn't injured.

-- Edited by Arka at 21:04, 2007-01-08

-- Edited by Arka at 21:14, 2007-01-08

Sheddie · administrator

Slabba was very happy with yesterday's win over Flan the man. He said that compared to his match on sunday, he really started to step up the pace against Flanagan, taking the ball early and putting him under a lot of pressure.

Bladetiger · Pro player

Great for Slabba, and been rewarded with a good draw, tho' Bossel's no monkey!

Hope he's still there for wednesday, so I can see him, havent seen him since winter 2005 so will be good to see how he's developed.