GBF1 - Sheffield - 2007.

Sheddie · administrator

RE: GBF1 - Sheffield - 2007.

Sheddie · administrator

Slabba has broken again and won the first set 6-3

Oger took the first set 6-2 against Rushby and has broken again at the start of the 2nd

Leads 6-2, *1-0

Sheddie · administrator

Rushby is currently serving at 2-6, *1-3 down.

Slabba broke again at the start of the 2nd set

He leads 6-3, *2-0

Sheddie · administrator

Slabba leads 6-3, 3-0* Kennaugh is getting some treatment from the physio.

Rushby is serving at 2-6, *2-4 down

Sheddie · administrator

Slabba leads 6-3, 5-0*

Rushby lost 6-2, 6-2

Drew · Jan 10, 2007

ultimateshedman wrote:

Slabba leads 6-3, 3-0* Kennaugh is getting some treatment from the physio.

Rushby is serving at 2-6, *2-4 down

Kennaugh is getting some treatment from the physio.

I know you love Slabbe but did you have to pay Bladetiger to spike Kennaughs water bottle

-- Edited by Drew at 13:29, 2007-01-10

Sheddie · administrator

Haha

Well you know, these 3 points are quite a big deal , will mean a ranking rise of around 100 places !

Slabba won 6-3, 6-1. Bladetiger doesn't think that the injury was a particularly big deal, Kennaugh just had the coach on court for a short while. He didn't play very well and Slabba simply outhit him from the back.

Knittel is next up for Slabba in the quarters. It will be tough, he's seeded 2, ranked 310 and has beaten 2 opponents ranked in the 500s in straights this week. Had quite a close one against Van der Duim today, won it 10-8 in the 2nd set breaker. Last autumn he beat Alan Mackin twice, though Mackin really should have won the 2nd one.

-- Edited by ultimateshedman at 13:49, 2007-01-10

seagull · Hall of fame

Don't forget he is defending a point from Exmouth last year so he will gain 2 points and about 30 places. Just realised I share the same birthday as Slabba...unfortunately not the same year though!

Sheddie · administrator

lol seagull !

Bladetiger spoke to some guys about the Kennaugh-Childs match yesterday. Apparently Kennaugh was 0-4 down in the 2nd set, got it back to 6-5 but then lost the breaker. He did well to recover in the 3rd and ran away with it in the end.

Apparently Childs is struggling because he doesn't have any weapons to hurt anyone with anymore. Everyone's worked out that he's just got a good serve and that's it, problem is that everyone in the top 600 has got a good serve. Also, apparently he doesn't hit the ball as hard as he used to.

Kennaugh said after the Slabba match, that he didn't play well. He's having trouble stringing good performances together at the moment, but he was pleased to start the new year with a win after his difficult spell in Australia last autumn.

Bladetiger doesn't think that Kennaugh is a particularly good prospect from what he's seen so far. He could struggle to break the top 500 as he hasn't got any big weapons to hurt opponents.

Slabba played well today, Bladetiger says that his forehand is a big weapon, especially the whipped forehand cross-court. He used that effectively to take Kennaugh out wide and open up the court. Bladetiger feels that Slabba does need to come off the baseline a little more to finish the points off, often he's dominating a rally, but doesn't come into the net to finish it off. Instead he keeps peppering the corners until his opponent breaks down.

Alex says he hasn't seen Knittel play before but he's just going to go out there and be aggressive and play his game.

To read Alex's thoughts on his win today go to: http://www.freewebs.com/alexslabinsky

Sheddie · administrator

Slabba-Knittel starts at 10am

I'll phone for a score update at 11

Sheddie · administrator

Knittel won the first set 6-2

2nd set was much closer but when I phoned, Slabba had just been broken at 4-4 so Knittel was 5-4 up and serving for it.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

shed man - i thought u had an exam?

Sheddie · administrator

Count Zero wrote:

shed man - i thought u had an exam?

Yeah, I did a mock from 9.15-10.45. First of the real ones is tomorrow.

Unfortunately Slabba lost to Knittel: 6-1, 6-4

steven · Tennis legend

Just realised that Alex's 3 points this week will go right to the top of his top 18 list.

His current top 3 results are 10K Futures QFs (3 points each) and, shockingly, he hasn't won more than one match in any event in the last 7.5 months!

Hopefully, then, his 3-pointer this week signals the start of a revival!

More generally, getting only 3 players into R2, 1 into the QFs and nobody into the SFs is shocking in a home Future. Even the doubles, usually a guarantee of at leas one finalist in a home Future, was an unmitigated disaster. Brewer and Irwin and no. 4 seeds Kennaugh and Rushby both lost in straight sets to an unseeded Danish pair, combined ranking 1200+, so we ended up with nobody in the SFs there either and only one match win.

Bladetiger · Pro player

Sadly, I expect that to be the pattern for much of this year at the mo, we've no-one on the up in that 300-600 range and until we do, we aint gonna get a lot in futures.

Sounds like Slabba played well in the second set today, hope it is the start of a better run for him.