Drew wrote:

---

johnnylad wrote:

---

Eaton 778 (WC) vs Stefano Ianni ITA 417

Bamford 703 (Q) vs Marco Crugnola ITA (7) 322

Smith 656 (WC) vs Steve Darcis (BEL) 483

Rushby (WC) 669 vs Adrian Mannarino (FRA) 445

Flanagan (WC) 659 vs Sergei Bubka UKR 372

No Childs either????

So all 5 have very little chance of reaching R2

---

oh ye of little faith...1 wil get thro..

---

It's not immediately obvious which one.

Matt Smith could win when he's ft and firing, but no idea what sort of nick he's in.

Bamford & Eaton both got half a chance, but wouldnt suprise me if we're all out tomorrow.

So far


Uros Vico (Ita) bt Ludwig Pellerin (Fra) 6-4 6-7 (7-5) 6-3

Thomas Oger (Fra) bt Slimane Saoudi (Alg) 6-2 6-4

Kamil Capkovic (Svk) bt Ervin Eleskovic (Swe) 6-2 6-0

Juho Paukko (Fin) bt Timo Nieminen (Fin) 6-2 6-2

Adrian Mannarino (Fra) bt Tom Rushby (Gbr) 7-5 6-2

Stefano Ianni (Ita) bt Chris Eaton (Gbr) 6-4 6-4

Stephane Robert (Fra) bt Gianluca Naso (Ita) 6-3 6-3

Bastian Knittel (Ger) bt Fabio Colangelo (Ita) 6-1 6-2

Ian Flanagan (Gbr) bt Sergei Bubka (Ukr) 6-4 6-3

Marco Crugnola (Ita) bt Neil Bamford (Gbr) 6-3 5-7 6-3

Alexandre Renard (Fra) bt Josselin Ouanna (Fra) 6-7 (7-2) 7-5 7-6 (10-8)

Smith result to come. At least one got through!

It'll have to - once the Feb Satellite comes off, he'll only have two ranking points - and that includes the one he got today!

Matt Smith went out in 3 to Darcis, 6-4 1-6 4-6

R2: Flan plays (8) Ryderstedt (SWE, 344)

What a win for Flanagan !! Last week he gets totally outplayed by Slabba and this week he knocks out a player like Bubka in straights.

I don't fancy his chances against Ryderstedt though, Ryderstedt is a massive server and serve-volleys too. Boggo likes playing him as his quick hand speed enables him to angle the returns back, making the first volley very difficult for the Swede. Still, you never know, Bubka's a pretty big server.

Shame about the other 4 but it looks as though all those matches were quite close. Smith did well to take a set off Darcis given how long he's been out of action, hopefully he can work his way back up the rankings this year.

First Round
(1)Jean-Francois Bachelot/Stephane Robert (FRA) bye
Neil Bamford/Ian Flanagan (GBR) d. Timo Nieminen/Juho Paukku (FIN) 6-4 6-1
(3)Kamil Capkovic/Stefan Wauters (SVK/BEL) bye
Andrew Kennaugh/Matthew Smith (GBR) d. Maxime Authom/Simon Childs (BEL/GBR) 6-3 6-3

Thomas Oger/Ludwig Pellerin (FRA) d. Adrian Mannarino/Josselyn Ouanna (FRA) 6-1 6-4
(4)Stefano Ianni/Uros Vico (ITA) d. Enrico Burzi/Gianluca Naso (ITA) 6-3 6-2
David Brewer/Richard Irwin (GBR) d. Edward Allinson/Alex Miotto (GBR) 6-4 6-4
(2)Fabio Colangelo/Marco Crugnola (ITA) bye

Heard from Slabba yesterday:

After his rd2 qualifying win in Sheffield, that evening someone picked a fight with him (local thug I presume, unlikely to be a fellow player) and broke Alex's nose. That was the night before his match will Flanagan, he played the rest of the tournament but was in a lot of pain through all of his matches. He was offered a wildcard for Sunderland but had to turn it down as he needed to go to hospital.

I don't know whether he's planning on going to France next week or not, guess it depends on how bad a fracture it is.