Tom
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Post by Tom on Feb 18, 2014 12:34:10 GMT 1
Late in updating this but just to round off things: Dan Evans lost to top seed Tommy Haas (35 years old and still ranked 12!) 5-7 6-4 6-3 in ZagrebFrom following the match on livescore last Saturday (not all but a large chunk) and reading comments about the match he produced a stunning first set and then couldn't sustain it. Still, a brilliant effort though and a great week overall. Further evidence that he's a Top 50 player in the bigger events (ATP main draw, Grand Slams, Davis Cup). As a result he rose to 123 in the rankings. Huge kudos to Tommy Haas and his ranking. I think much to do with his playing style too (a la Tim Henman) - its always a rarity to see these days. Big year for Dan I think, hopefully he can break into the top 100 this year and get some consistency going and automatically get in the big ATP tournaments/Grand Slams. Hopefully he won't the next Alex Bogdanovic, which is not out of the question! I think its important that Dan gets himself into main draws directly as quickly as possible, as still not convinced he's consistent enough in the lesser events. Playing the bigger events would lessen the inconsistency (though I don't rate him in windy conditions, or on clay) as he'd be at a level he's most at home at, so it wouldn't surprise me if and when he makes the Top 100 if he carries on going up. He reminds me of Laura, who from early on in her senior career looked a big match player. Her quick progression up the Top 100 came as no surprise to me. I've thought about the comparison with Boggo recently! The criticism of him getting wildcards into Wimbledon and not winning a match was tiresome, 5 of the 8 players he faced were Top 50, and 2 of those were Federer/Nadal when they were Top 2. Of course it was typical in the first year he didn't get a wildcard (2010) when he looked more deserving of a wildcard than ever he had the misfortune to run into "marathon man" Nicholas Mahut in the year of THAT match against Isner. With a different draw he surely would have qualified, and that match against Mahut was R2, Mahut had another marathon match in the final round I recall (when it becomes best of 5 sets), and had he qualified he probably would have had a winnable match at Wimbledon too. That said, Boggo is more frustratingly inconsistent even than Dan! Since that Mahut match he's lost to doubles players in grass court qualifying tournaments. Admittedly one, Mello at Queens, then knocked out a seed, but Boggo's result wasn't helped by the fact that Jamie Baker did the business against Mello in the final round of qualifying in straight sets. I'm surprised he hasn't officially retired, he hardly plays these days (his last tournament was July) and with injuries and loss of form since that Mahut match having taken its toll I don't know what there is to achieve for him anymore.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Feb 19, 2014 0:26:16 GMT 1
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Feb 22, 2014 16:04:13 GMT 1
I thought Jamie Baker did retire due to another injury he had? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/23111034 Are you talking about the serious illness he had earlier in his career, 2008 IIRC? I don't know if he ever effectively retired as a result but he was out for a long time, and I remember someone, John Lloyd during Queen's I think one year, saying that it was so bad that if it hadn't been picked up when it was he may well have died from it. I posted about his retirement in last year's thread during Wimbledon; that was a great interview where you got an idea of what kind of career he had. Not great, but definitely good and one he seemed happy with. There was also an article on him in the Independent, IIRC, fairly recently. I haven't read all of it yet as it's very lengthy, but I'll find it and post a link at some point as it got very positive reviews.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Feb 22, 2014 19:23:08 GMT 1
I thought Jamie Baker did retire due to another injury he had? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/23111034 Are you talking about the serious illness he had earlier in his career, 2008 IIRC? I don't know if he ever effectively retired as a result but he was out for a long time, and I remember someone, John Lloyd during Queen's I think one year, saying that it was so bad that if it hadn't been picked up when it was he may well have died from it. I posted about his retirement in last year's thread during Wimbledon; that was a great interview where you got an idea of what kind of career he had. Not great, but definitely good and one he seemed happy with. There was also an article on him in the Independent, IIRC, fairly recently. I haven't read all of it yet as it's very lengthy, but I'll find it and post a link at some point as it got very positive reviews. Ah sorry, I thought you were referring to Jamie Baker retiring in your previous post, not Boggo I'm surprised he hasn't officially retired too, how old is he now? 29? 30? His persona seems to be very quiet and comes across as being very shy and its reflected in the media he does. Maybe he is hoping for a comeback or he is preparing himself for a next role somewhere, maybe play in a few futures/challengers somewhere but like you said, he's been virtually non-existent since early last year.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Feb 23, 2014 12:11:15 GMT 1
Ah sorry, I thought you were referring to Jamie Baker retiring in your previous post, not Boggo I'm surprised he hasn't officially retired too, how old is he now? 29? 30? His persona seems to be very quiet and comes across as being very shy and its reflected in the media he does. Maybe he is hoping for a comeback or he is preparing himself for a next role somewhere, maybe play in a few futures/challengers somewhere but like you said, he's been virtually non-existent since early last year. Ah, I did wonder why you suddenly brought up Baker! I thought he was now 30 but he's 29. I guess the trend for older players to be successful in recent times may have kept him going, but the problem he has is that he won't now be ranked high enough to get into challengers and going into qualifying events is no good for him. I guess he may want one more stab at the grass court season, but other than that i'm struggling to see what his motivation is to continue. As you rightly say he does come across as very shy and quiet, I can't remember the last time I heard or read an interview with him, so for all we know he may have retired and not told anyone! Going back to Baker here's the article I mentioned: www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/jamie-bakers-break-point-a-tennis-nomad-exits-the-planets-cruellest-sport-9046491.html
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Post by rubcale on Feb 24, 2014 20:32:40 GMT 1
How quickly circumstances can change.
Last year there was the excitement of AndyM's progress having won USO in 2012. There were great hopes for Heather (Watson) and Laura (Robson).
Now injury and illness have scuppered all that and we're in the doldrums. Andy's defeat to Cilic in Rotterdam gives pause for thought.
I honestly can't see GB winning the DC quarter final in Italy - unless, of course it wasn't played on clay - and there's fat chance of that!
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Feb 26, 2014 13:59:22 GMT 1
Just be pleased we got there rub I honestly wasn't sure i'd ever see us win a World Group away tie. I'm not writing off her chances against Italy either, but the doubles will be pivotal. Although I don't share John Lloyd's opinion that we can win the whole thing! James Ward was given a wildcard into Dubai this week, which came as a late surprise as he had been set to play in the qualifying. I couldn't understand why but one possible reason is to appeal to the local public. There are UK expats there, an Indian was given a wildcard (Devvarmann - Indians are there too) and Jaziri, the other wildcard, is apparently the highest ranked player in the Middle East and North Africa region. As for how he got on in his first round yesterday... James Ward WR 177 beat Gabashvili WR 60 2-6 6-4 7-6 (8-6) Not a match to follow for the faint hearted as he let slip a 5-1 lead in the final set and served for it twice in that final set, at 5-2 and 5-4, before then letting slip a couple of match points in the tiebreak at 6-4. But a superb win and a notable scalp as it was his first Top 100 win outside of the Davis Cup since Wimbledon 2012. Incidentally, all 3 wildcards won their first round matches (Devvarmann going through after Del Potro retired, having lost the first set, with a left wrist injury that may require surgery) and they play each other in the 2nd round today. So the tournament director must be feeling pleased with his pick as it guarantees that at least one of the wildcards reaches the quarter-finals. James Ward plays 6th seed Mikhail Youzhny in the 2nd round and is about to start.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Feb 26, 2014 16:48:58 GMT 1
James Ward WR 177 lost to (6) 31 year old Mikhail Youzhny WR 15 (career high 8 in Jan 2008) 6-1 7-6 (7-3)
Always a match in which he had nothing to lose. Quite a disappointing first set but the 2nd set was surprisingly close, Youzhny even served for the match at 6-5. Really good effort all in all.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Feb 28, 2014 21:52:47 GMT 1
I noted with interest that after beating James Ward, Youzhny lost to Djokovic (which obviously wasn't a surprise) by virtue of a walkover...
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Post by rubcale on Mar 3, 2014 12:01:24 GMT 1
I don't know what to make of AndyM's chances this year - how long should it take to recover form the back surgery?
Not a great week for him in Acapulco - he had three close wins over much lower ranked players and then lost in the semis to Dmitrov after winning the first set and only losing the second by 7-5 in the tie break. He was 2-4 down in the final set and did recover to take it to another tb but lost it easily.
It did look however as he was stroking the ball better than he has of late.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Mar 5, 2014 15:48:50 GMT 1
I don't know what to make of AndyM's chances this year - how long should it take to recover form the back surgery? Not a great week for him in Acapulco - he had three close wins over much lower ranked players and then lost in the semis to Dmitrov after winning the first set and only losing the second by 7-5 in the tie break. He was 2-4 down in the final set and did recover to take it to another tb but lost it easily. It did look however as he was stroking the ball better than he has of late. Rusedski said during the Australian Open that it may take him until April I think to be back to 100%. One theory I have read is that the regular ATP events are tougher for him atm as he's having to play every day, whereas in the Slams you have a day's rest between matches. At Indian Wells there are rest days on the whole so hopefully he may benefit from that over the next week or so. Heather Watson has also made it into the main draw after a brilliant couple of matches in qualifying. In the main draw she plays 16 year old wildcard Bencic who is slightly lower ranked at 146 (Heather is 134) but is obviously on the up (she reached a career high 139 last month and is a former world junior no. 1), so a tough match, winnable though. The main draw matches start tonight but it looks like she won't be on court until the early hours. Konta lost her final qualifying match, James Ward plays his tonight. No Dan Evans as he picked up an injury in his last tournament, a shame as I hoped he may qualify here. Dan Cox did make it into qualifying though surprisingly and lost his first match as expected despite putting up a pretty good effort.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Mar 6, 2014 17:12:15 GMT 1
Correction to my post above - Bencic is the current world junior no 1. Heather won 7-5 6-4, quite pleasing Unfortunately she's got a nightmare draw in R2; second seed and world no 3 Agnieszka Radwanska who has also beaten her in their two previous meetings, Heather only winning a couple of games at Wimbledon in 2012 and 4 games at the Aus Open last year. I remember the Wimbledon match well, she was really disappointing in that one, but it was the first time she had played under the roof and I do wonder how much of an effect that had. The AO match, as I recall, she didn't do much wrong simply being outclassed. Hopefully this will be the best result she's had against her, she does have a habit of improving when she next plays opponents (as the 2nd meeting showed), though it's still hard to see her winning a set let alone going through.
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Post by rubcale on Mar 6, 2014 20:00:36 GMT 1
Good result for Heather - should give her some confidence to tilt at re-entering the top 100.
Don't know what's going on with AndyM. He was one of those complaining about the over crowded schedule and now he's put his name up for auction in these crazy exhibition matches.
Radwanska can sometimes have meltdowns - would nice for her to do so now!
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Mar 6, 2014 21:40:53 GMT 1
Good result for Heather - should give her some confidence to tilt at re-entering the top 100. Don't know what's going on with AndyM. He was one of those complaining about the over crowded schedule and now he's put his name up for auction in these crazy exhibition matches. Radwanska can sometimes have meltdowns - would nice for her to do so now! I've thought since the Fed Cup that Heather would get back into the Top 100 sometime in the summer after Wimbledon. I remember the year Bally cracked the Top 100 in 2009 seeing an interview during the Aussie Open where the interviewer told her she was playing Top 100 tennis and she eventually got there in September 8 months later. Heather didn't play for almost 2 months last year after being diagnosed with the glandular fever in early April, and so not having points to defend during that period will undoubtedly help. But with the run of form she's in, she's on something like a 12 match winning streak excluding a recent retirement, that's looking rather cautious atm! I haven't fully understood why Murray is doing it either.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Mar 8, 2014 11:16:14 GMT 1
I realise I've already mentioned this in another thread but it's worth posting here as well. It was revealed yesterday afternoon that Bally has been diagnosed with liver cancer www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/26488401Nice words from Anne Keothavong at the start of BT Sport's coverage of Heather last night (which I watched on a stream). Half of it was covered in her Twitter comment in that BBC article, but she also said how they've got much closer in recent years (I know she attended Bally's wedding last December) and she knows that Bally keeps up to date with tennis etc, so said that if she was listening there's a lot of love for her. More on that match in the next post.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Mar 8, 2014 11:43:25 GMT 1
As for the match itself (which started around 7.15pm) Heather lost 6-4 6-3. A more mixed performance than the scoreline suggests...First set she was fantastic, a joy to watch playing like that. Second set she was disappointing though; a set where there were just two holds of serve, at the very start and the very end, and some love breaks in there too, from both of them. It was quite windy which may have played a part, but although i'm not sure she would have won that set a tiebreak was there for her. There were just too many errors, including a couple of double-faults in one game. She had a pep talk from her Argentine coach Diego Veronelli (in WTA tournaments you're allowed on-court coaching, I think once in each set) at the end of the first set and towards the end of the 2nd set - frustratingly they went to a ad break for the 2nd one so they didn't show much of it - but it was interesting to see. He wanted her to play an attacking game basically, and he offered good encouragement. Strangely, it didn't seem to have much of a positive effect though. Overall, a really pleasing week for her. Onto to Miami next where she's got a main draw wildcard. She'll need to win a couple of matches to match the points she picked up in Indian Wells though (65). Also, I'm not normally bothered about the rankings for the year to date, especially in the first half of the year, but it was interesting to hear in commentary that she's 53 in the YTD rankings. That's a good reflection on how well she's done this year, and presumably this week will push her into the Top 50. On current form no-one outside the Top 50, and some lower seeds as well (Cirstea springs immediately to mind as she's never beaten her before) won't be pleased to be drawn against her in Miami.
A couple of interesting doubles last night too. Treat Huey and Dom Inglot were playing what I thought was likely to be the Italian doubles pair for the Davis Cup tie next month, Fognini and Seppi. They did ok, winning 4-6 7-5 10-6, but it appears that Fognini/Seppi have never played doubles together in the Davis Cup before. It might be useful if they did this time as they will also be playing in the singles...
The other saw Andy Murray teaming up with Jonny Marray, and it seems 70% of the Top 20 singles players are playing in the doubles! It shows the regard the top players have for Indian Wells and Miami because it appears they do normally play doubles at these events. Another reason why I think these two are the biggest Masters Series events of the year. Needless to say they won, although it was quite a lot closer than I thought it would be against an unranked pair, 6-4 4-6 11-9. I've thought for a while now that when he gets into his 30s Andy may prolong his career by playing more doubles, but only with someone he's played with before. So he's keeping his options open, though it may come too late for Jonny as he's already in his 30s.
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Post by rubcale on Mar 8, 2014 12:35:47 GMT 1
Heather's best scoreline yet against Radwanska so she put up some resistance but the major disappointment was the number of unforced errors 35 as opposwed to her opponent's 16.
Cut a third of those out and it could be a very different matter.
On the whole a reasonably good week for Heather.
Terrible news about Elena Baltacha and I wish her all the best. She always was prone to injuries and health problems, threatening to break through but then getting a set back.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Mar 9, 2014 3:12:06 GMT 1
I can see Andy likely to team up with his brother Jamie if he wants to get involve in more doubles. It is horrible news for Bally, I too will wish her all the best in her recovery. As rub says, she was extremely unlucky during her tennis career with multiple injuries/illnesses and its a real shame she will be spending time in medical rooms again albeit a different circumstances.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Mar 9, 2014 11:50:10 GMT 1
I thought about Andy playing with Jamie too but for the first time in a long while he's got a settled partner who he's having success with, so it probably depends on how that goes. No one else stands out. Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins will hopefully be playing together for years to come, and up until playing with Jonny I don't think Andy had played with another Brit.
Of course, I wish Bally all the best too. I completely forgot to mention the other news that came out in the last week. The new tournament director for Queens has been announced (IIRC Chris Kermode is now working for the ATP)...and it's Ross Hutchins! It appears that they'll be bringing back the Rally Against Cancer this year, and Andy has said that he wants to do something for Bally, being someone he's known since childhood.
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Post by rubcale on Mar 9, 2014 14:15:44 GMT 1
Andy struggled to beat Rossol last night (remember him - the guy who beat Nadal at Wimbledon a couple of years ago) although after being a set and a break down he won reasonably handy.
Don't know whether I want him to get to the quarters to meet Nadal - he could be in for a hiding although Nadal also struggled to beat Stepanek.
Andy has said that his back is not an issue he just needs to get a lot of matches under his belt - hope he's right!
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