Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Sept 4, 2024 23:16:29 GMT 1
Jack Draper reaches his first semi-final in a Grand Slam after another straight sets victory (6-3 7-5 6-2) over Alex De Minaur.
To be fair to De Minaur, he looked like he was still nursing the hip injury he sustained during Wimbledon - which made him withdraw early in that tournament. It was quite a tight 2nd set, maybe due to strapping applied at the start of the 2nd set on Draper's thigh. It didn't look too serious though so hope all is well for Friday.
Draper has yet to lose a set so far and will face either world #1 Jannik Sinner or former champ Danil Medvedev in the semi final. Whoever it is, he'll be a huge underdog but stranger things have happened in the US Open.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Sept 6, 2024 23:02:51 GMT 1
Draper is struggling with the New York humidity, nerves and the occasion and is currently down 2-0 in sets against Sinner. He's vomited a couple of times already.
Meanwhile 15 year old Mika Stojsavljevic has reached the US Open junior girls final - becoming the 5th British junior to reach a junior final. Mimi Xu was a semi finalist too.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Sept 6, 2024 23:54:04 GMT 1
Not to be for Jack Draper as he bows out, physically spent, to a straight sets defeat 5-7 6-7 (3-7) 2-6. So many positives and experiences to take away and just his physicality let him down. It will a quick turnaround for him though, as he'll be playing in Manchester for the GB's Davis Cup group matches on Wednesday.
He's been largely been hiding in Murray's shadow, even at Wimbledon this year. Now his name is firmly in the media and general public, I hope he can handle the pressure better than Raducanu can.
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Post by rubcale on Sept 7, 2024 10:05:24 GMT 1
The first two sets were relatively close but overall a disappointing outcome - hopefully he'll have learnt a lot from this.
I don't know whether it's a good idea or not for him to play Davis Cupas soon as next week but then we're stretched thin at the minute with Norrie and Evans not in great form
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Robbie
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Post by Robbie on Sept 7, 2024 14:56:39 GMT 1
Draper did well to keep the first two sets as close as they were. However a combination of nerves and the weather didn't help. He did well though and while I would have liked him to have reached the final, the better player definitely won.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Sept 7, 2024 18:14:45 GMT 1
In the end, Sinner's slam experience and winning the Australian Open earlier in the year proved invaluable, as he didn't have a great game himself.
It does feel like a missed opportunity for Draper though with both Alcaraz / Djokovic exiting early because of the Olympics and hindering their prep for the US hard court season. With hindsight if Draper did beat Sinner, he would have had a decent chance against Fritz in the final - who went through a 5-setter semi final himself against France Tiafoe.
GB face Canada (Sun), Finland (Wed) and Argentina (Fri) next week in the Davis Cup - with Billy Harris nominated as the 3rd singles player to replace Norrie, whose still injured. In theory, playing Finland first could mean an opportunity to rest Draper until the Argentina match, as the Billy Harris does have a ranking just outside the top 100 but has no DC experience AFAIK, little experience on the main ATP tour and not sure if he will be the #1 player with Evo currently ranking lower.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Sept 7, 2024 20:00:17 GMT 1
Meanwhile 15 year old Mika Stojsavljevic has reached the US Open junior girls final - becoming the 5th British junior to reach a junior final. Mimi Xu was a semi finalist too. Stojsavljevic wins the Junior Girls singles, winning 6-4 6-4 against the 16 year old Japanese player, Wakana Sonobe.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Sept 12, 2024 0:32:11 GMT 1
In theory, playing Finland first could mean an opportunity to rest Draper until the Argentina match, as the Billy Harris does have a ranking just outside the top 100 but has no DC experience AFAIK, little experience on the main ATP tour and not sure if he will be the #1 player with Evo currently ranking lower. GB played against Finland and won the tie 2-1.
As quoted, Jack Draper was rested for this tie. This meant Billy Harris was playing as the British #1 player and made his Davis Cup debut. He won relatively comfortably 6-4 7-6 (7-4) against the slightly higher ranked Otto Virtanen.
Dan Evans expectedly won his match 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 against Eero Vasa. He couldn't repeat this in the doubles with Neal Skupski and could prove decisive to qualify for Malaga.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Sept 14, 2024 1:38:45 GMT 1
GB chances of progressing to the Davis Cup Finals are finely poised after a 2-1 loss to Argentina.
Argentina are renowned clay-court specialists, not winning a tie on a hard court since 2019, but both single players (Etcheverry and Cerundolo), both ranked in the top 40, produced some good aggressive tennis to beat Dan Evans and the returning Jack Draper. They won their doubles match, which could prove pivotal in the standings.
GB play Canada on Sunday, where ideally they will need to win all 3 matches to have a chance at qualifying. In the unlikely event that Finland win against Argentina tomorrow, GB will need to just need to win 2 matches on Sunday to progress.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Sept 14, 2024 22:58:30 GMT 1
Argentina won their tie 3-0 against Finland, which means GB face a tough ask to win 3-0 against the seeded Canada team to qualify for the finals in Malaga.
A 2-1 win won't be enough for GB due to Canada's win against Argentina.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Sept 15, 2024 17:01:55 GMT 1
GB fall at the first hurdle as Evans loses his opening match against Denis Shapavalov - meaning Canada and Argentina progress from the groups to the Davis Cup finals in November.
After the match, Evans has questioned whether he has a future as a Davis Cup player. There are also some chatter on whether Leon Smith is still the right man to captain the team in the post-Murray era - given he was brought in partly because of Murray.
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Post by Panda on Sept 16, 2024 12:13:19 GMT 1
Meanwhile Sonay Kartal yesterday won her first WTA Tour title in Tunisia. She beat Rebecca Sramkova in the final of the Jasmin Open, a WTA 250 event, and as a result, climbs to a career-high of 96 in the world rankings. There are now 4 British women ranked in the top 100.
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Post by rubcale on Sept 16, 2024 12:16:31 GMT 1
I think Evans and Norrie are unlikely to rise back up the rankings and I fear for Draper's temperament - he really needs someone to help him sort it out.
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