GB Player Watch

First topic message reminder :

Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins have reached the final of the Malaysia Open by beating No. 1 seeds Frystenberg and Matkowski.

Also both Laura Robson and Heather Watson have made it through opening qualifying rounds at China Open.

Well done to all

Laura is in danger of the players she beats being more impressive than the players to whom she loses.

Apparently Aggy's served was getting shredded at every opportunity; she lost it five times in a row (once to give up the 1st set, 4 times in the 2nd). There's no good article up anywhere that's in detail but apparently Aggy met her kryptonite once again; heavy hitters.

James Ward gets immediate revenge of Marton Fucsovics and is into Round 2 of the Kun-Ming challenger.

Winning his next match against Di Wu will put him in the Top 200 so long as Jonathan Dasnieres de Veigy doesn't win his match in Italy.

Only 3 double faults yesterday so the serve was working for a change. I hope she's learned that if the serve works, she's very difficult to stop. The last game a bit is on Youtube.

Nice update Ryan. Kunming is one of those bigger CH events where either 125 or 110 pts are on offer (110 in this case). Plus $18,000 (woo-hoo!) to the winner. He has a good chance of making semis before meeting someone like Bemelmans who is a tough CH player. If he gets there and gains 40 pts that would propel him into the 180s with his favoured grass season around the corner. Funny how it all seems a world away from Madrid Masters but the actual tennis played isn't that much different.

Good revenge for James - although winning the first match and gaining a CH title would have been nice! Getting back in the top 200 having dropped 50 odd places just a couple of weeks ago would be fantastic.

Yep BS, he was down at 265ish a couple of weeks back and I feared for his future at that point. This is a great bounce back, well done to him for carving out the wins in a far flung location.

Just noticed that Dan Evans is back in action this week, at a $10,000 Futures Event in Newcastle. Through his first two rounds for the loss of 5 games. However, his first round opponent was unranked, having made it past the qualifying rounds of a Futures for the first time, followed by a Frenchman with a current ranking of 866.

Though every journey must start with a single step.

Poor result for Robson - led 5-2 in the 3rd and was 30 all on serve at 5-3, made a good first serve that Ivanovic hit for a lucky return winner. Went on to lose in the tie break.

Definitely one that got away, although she must be encouraged by the win over Aggie and the performance in part yesterday against a former FO champion.

Now if only she can get this double fault issue under control (11 in the match, including at MP down.)

Agree DH but serving yips are notoriously hard to solve as they're mentally based. They killed Coria's career. She probably needs a lot of sports psychology to analyse exactly what's going through her head as she prepares to serve in pressure moments. Time after time her ball toss goes awry and she has to re-serve...I wonder if she somehow over-analyses technique at that point rather than just freely swinging the arm...I don't envy her having to solve it.

Good point re the ball toss - middle of the set she was having no particular issues, but as the tension increased the reliability of the toss went off and she let quite a few drop rather than hitting them.

I suspect you are right that over-analysis and over-thinking is probably Laura's main problem rather than anything inherently technique based.

Good point DH - think until middle of 2nd set she'd only served 3 doubles but then it went overboard afterwards. She has a great serve with good power so her innate timing and technique are very good, nothing wrong with her movement into and out of trophy position. Its just the toss and timing that goes awry. Hopefully maturity will help her work through these anxiety moments - as I posted elsewhere Federer used to have his own moments of tension which he sought help for so its not an uncommon problem. We tend to think champions are born as a complete package but this isn't really the case.

Evans won a futures event and, as a result, goes back into the top 300. Maybe he's finally starting knuckle down?

Laura up to number 35 now....

woo-hoo on both counts!

The Special Juan wrote:Evans won a futures event and, as a result, goes back into the top 300. Maybe he's finally starting knuckle down?

It's been a pretty good few weeks for British men in futures. They've actually won 6 events in the last 3 weeks.

In the first 17 weeks of the year GB had 6 winners (including 3 by Ed Corrie) and then there were 6 more in the next 3 weeks.

Week 18: Andrew Fitzpatrick - Edinburgh 10K F10, Kyle Edmund - Vero Beach, USA 10K F11
Week 19: James Marsalek - Ramat Hasharon, Israel 10K F9, Ashley Hewitt - Newcastle 10K F11
Week 20: Dan Evans - Bastad, Sweden 10K F3, David Rice - Marathon, Greece 10K F7

djlovesyou wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:Evans won a futures event and, as a result, goes back into the top 300. Maybe he's finally starting knuckle down?

It's been a pretty good few weeks for British men in futures. They've actually won 6 events in the last 3 weeks.

In the first 17 weeks of the year GB had 6 winners (including 3 by Ed Corrie) and then there were 6 more in the next 3 weeks.

Week 18: Andrew Fitzpatrick - Edinburgh 10K F10, Kyle Edmund - Vero Beach, USA 10K F11
Week 19: James Marsalek - Ramat Hasharon, Israel 10K F9, Ashley Hewitt - Newcastle 10K F11
Week 20: Dan Evans - Bastad, Sweden 10K F3, David Rice - Marathon, Greece 10K F7

Wow thanks, I didn't realise their were that many tournament winners. Congratulations to all

So...... is Murray in or out? I don't want him to play but we know he's incredibly stubborn so I think he will play. If he does, I hope he doesn't jeopardise his career.

I notice that none of the British Men’s players have tried to qualify for the FO, apart from some bloke that was a kiwi a few weeks ago. Anyone know why Ward, in particular, isn’t playing?

He's withdrawn!!

bradman99.94 wrote:I notice that none of the British Men’s players have tried to qualify for the FO, apart from some bloke that was a kiwi a few weeks ago. Anyone know why Ward, in particular, isn’t playing?

I'll look into it. Maybe it's as simple as they aren't good enough on clay.

The Special Juan wrote:

bradman99.94 wrote:I notice that none of the British Men’s players have tried to qualify for the FO, apart from some bloke that was a kiwi a few weeks ago. Anyone know why Ward, in particular, isn’t playing?

I'll look into it. Maybe it's as simple as they aren't good enough on clay.

They just weren't ranked high enough at the time the cut for qualifying was taken. I believe, ironically, if it had been just one week earlier or later then James Ward would have made it. However, althought he's done OK in clay challengers, he's probably another one better off preparing for the grass season anyway.

Ah, that explains it perfectly. Many thanks Yvonne and TSJ

JoKo's made it through one round of qualifying

Liam Brody is the one I'll be keeping an eye on, I just hope the LTA don't ruin him. He needs Petchey or similar to take him to the next level.

Dan Evans currently playing Ryan Harrison at the Nottingham Challenger. Lost the first set in a tie-breaker, but just bagelled him in the 2nd.

Wow that's certainly some way to put the disappointment of the first set behind him. Thanks for the update

Evans is now 5-4 up in the 3rd

Evans wins in a final set tie-break.

Evans takes it 7-5 in the tie-break

I know Harrison has gone backwards recently but that's still a pretty good win for Evans, and signs have been there over the last couple of months that he's finally taking things a bit more seriously...

Evo! Evo! He looks like a top 100 player from what I saw at the DC but seems too lightweight to get into the top 50.

Yep good win for Evans, and he had to stave off BPs at 5-5 too.

Brydan Klein or Armitraj in the 2R, 2 players around his ranking.

Evo's got a wildcard into Queen's next week. Still have no idea when the draw is though!!

Evans takes the first set against Klein comfortably 6-2. This really doesn't look like a match between guys ranked fairly close to each other. Really really hope Evo can start to make a move up those rankings...

Looking good against Brydan Klien (an Aussie-Brit), taking the first set 6-2.

I agree MfC, Evans looks a class above Klien in every department.

I never knew Klein was British. Thanks for the reminder

He's been clever. Australian in January, so he got a WC there, then become British in time for Wimbledon and possibly another WC.

US in time for Flushing Meadows?

I see Evo's a break up in the 2nd too.

You feel ike these could be a big couple of weeks for Dan. Home crowds, bigger tournaments etc and a chance to try and escape the futures and move into the Challengers.

Evans duly completes the demolition job 6-2 6-2, looked a class above really with some very nice touches at the net. Here's hoping he's finally getting his act together...

I hope I get to see him on TV next week at Queen's and hopefully the draw is kind to him!! Was that match on TV or something?

I watched a stream on Bet365.

Ah that explains it

Didn't catch it, but Dan lost 7-6 6-2 today. Ebden is up in the 120's or so, so it's no disgrace and overall you would say a decent week.

It was rather disappointing considering Evo served for the first set but still, not a bad week's work.

Evans had a good win today against Pella in the first round at Queens. Pella probably doesn't have much grass court pedigree, but nonetheless is ranked 75 in the world so it's a decent scalp, and one that will bring him 10 ATP points (which is quite a lot considering where he is ranked at the moment). I only caught the middle part of the match, where he was completely dominant, and he certainly looks the part. Also his body language looks much better at the moment, hopefully good signs. Next up the winner of Harrison vs Nieminen, Evans of course beat Harrison last week in Nottingham...

Not so good news for the other Brits. Ward went down in 3 TBs to Ivan Dodig, stats say he only took 4 of 15 BP opportunities, while Dodig took 4 of 7 so that may have made a difference. Jamie Baker went down 7-5 6-2 to Benoit Paire. Both fairly respectable defeats I guess, but still a shame...

Ward held 2 match points on serve to take the 2nd set 6-4 (and would have been 40-love in the game but for the most outrageously dead net-cord for Dodig). UE on the 40-15 point and then a very passive point at 40-30. Really a winnable match that got away.

So Evans goes out 6-0 6-3, but then again it was to del Potro. I imagine that was the first time he'd played someone of that level and I thought that maybe he was beginning to get a better handle on the level just as the match came to an end. Up to a provisional #250 now, so about 50 places in 2 weeks.

He received a wildcard into Wimbledon qualifying but not the tournament itself as they are only given to those inside the top 250 in the world (yet Edmund gets one?).