Week 24: Halle; Queen's; Nottingham

[benchmark00]

wac!

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

I just found out that Conchita is a nickname. Her real name is Inmaculada Concepción Martínez Bernat.

 

[benchmark00]

No way. wtf.

 

[Johnners]

Queens

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Getting this started in the next day or so, so last chance for you guys. Provisional entry lists for Halle and Queen's (there will be withdrawals):

1 Hall, Jason USA 1
2 Špidlá, Radek CZE 3
3 Cowan, Darcy USA 5
4 Drake, Jefferson CDR 8
5 Murdoch, Dwayne USA 10
6 Varga, Zoltán HUN 14
7 Henson, Rick USA 17
8 Charles, Henry GBR 19
9 Mustard, Jojo FRC 20
10 Zhijun, Sun CHN 25
11 Carter, Morgan USA 30
12 Vollan, Kim NOR 33
13 Matias, Tiago POR 34
14 Cohen, Tal ISR 36
15 Champion, David AUS 38
16 Bradley, Jason USA 40
17 Andueza, Ion ESP 42
18 Donaldson, Björn SWE 43
19 Varga, János HUN 44
20 Maxum, Jarkko CDR 45
21 Brookes, Toby AUS 46
22 Delev, Spas CDR 50
23 Depuis, Jean-Alain FRA 51
24 Orlov, Dmitry RUS 52
25 Boyd, Wayne USA 53
26 Sae-ul, Atthaphol THA 55
27 Buur, Kasper DEN 58
28 Carretero, Marc ESP 60
29 Schmidt, Pascal SUI 61
30 Brozik, Petr CZE 64
31 Engel, Oliver LUX 65
32 Färkkilä, Lari FIN 68
33 Cesljar, Ivan CRO 69
34 Emsis, Ivars LAT 70
35 Santos, Roberto BRA 76
36 Day, Julian USA 78
37 Aksu, Emrem TUR 79
38 Fok, Zhenyu CHN 81
39 Li, Ming-Wang CHN 83
40 James, Hugh USA 85
41 Maurer, Bogdan ROU 87
42 De Kinsele, Michael ITA 88
43 Bruce, Randy USA 91
44 Juraev, Anvar UZB 93
45 Durand, Christopher FRA 96
46 Henrikkson, Henrikk SWE 97
47 Lazzeri, Sam USA 99
48 (Q)
49 (Q)
50 (Q)
51 (Q)
52 (WC) Moss, Sebastian GBR
53 (WC) Whitehouse, Scott GBR
54 (WC) Russell, Andy GBR
55 (WC) Wright, Oliver GBR
56 (WC) Deane, Marcuss FRC

1 Blanco, Daniel Páez ESP 2
2 Boros, József HUN 6
3 Olesen, Rasmus DEN 7
4 Daneu, Radivoj SRB 9
5 Altman, Illya UKR 11
6 Stewart, Oneil JAM 15
7 Brdar, Miroslav CRO 16
8 Amato, Carlo ITA 22
9 Emelio, Sanchez ESP 26
10 Haas, Becker GER 28
11 Benaglio, Almen SUI 29
12 Read, Brett FRC @33
13 Genov, Ivan BUL 35
14 L'Estrange, Pierre FRA 37
15 Vuriak, Viktor UKR 41
16 Vollan, Tom NOR 47
17 Berg, Maarten NED @47
18 Villaneuva, Javier ESP 49
19 Parmeniter, Yves BEL 56
20 Gorshkov, Gregor RUS 57
21 Denisov, Boris RUS 62
22 Mandonna, Paolo ARG 63
23 Isaev, Denis BLR 66
24 Peters, Alex GER 67
25 Quezada, Jefferson CHL 71
26 (Q)
27 (Q)
28 (Q)
29 (Q)
30 (WC) Heug, Gunther GER
31 (WC) Bonhof, Dieter GER
32 (WC) Heindrich, Marcus GER

Queen's listed first.

 

[Cevno]

Warsaw ,if it is OK for Narang.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

back to Halle.

 

[morgieb]

Warsaw ,if it is OK for Narang.

Doesn't exist anymore.

 

[morgieb]

ftr, Morgan Burridge will play at the Nottingham Challenger.

 

[roseboy64]

Nottingham here.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Queen me.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Queens for me.

And I'm not on hiatus, I'm just on blinkin' holiday.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

PTA Halle Preview: Season II Gerry Weber Open

What looked like a great field for the Halle organisers has taken a hit in the past week or so with Radivoj Daneu, Daniel Páez Blanco and József Boros withdrawing. While Daneu announced is withdrawal through injury late last week, Blanco and Boros, the Roland Garros finalists, announced their withdrawals after the seeds were placed which left two lucky losers replacing them in the top half.

It wasn't ideal for the organisers, as the top two ranked players can now only meet in the semi finals. Rasmus Olesen is the defending champion (having beaten Ivan Genov last season), and he and Sven Oxenstierna have been placed in a stacked half with just the one wildcard and no qualifiers. For a 250 tournament, it is a seriously tough path to title defence with two Grand Slam finalists and two Grand Slam semi finalists in it.

With Blanco and Boros out, the top half is a bit of a disaster. Miroslav Brdar is the highest seed and is uncomfortable with the lower balls on grass. Carlo Amato is the other seed who did well to make the fourth round at Wimbledon last year. Grass king, though, he is not.

The other exciting storyline is veteran Brett Read who is playing his first PTA tournament on grass. The Roland Garros quarter finalist faces a tough path on the grass with serve-and-volley specialist Denis Isaev first, and then a third match against Carlo Amato in a month. His strength has been how much time he has been able to create for himself, so the grass may produce some obstacles for the 28-year old.

Prediction: Rasmus Olesen def. Carlo Amato

 

[morgieb]

Thank **** I'm in the **** part of the draw. Still, I don't think grass will be my forte.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

PTA Queen's Preview: Season II AEGON Championships

Big names aplenty turn out at the prestigious Queen's Club tennis tournament in London this week, with three of the world's top ten players headlining the field. Defending champion Darcy Cowan is going through a rough patch of late, and has some huge points to defend this grass season after winning Wimbledon last year as a teenager. He should have no troubles making it through his section, with the only threats being seventh seed Henry Charles, the giant Ivars Emsis and Spas Delev.

The World No. 1, Jason Hall, is the pre-tournament favourite with the bookies, but he was gifted a difficult draw with a possible first up meeting with Jason Bradley. With some good grass players in his quarter, he may struggle to claim his first Queen's title.

The third top ten player is third seed Jefferson Drake who is coming off a career best performance on the clay in Paris last week. Drake has a bye first, but could meet West CWLand rival Scotland Rivers who begins against World No. 78 Martin Reiter of Austria. Also in that section is ninth seed Heath Davis who faces the imposing prospect of Rick Henson in the third round. Youngster Marcuss Deane starts with a winnable match against Ivan Cesljar.

In the second section, fourth seed Zoltán Varga looms large as a real threat. Varga stunned everybody last year to make the semi finals at Wimbledon, and the prospect of Varga/Jojo Mustard in the quarter finals is very exciting with Mustard in career-best form.

The absence of Radek Špidlá makes for an interesting week, but one cannot go past Cowan to defend his crown.

Prediction: Darcy Cowan def. Zoltán Varga

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Don't feel like posting the whole draw for Nottingham atm, but the organisers have taken the gutsy move to stage a 56-man tournament in the English "summer". Fifteenth seed Ishan Narang (1R vs. Srdjan Ivic) could meet Jason Lawley (1R vs. Adul Doungtong) in the second round. In the same section, Pierre Rose begins against local wildcard Leon Skinner and then, if he wins, meets sixth seeded Dutchman Thomas Velten.

Elsewhere, youngster Morgan Burridge makes his main draw debut after qualifying as a wildcard. He faces South African Oliver Thursfield first in a tough initiation. Fourteenth seed Roy Daniels should win against Joe Stephens of Wales, but could meet former top hundred player Morton Blundell in the second round. Not a lot of tennis lately for Rock Daniels, so could be a tough week. Third seed Rick Langley has a bye first up, and meets with winner of Erdi Azgin and Evgeny Volkoff.

Nilikar Midid and Mark Harmel are the only top hundred players, and are seeded first and second respectively.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Because there are different sized draws, I will probably have to do this week day-by-day. Hopefully it won't take any longer.

AEGON Championships II - Singles
PTA World Tour 250 - Monday (1st Round) - Queen's Club, London,

United Kingdom - Grass

• Fourteenth seed Jarkko Maxum has made a winning start to his season on the grass with a straight sets victory over World No. 91 Fok Zhenyu of China. The East CWLander, who produced a great fortnight of tennis in the doubles draw in Paris, needed a return to touch in the singles but was given a real contest by the Chinese No. 4 in a close match. Maxum struggled to hold serve against Fok, but continually created chances against his unseeded opponent and after breaking three times took the first set 7-5 with a backhand winner off a second serve from the Chinese player. The second set continued in much the same way as Maxum failed to shut Fok out as he gave up a lead of a break on two occasions. In a tiebreaker, though, Maxum started to find his groove as he maintained an early lead and charged into the round of 32 7-5, 7-6(2). He could face French Open quarter finalist Jean-Alain Depuis next after he was drawn against compatriot Christopher Durand.

• The other East CWLander in action was Spas Delev who was taken to the brink by Latvian monster Ivars Emsis. Delev is a self-professed fan of the grass, but was met with the notoriously difficult task of breaking the Emsis serve. In a sometimes drab affair, Delev only managed to complete that feat once to take the second set and to ensure the match went to a deciding third set. Emsis by that point was running out of steam and allowed Delev to wheel onto his forehand side with short rally shots too often as the World No. 44 moved ahead 6-0. He failed to convert his first two match points, but avoided a disaster thanks to an Emsis forehand that managed to hit the bottom of the net to move into the next round 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(2). He looks likely to meet Portugal's Tiago Matías in the next round after rain suspended play in his match against local leftie Scott Whitehouse with the twelfth seed leading 7-6(3), 4-1.

• The only seed to crash out on an interesting day of tennis was thirteenth seed Dmitry Orlov who was humbled by Japanese vet Ninteh Doh 3-6, 1-6.

• Seeded players out:
  
  Dmitry Orlov.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Gerry Weber Open II - Singles
PTA World Tour 250 - Monday (1st Round) - Halle,

Germany - Grass​

• It was a tough initiation for French Open quarter finalist Brett Read as he was taken to the brink by Belarusian serve-and-volleyer Denis Isaev. The veteran World No. 70 regularly troubled Read with his style as the West CWLander often played too defensively and was made to pay by some big shot-making by the assertive Isaev. Still, his class was on display as he made some inroads against the Isaev serve despite struggling on his own and led 5-2 in the third set. Isaev, however, denied Read as he sought to serve out the match and clung on to take the match to a deciding tiebreaker. The French Open quarter finalist had enough about him, however, to stay in the match and advance to the second round 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(3). He will yet again meet Carlo Amato after the eighth seed eased past Norwegian qualifier Haiku Morkel in straight sets.

• Seeded players out: None.

 

[morgieb]

Too close for comfort there!

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

AEGON Championships II - Singles
PTA World Tour 250 - Tuesday (1st Round/2nd Round) - Queen's Club, London,

United Kingdom - Grass

• Another rain-affected day limited the number of second round matches that could be completed, but a full-house of first round contests were done and dusted with ninth seed Heath Davis leading the charge. The French Open doubles finalist was drawn against Romanian Bogdan Maurer and had no troubles with his 89th ranked opponent in a convincing win. Maurer, who won a match at Wimbledon last season, had trouble with Davis' power and the wind at Queen's Club and unloaded with a volley of unforced errors. Davis also had some difficulties with the wind that impacted his high ball toss, but he saved four break points during the match to advance 6-2, 6-2. He will meet top fifty ranked Ion Andueza who had troubles of his own in a 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 win over local wildcard Oliver Wright.

• Wildcard entrant Marcuss Deane had a magnificent start to his week with a comfortable win over World No. 64 Ivan Cesljar. Deane, whose efforts in Paris saw him rise to a career high World No. 109, showed why he is one of the hottest prospects on the tour as he cruised past the Croat 6-3, 6-4. Cesljar looked strong on serve except for two service breaks going the way of Deane. Deane, meanwhile, continues to grow in stature and saved the only break point Cesljar brought up on his serve as he advanced easily. He does face the tough task of fifteenth seed Bjorn Donaldson next after the Swede survived a tense match with local Oscar Highsmith to win 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-0.

• In the same section, Scotland Rivers survived a late fightback from Austria's Martin Reiter to also advance in straights. Rivers led 6-3, 5-2 before Reiter worked his way back into the set through some great defensive tennis to draw errors from the World No. 46. But, as another highly talented member of the West CWLand contingent, Rivers survived that scare to produce a fantastic tiebreak performance as he came to the net regularly and to great effect. Reiter struggled with the attacking style of Rivers, and it was the West CWLander who secured a second round meeting with third seed Jefferson Drake 6-3, 7-6(1).

• In other results, Spas Delev will meet Tiago Matías tomorrow after the Portuguese player advanced 7-6(3), 7-6(1), and third seed Jojo Mustard will play qualifier Tu Haifeng who won his first round clash 6-1, 7-5. In second round action, Wimbledon semi finalist Zoltán Varga crashed out in straight sets to Attaphol Sae-ul; eighth seed Morgan Carter was embarrassed by Brazilian Roberto Santos in three sets; and second seed and defending champion Darcy Cowan advanced unconvincingly against Aksu Emrem 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(5).

• Seeded players out:
  
  Morgan Carter;
  
  Zoltán Varga.