He just got through practicing after watching his next opponent Michael Quintero. Jamie told me he has already expected to go into the match with the mindframe that he will have to hit tons of balls as the Columbian worked his earlier opponent(Adam Kennedy) from side to side. Jamie said this is a match that he would think he should win on paper, but one that he will really have to grind mentally. Baker said for a futures tourney the facility isn't to bad and could have received housing, but him and Keith decided not to. He will be on to Brazil after this future in the States to tackle the clay. Jamie said that this upcoming tournament was a hard court tourney, but just recently moved to clay. He didn't go into much detail about what happened there. Overall he and his coach Keith Reynolds have been very pleased with his progress and feel he can have a nice run in Little Rock. I personally think Jamie gets to the semis before losing to Levy. That old crafty veteran might have a few tricks up his sleeve for this up in comer. If he does get to the finals, I see him playing Warburg. Talk about someone difficult to play. Warburg takes at least 30 seconds between every serve and uses ever stall tactic in the book to frustrate and piss off his opponents. Personally I'm not a fan of Mr. Warburg after an interview I had with him during our 07 Challenger. I simply asked him after his 3 set win over Ryderstedt if he felt Michael picked up his game on the 4 match pts he saved or did you(sam) tighten up a little. His response.."Did you watch the match, do you understand we are playing indoors and he was serving 130mph. Of course I didn't choke, those match pts he saved were on his serve, come on". Lets pull for a Baker/Warburg final with Jamie spanking his ass!!!!
Ken won't be happy to hear you slagging off his best mate Sam Warburg lol.
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Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive.... those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience
Thanks for this info, it's really great to hear from Jamie Will you be able to speak to him after his match against Donald Young, would be fascinating to hear his thoughts on that
Sounds like he did extremely well to beat Quintero so comfortably, must be so tough to break opponents like that down on slow courts...I guess that Jamie's all-court game gave him the advantage, from what I saw of the clips in Dallas he seemed to be attacking the net a lot more than in the past and that ability to come in and finish points off really adds extra variety to his game. Paul Hutchins has been getting Alex, Richard, Josh and Jamie to concentrate on moving up the court more during matches, that's why he feels it important that they all play doubles as much as possible.
Yeah he said in his Times blogs during 2005 that the facilities in the USA for futures are amazingly good compared to Britain. In the States a lot of the tournaments are at his community centres which are fantastically equipped while at a British community centre, he'd expect to have to bring his own net
Shame that the tourney in Brazil has moved to clay but I guess it makes sense with the amount of clay specialists over there...also will be v interesting to see how Jamie does on the clay, first time since 2005.
I think Jamie would beat Levy, he's a crafty player and has a lot of nous but he's nothing like what he used to be...I'd expect Jamie to be too solid and Levy can self-destruct.
Bet you're pleased at Warburg going out in rd2, lol....sounds like a bit of a short-tempered guy though to be fair he probably was really, really p1ssed out at losing after missing those chances.
Thanks for the info on Jamie both of you. I'm glad to see Jamie going for the clay this year as you can't get to and stay at the top of the game without having to play on it, so it shows he serious about getting there.
-- Edited by imoen at 13:50, 2007-04-20
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To look at a thing is quite different from seeing a thing and one does not see anything until one sees its beauty
yeah ok I nicked it from him...thought it was a great quote It's only temporary tho, till I can find a suitable quote from the man who invented the shed