freerider wrote:

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boggo and slabba both play singles tommorow

-- Edited by freerider at 10:01, 2009-01-04

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yep, boggo opens with a 10am local and josh and slabba both get evening matches; josh 2nd match after 6pm and slabba 3rd match after 4pm. looks like they are trying to avoid playing in the midday sun. i wonder how hot it is over there.

 

I actually think Slabba had a better year last year than a lot of people has given him credit for. He started the year at around 400 and ended it at 350. While this does not seem like a big rise you need to take a look at the make up of his points won. When he ended the year at 400 it included all the african points which can be percieved to inflate his rankings.

Now though he has an even spread from challenger quarters, second rounds and later stages of futures. As long as he keeps playing a mix of challengers and futures again this year we can look to see if he is still progressing

What to people think? When his game is on like this week so far he puts together some very promising results

Count Zero wrote:

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yep, boggo opens with a 10am local and josh and slabba both get evening matches; josh 2nd match after 6pm and slabba 3rd match after 4pm. looks like they are trying to avoid playing in the midday sun. i wonder how hot it is over there.

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The daytime range this week is forecast to be 24-30 C - not too bad, especially if they avoid the mid-day sun. It's known as the land where it's always spring!

I'm guessing a lot of us thought Wardy would be the one to come through here, but that's a seriously impressive start to the season from Slabba, beating two higher-ranked players in straight sets after handing out a selection of bakery products to his first opponent.

He has turned out to be the star of an otherwise disappointing set of qualifying competitions this week, also making himself the first Brit to score any ATP points this year, with 5, which is a slightly higher proportion of the points available for a R1 win than under the old system.

The winners of his match and Boggo's match will play in R2. Neither of the Brits is the favourite to win their R1 match but both should have a fighting chance ...

L32: Josh Goodall WR 201 v (Q) Dieter Kindlmann (GER) WR 235

H2H: 0-2 - Josh lost to Kindlmann 4 & 3 in Rennes in October and of course lost the New Delhi Challenger Final to him 6 & 3 in August. Two reasons why revenge would be sweet then, and Bloomers showed that it's not impossible by beating the German twice last year.

L32: Alex Bogdanovic WR 190 v (8) Rik de Voest (RSA) WR 157

H2H: 0-3 - but they haven't played since 2005. Since then, de Voest has played two Brits, losing 7-5 in the 3rd to Muzza in Memphis and 9-7 in the 3rd to Josh in Wimby Q, both in 2006.

L32: (Q) Alex Slabinsky WR 350 v Scoville Jenkins (USA) WR 213

H2H: 0-0 - Jenkins is of course the player who beat Boggo 5 & 1 in Nashville in November after getting thrashed by him 0 & 1 just two months earlier. That says more about the difference between on-form pre-DC Boggo and (traumatised?) post-DC Boggo than anything else though.

-- Edited by steven at 12:45, 2009-01-04

Great result from Slabba, Mikeyp I think you have a point, and I remain optimistic for Slabba's progress onwards and upwards.

Good luck to all three of our guys in round 1 on paper I guess Josh has the best chance but I always worry more when it's a qualifier!

They've had the OoP up for hours - I don't think anyone who played today is playing in the same event tomorrow.

It's just gone 9 pm there now and ...

- there are no results for today on the ATP site - http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/commo...9/2205/mds.pdf

- the draw on the Nouvelle Calédonie site at http://www.ligue.fft.fr/nouvelle-cal...pdf/md/mds.pdf doesn't even have qualifiers placed, though it does have Sunday's doubles results on there and Tuesday's OoP

- the FFT site doesn't even seem to know that the draw has taken place - http://www.ti.fft.fr/EvMenu.asp?CodeEvent=0811181840

No, the second half of R1 was due to be played on Tuesday. All three Brits were due to play singles today.

Of course, judging by the weather forecast, it could have got rained off, but then I'd expect to see all the Monday matches appearing on Tuesday's OoP.

draw has updated

Boggo and slabba won but josh didnt

boggo 46 75 63
Slabba 57 62 64
Josh 57 76(3) 16

good winsd by both the alex, must feel good for boggo especially, going though at 5-5 in the 2nd set on a 10 match losing streak. good for slabba to come from a set down as well.

Shame for josh, Kindlemann was a tough draw for him.