Wonder how many matches Nishioka (Mr FAA's next opponent) has played where he's been the "old man" of the match?! That win sounds extremely impressive - especially given the frequency with which Mr King has defeated some quite decent aspiring players.
Utterly remarkable to be seemingly routinely beating players of that calibre at that age. Almost incomprehensible. Has a ring of the Nadals/Gasquets. Far too early to be hyping them up of course but incredibly impressive and will be certainly be keeping an eye out for Mr FAA.
On a side note, if he makes it big I hope he drops one of the surnames. God forbid trying to pronounce that mouthful on a regular basis.
-- Edited by TMH on Friday 24th of July 2015 11:17:20 PM
Mr FAA eventually lost. But perhaps worth noting is the Tampere doubles final. Checked to see how Jarkko Nieminen was doing (for fellow Jarkko fans, he's safely in the SFs) and noticed that Harri Heliovaara (who won the AO Junior dubs with Graeme Dyce in 2007) was in the doubles finals with Patrik Niklas-Salminen, who did quite well at junior Wimbledon this year. Remarkably, neither of them had a doubles ranking: Mr Niklas-Salminen hasn't played much outside of juniors, and Mr Heliovaara, looking at his ITF record, appears to have stopped playing regularly in 2012 and simply appears for the Finnish tournaments and Davis Cup. As someone said vis a vis Mr Glasspool, you wait for a ranking point, and then (at least) 55 come along.
-- Edited by Spectator on Saturday 25th of July 2015 03:57:44 AM
A few years ago I kept a keen eye on most of the upcoming juniors and former top juniors. Some of them I've not heard of since (like Alejandro Gomez), others pop up in Futures periodically (like Gianni Mina). Heliovaara was one, and if I remember correctly I believe he had a serious injury back in 2012, attempted a comeback several months on, got injured again and then semi-retired. Not dissimilar to Henri Kontinen, who of course is now making a pretty decent doubles career. The Fins don't seem to get much luck at all with their brightest prospects.
-- Edited by TMH on Saturday 25th of July 2015 01:18:36 PM
Bad day for the Finns. Tristan Lamasine accounted for both Jarkko Nieminen in the singles (a pity - not that I have anything against M Lamasine, but this was Nieminen's final home tournament) and, with partner, the Finnish pair in the doubles. TMH, you're quite correct about Heliovaara. I looked it up, and he indeed retired because of recurrent injuries and is currently getting a degree. And you do have to wonder how good he could have been if he can waltz out of retirement not having played a professional match in yonks and get to the finals. Must be quite frustrating for the Finnish equivalent of this board!
I understand Ellyse Perry is planning to take up tennis next, phenomenal achievement in her second sport duffing the English women in yesterday's cricket one dayer, phenomenal athlete, elite ball player.
Eat your heart out Michael Boulding, but good try, to walk the walk at elite level in two completely unrelated sports and then as a genuine all rounder in one so arguably three completely different skill sets, Ellyse respect!
Kimiko Date Krumm continues to amaze me. Has qualified for WTA Premier Stanford at the age of 46!
Bah, she's only 44
She is great, isn't she. I only was pretty sure about her age, because I was coincidentally just looking at it yesterday. She'll be 45 on 28th September.
Kimiko Date Krumm continues to amaze me. Has qualified for WTA Premier Stanford at the age of 46!
Bah, she's only 44
She is great, isn't she. I only was pretty sure about her age, because I was coincidentally just looking at it yesterday. She'll be 45 on 28th September.
Down 1-6 1-4* 15-40* last night to Lisicki, Kimi turned it around for the W, 1-6 7-6(4) 6-2 45 in 6 weeks time.
By the Date Krumm benchmark, unless the likes of Patty Schnyder, Nicole Vaidisova & Iveta Benesova eventually all make top 50 in their comebacks, then they'll be comparative failures.