Week 8 - ATP 500 - Dubai, UAE - Hard

Jaffa · Challenger level

RE: Week 8 - ATP 500 - Dubai, UAE - Hard

Jeff Stelling · Club Coach

With this loss here James is now significantly down on his points haul at the same stage in 2014 even though he seems to be playing far better. One of the main flaws with playing Tour level events only I guess.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yep, terrible that James has played so consistently to get so close to the top 100 and not yet managed to get across the line ?!

Arguable whether he should stick to a planned schedule ( which if he retains his last 8 months form / ranking points rate ) will have him into the top 100 fairly soon anyway ) or whether he should specifically go points chasing to get the deed done asap.

Only he knows how much if at all the top 100 thing is affecting him ( how much it is affecting forum members I doubt is high on his list of concerns ) and what if he didn't get across the line at the Delhi Challenger, should he then seek out the next best looking points scorer etc ?

Spectator · All-time great

Thanks, CD, for the information on Santoro - whatever he's doing seems to be working. Would think he'd be a lot of fun to work with.

I too sometimes have been wondering about the wisdom of Tour v Challengers - except that I trust Mr Ward's wisdom on such things more than my own! Looking at it, too, you basically have to reach the SFs of one of this week's Challengers even remotely to justify it ... and you're not getting the experience of playing the very top players that you are in the ATPs. I can see why, certainly pre-DC, it would be more important to get practice against Tour players in than to chase points. And also why there's an attraction in traveling alongside the other Tour-level Brits.

indiana · Tennis legend

Actually James counting scores last year came from the Davis Cup and ATP 500 Dubai : 40 + 45 = 85

This year they have come from ATP 250 Zageb and ATP 500 Dubai : 20 + 20 = 40.

So his points this coming Monday will be down down 45 from 539 at this stage last year to 494.

So 40 from a Davis Cup World Group tie, which hasn't yet been played this year, and 45 From ATP Dubai where he got a better R1 tie last year ( Gabashvili ) than this year ( Lopez ), so the points drop of 85 to 40 I'd say has nout really to do with a different schedule / aims.

indiana · Tennis legend

Sorry, the 539 points were his total at the end of 2014.

And then the 45 point drop to 494 is the net drop since then.

I knew what I meant, if not what I said :)

freerider · Futures level

Kerp playing at a high level and given the right draw ward will have a big week on tour and crack top 100. Also look at yhe money. RouGhly $15,000 earnt this week for mr ward

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

The only issue is that IW and Miami are unlikely to yield much without decent draws, especially as he has to qualify, whereas I would trust Ward in decent form to make the late stages of most Challengers (and he'd be highly seeded in most).

emma · Strong Club Player

I do feel that the D.C. may help James regroup much more. it seems to have helped him a lot in the past.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

R1: (Q) Jamie Murray & John Peers CR 63 (31+32) defeated Raven Klaasen & Leander Paes (RSA/IND) CR 52 (29+23) by 2-6 6-4 [10-8]

*****

QF: (Q) Jamie Murray & John Peers CR 63 (31+32) vs (4) Rohan Bopanna & Daniel Nestor (IND/CAN) CR 29 (25+4)

wolf · Tennis legend

Good recovery from 2-6 *0-1 15-40 down.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Some DC practice for Dom:

QF: (1) Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan (USA/USA) CR 2 vs Dom Inglot & Florin Mergea (ROU) CR 58 (41+17)

indiana · Tennis legend

Maybe they could switch partners about and Dom and Jamie could have a test run against the Bryans, leaving Mergea and Peers to take on Bopanna and Nestor :)

RJA · Hall of fame

I see that Lopez lost to Ilhan, who prior to beating 17 year old wild card Alexander Zverev in R1 hadn't won a main draw match on the main tour since the US Open in 2011. Looks like James missed out on a decent opportunity here.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Maybe they could switch partners about and Dom and Jamie could have a test run against the Bryans, leaving Mergea and Peers to take on Bopanna and Nestor :)

I bet those venal, corrupt, incompetent clowns at FIFA could fix it if anyone could! wink