What a show the college boys are putting up here

I went down to the NTC today - which is looking drop dead gorgeous

The men are playing on the three grass courts at the Bank of England club

James Story blitzed his serve and had the upper hand throughout the match - I was really pleased for him - what a win - although, the Austrian looked SO uncomfortable on grass (and I wasn't that surprised when I looked him up and found he'd been playing on clay up till this week - weird choice, and no wonder Finn M so nearly beat him, but hey......)

Henry Patten played a very stylish match - Jansen displayed some nice tennis - gave himself a chance, but Henry played just that bit within himself, whipping his forehand, and constructing points really well - he needs to be a little more dynamic and improve his backhand slightly - but there's a lot to like there

NB I didn't know that Jansen is French (or Belgian)? After the match, he was in a bit of a strop, and he's with his dad (pretty sure it's his dad - looks very similar and I've seen them together at Surbiton) and they were 'arguing' in French (with a northern accent)

Toby Samuel also clocked up a win for the US college contingent - although it wasn't a match for the faint-hearted - rather a lot of errors - nothing really between them - nice to Millen for the first time - nice win but it hasn't really changed my opinion of Toby

Finn Bass came through a gruelling match too - and pleased for him - not easy. Finn was a feisty youngster and nothing's changed - which is fine - he did what he could - Mertens oscillated between making tennis look remarkably easy and making silly mistakes

And Ali G, our fifth US college player in the last 8, was given the run-around by the very talented young Belgian (who was a very good junior, and it shows). But he buckled down, and did what he had to - only just, but he did....

So, excellent show from the college players - the results for Dan Cox and Mark Whitehouse were pretty much expected (and it looks now that Stuart will close out his match too, so those are all according to ranking)

Lots of LTA bods there - Colin Beecher, Mark Taylor etc etc

And for those who 'track' our players, Jack Draper and Jay Clarke were also at the NTC today, training/watching, looking good

Coup Droit wrote:

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What a show the college boys are putting up here

I went down to the NTC today - which is looking drop dead gorgeous

The men are playing on the three grass courts at the Bank of England club

James Story blitzed his serve and had the upper hand throughout the match - I was really pleased for him - what a win - although, the Austrian looked SO uncomfortable on grass (and I wasn't that surprised when I looked him up and found he'd been playing on clay up till this week - weird choice, and no wonder Finn M so nearly beat him, but hey......)

[...]

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Some interesting insights there, CD.  Thanks.  Just one thing, though:  I think you'll find that Tristan Schoolkate is an Aussie (of, I'd say at a guess, Lithuanian extraction).

Stircrazy wrote:

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Stircrazy wrote:

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QF:  (WC) Lui Maxted & Finn Murgett UNR defeated (3) Arthur Féry & Tristan Schoolkate (AUS) CR 873 (617+256) by 1 & 4   

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QF:  (1) Julian Cash & Henry Patten CR 309 (155+154) defeated Ryan Golesworthy & James Mackinlay CR 2676 (1606+1070) by 3-6 6-4 [10-7]

Julian & Henry nearly blew it!

*****

SF:  (1) Julian Cash & Henry Patten CR 309 (155+154) vs (WC) Lui Maxted & Finn Murgett UNR

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QF:  Finn Bass & Joshua Paris CR 2301 (1729+572) defeated (ALT) Mark Whitehouse & Marcus Willis UNR (421+0) by 4 & 4

*****

SF:  Finn Bass & Joshua Paris CR 2301 (1729+572) vs (2) Luca Castelnuovo & Skander Mansouri (SUI/TUN) CR 504 (267+237)

Stircrazy wrote:

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Coup Droit wrote:

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What a show the college boys are putting up here

I went down to the NTC today - which is looking drop dead gorgeous

The men are playing on the three grass courts at the Bank of England club

James Story blitzed his serve and had the upper hand throughout the match - I was really pleased for him - what a win - although, the Austrian looked SO uncomfortable on grass (and I wasn't that surprised when I looked him up and found he'd been playing on clay up till this week - weird choice, and no wonder Finn M so nearly beat him, but hey......)

[...]

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Some interesting insights there, CD.  Thanks.  Just one thing, though:  I think you'll find that Tristan Schoolkate is an Aussie (of, I'd say at a guess, Lithuanian extraction).

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agreed, fabulous round up of our college players  Thought  Colin Beecher left the LTA and now works for JTC? Wonder who he was there supporting as apart from Ollie T, allegedly majority of the  older players moved to train at the NTC

https://www.juniortenniscoaching.com/coaches

Mark Taylor is also JTC looking at that link

JonH comes home wrote:

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Looking at the live rankings , if Ali could manage 3 back to back wins on the grass he could get his ranking up to circa 230-240. Not sure if it is what TF folks would call vulturing or just Smart Selection of events , but could that be good enough for a US Qualies direct entry ? Or too late (when is cut off?).

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The qualies entry cut-off for a Slam is usually 4 weeks before the first Monday of the MD. 

That would make it 1st August. Add in the week's delay in adding in M25 points and that would be too early for even the Nottingham event starting on 25th July.

Really didn't understand Ali's choice of these tournaments. Anything other than a tournament win would be a relative negative imo. I guess he might just want some more grass matches under his belt to get better on the surface as future ATP tour WC opportunities are likely to come on the grass.