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Sheddie


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Had a chat with the Slabba a few days ago. I've persuaded him to do a monthly blog for his website, bringing us an insight into life on the tour. It'll be a bit like Jamie Baker's highly popular newspaper column for the Times which he did in 2005.

Alex is hoping for a wildcard into Redbridge but he's preparing himself to have to enter qualifying if necessary, "I was next in line for a wildcard into the Nottingham challenger and I rang up Jeremy Bates but he said that the final wildcard had gone to Ross Hutchins who is ranked lower than me, which was disappointing. I had a good win over Bamford in the qualies but I then lost to Cervenak who was a very good player. I've had a lot a losses in tight matches lately, at least the matches have been close but it's not good enough."

Alex's schedule from 2006 going into 2007: In November, Alex is playing the two 15K futures in Redbridge and Glasgow and then qualifying for the Shrewsbury challenger. He's then considering heading to the Czech Republic for two 15K futures to end his season. I suggested heading to Tunisia for an African safari to finish the year which a bang and pick up some cheap points but Alex wasn't too keen on the idea !! He doesn't think it's a good idea to play loads of tournaments in Asia and Africa because it gives you a very inflated ranking and then when you come back and play tougher tournaments in Europe and the Americas and Oceania, it gets a bit demoralising.

He hasn't fully decided on his plans for 2007 yet but he's planning a trip abroad to play a series of tournaments from February to March. It'll be like his trip to Australia, New Zealand and Japan earlier this year but not as long, probably about 6 weeks. Alex said "The Australia tour was tough as it was several months away on my own without a coach and my level dropped. For next year, there'll probably be a coach travelling aswell which is good. The trip probably won't be to Australia, we're looking at maybe going to South America. It's being organised by Sutton academy, tournaments are helpful when there are large groups of players travelling together to compete in them. The way it works it that they give Sutton the total cost and they then split it up and give each player a budget."



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Salmon


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Loving the idea!

Will really make the site look good.

And I agree with Slabba's take on playing tournaments in third world locations.
If you want to become a top player, you should fight it out with the big boys the way people like James Ward are doing.

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steven


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I think that's the right approach too, though he may not still think that if he ends up down in the 800s in two weeks time ... which does show how few points he's picked up in the last 11 1/2 months.


Having said that though, Tim Henman often talks about when he played the African 'tour' to speed his initial move up the rankings.



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GB top 25s (ranks, whereabouts) & stats - http://www.britishtennis.net/stats.html
Sheddie


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I think Slabba's changed his mind on playing in 3rd world locations, for the rest of this year as he needs the points. After Shrewsbury, he's thinking of playing two 10Ks in Israel and then the two futures in India in December.

Maybe he might be tempted to open 2007 with ATP Chennai qualifying before heading back to GB for the start of the futures

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Salmon


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He entered himself for a 15K in the Czech Republic instead of the 10K in Israel. Looks like he will have to qualify...

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Salmon


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ultimateshedman wrote:

I think Slabba's changed his mind on playing in 3rd world locations, for the rest of this year as he needs the points. After Shrewsbury, he's thinking of playing two 10Ks in Israel and then the two futures in India in December.




India is NOT a third world country now.

A country with Human Development Index of less than 0.5 is usually considered as "Third World". India has a HDI rating of 0.611.

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RobC


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Congratulations.


 


Up the B.R.I.C.s!



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Salmon


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I'm afraid that it's pretty unlikely that the BRIC dream will come true in India unless there are huge changes.

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johnnylad


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hopefully its a weakish 15k or he'll just end up with the same results as he's been getting in Britain.

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Salmon


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They aren't that weak. The present cut off is 474.


The second seed will be ...... Josh Goodall.

Josh seems to be trying for top 200 by the end of 2006. He will need to pick up 45 more points to be sure of getting there.
If he can win both the 15Ks in Czech Republic and win two rounds in Shrewsbury, he will get there. It's tough, but it can be done.

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Sheddie


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Greenleaf wrote:


India is NOT a third world country now.

A country with Human Development Index of less than 0.5 is usually considered as "Third World". India has a HDI rating of 0.611.


Apologies Greenleaf, I wasn't thinking when I wrote my earlier post.

I've emailed Slabba for the latest info on his schedule plans this year, to find out whether he's definately going to India or still not yet sure. I'll be speaking him on Sunday aswell.

However, I thought you said that the futures were in your city According to the ITF, they're both in Delhi


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Sheddie


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Greenleaf wrote:

They aren't that weak. The present cut off is 474.

The second seed will be ...... Josh Goodall.

Josh seems to be trying for top 200 by the end of 2006. He will need to pick up 45 more points to be sure of getting there.
If he can win both the 15Ks in Czech Republic and win two rounds in Shrewsbury, he will get there. It's tough, but it can be done.


I feel quilty now, I thought I'd been advising him to play in Israel but I've checked my texts and discovered that Slabba had initially been thinking of playing in Israel and it was me who mentioned the 15Ks in the Czech Republic

However, you can hardly blame him for going with the Czech Republic, rumours abound that the girls in the Eastern Europe tournament locations, are really hot. I've heard that Jamie Murray has been happily breaking hearts for all of the past two weeks and was absolutely gutted to be leaving Ukraine.

It's great to see Josh playing those 15Ks, he should have a good chance of making at least 1 final. Making the top 200 by the end of 2006 will be tough, I doubt Josh will do that but if he gets close it'll be fab. Quarters next week is a possibility given his current form and would give him 12 points and if he makes two finals in the Czech Republic that would give him 36 points in total. Where would that take him to ? How much is he defending from last year's sat ? Did he defend that this week ?

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Salmon


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ultimateshedman wrote:



It's great to see Josh playing those 15Ks, he should have a good chance of making at least 1 final. Making the top 200 by the end of 2006 will be tough, I doubt Josh will do that but if he gets close it'll be fab. Quarters next week is a possibility given his current form and would give him 12 points and if he makes two finals in the Czech Republic that would give him 36 points in total. Where would that take him to ? How much is he defending from last year's sat ? Did he defend that this week ?


Josh was defending five points from last year's sat. He broke even with a first round win in Helsinki.

Apologies to everyone. I thought that Josh has 154 points. He actually has 159. That means that 40 more points will be enough.

If he makes the quarters in Shrewsbury, he will go up to around 234 in the rankings.

A finals appearence at a 15K gives 12 points and a win gives 18 points. So if he reaches the quarters of Shrewsbury, reaches a final of a 15K and wins one, he could crack the top 200 depending upon the results of other players around him. If he reaches the quarters and then wins both 15Ks, he will surely get there.

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Salmon


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ultimateshedman wrote:

I've emailed Slabba for the latest info on his schedule plans this year, to find out whether he's definately going to India or still not yet sure. I'll be speaking him on Sunday aswell.

However, I thought you said that the futures were in your city According to the ITF, they're both in Delhi



I never said that the Futures are in my city.

Looking forward to the schedule info.

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Sheddie


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For some reason I thought you did, but I must be mistaken. I guess that Delhi is near Mumbai then as you were hoping to go and watch ?

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