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Murray
and Butorac reach Dallas semis Jamie
Murray and Eric Butorac secured a comfortable win over Germans Simon
Greul and Benedikt Dorsch to move into the semis of the Dallas 50K
challenger.The top seeds took the first set 6-3 and looked on course to run away with the match when they broke to lead 2-0 in the second set. However, Greul and Dorsch broke back in the 7th game to reduce the deficit to 4-3. However, Murray and Butorac hit back immediately, breaking to lead 5-3 before serving it out for a 6-3, 6-3 win. In Friday's semis they face Santiago Gonzalez (no relation of Fernando) and Kristian Pless. Pless is ranked 81 in singles but he's also had a good deal of success in doubles, winning a challenger in Canada last year aswell as making an ATP semi-final in Beijing. Gonzalez is currently ranked 235 in doubles (though he's been as high as 110). In doubles he made 4 challenger semis in 2006. They've both both their matches so far in straight sets, beating Bopanna and Drake (who'd beaten the 3rd seeds in round 1) 7-6, 6-3 in the quarters. After this tournament, Murray and Butorac will head to San Jose for next week's ATP event. To read Jamie's schedule for the next couple of months click here. O'Brien leads British charge into the quarters  Katie
O'Brien, Naomi Cavaday and Anne Keothavong all secured comfortable
victories in round 2 of the Tipton 25K.Katie dispatched Croatian Ana Vrlic to set up an encounter with top seed Elise Tamaela. Taemala's ranked 144 and won the Sutton 25K last week. In Tipton, she's dropped a set in round 1 to qualifier Claire De Gubenatis but brushed aside the challenge of Margit Ruutel 6-2, 6-3 in round 2. Naomi was up against Cambridgeshire's Georgie Stoop. They'd played each other once before, in the Nottingham 25K last autumn when Stoop won 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 on the way to making the semis. However, it was a different story this time and Cavaday's superb serving ensured that she reached the quarters with a 6-3, 7-6 win. Anne gained revenge for last week's defeat to Andrea Hlavackova, beating the Czech 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3. She now faces Belgium's Caroline Maes. Maes is ranked 232 but has been in great form this week, beating Italian 6th seed Sara Errani 6-1, 6-1 in round 1. Steel, Howlett and Sears lose tough opening matches in Bolivia  Caitlin
Steel, Olivia Howlett and Scott Sears all lost their opening matches in
the Condor de la Plata cup to seeded opposition. Caitlin and Olivia
both had extremely tough draws, facing the second and third seeds.
Caitlin lost 6-4, 6-3 to Japan's Yuuki Tanaka (ranked just outside the
junior top 100). LTA coach Colin Beecher said "Caitlin had a tough
match but she was much more positive today and played a good match,
creating a lot of chances. She just needs to cut out the loose errors
she throws in and also learn and understand the game she needs to play."Olivia lost 6-3, 6-4 to another Japanese player, Kurumi Naka. Speaking after the match, Lucie Ahl said "Olivia had a tough draw today. I told her she needed to really go out there and fight and compete, hang in the rally until she got the right ball to attack, something Olivia is not used to doing, but today she went out and did it. She needs to take a massive amount of confidence from the match today. If she can continue to keep her head down and work she will come home a better player.” Scott Sears went down 6-3, 6-0 to Columbian 12th seed Eduardo Struvay. Sears had a very strong start but he's not yet fully adjusted to the altitude and he ran out of steam. Colin Beecher said "He has been struggling with altitude sickness for the last few days. He’s obviously very disappointed as he had prepared so well since we arrived last Monday, but I’ve told him he will be over this and fit soon and has plenty of time to get stuck into the rest of the tournaments, starting next week in Chile.” Jocelyn Rae and Amanda Elliott are still involved in the girls singles. Jocelyn knocked out the top seed and world no 16 in round 1 and plays 14 year old Romanian Elena Bogdan in round 2. Bogdan is ranked 456 and beat a qualifier 6-3, 6-2 in round 1. Amanda plays Japan's Mai Iwasaki. Iwasaki beat Canadian 7th seed Nicole Smith in round 1. Battling Bogdanovic comes back from the brink to reach the quarters  Alex
reached the quarter-finals by the narrowest of margins, beating
Slovakia's Ivo Klec 6-7(4), 7-6(6), 7-6(2) in a 3 hour thriller.Alex put in a lot of work on his serve during the off season and it showed in this match. He fired down 16 aces in total and his first serve percentage was in the 70s. The match was largely dominated by serve with only 4 breaks in total. Alex started shakily, being broken in the opening game but broke straight back to 15. He had the better chances for the rest of the set but Klec hung on and it went to a tiebreak. Alex had the early minibreak and led 3-1 but let it slip and then received two really bad line calls which meant that Klec won the breaker 7-4. Alex had a break point in the opening game of the second set but again Klec got really lucky. Alex put up a high defensive lob on the run, and Klec's smash hit the top of the net and just bounced over onto Alex's side. Both players then held comfortably (Alex rattled off 3 successive love service games) till the 7th game when Alex broke to 15 to lead 4-3. However, having finally got the break his concetration slipped and he threw in a dreadful service game with 2 double faults to hand the break right back to Klec. Serving to stay in the match at 4-5 and 5-6, Alex was just two points from defeat but both times he came up with big serves on the key points and held on. The tiebreak saw a mixture of shaky play and brilliance from Alex, he double-faulted to give Klec the first minibreak and then retrieved it with a brilliant passing shot on the run. He wasn't playing as consistently in the rallies as against Schuettler and a forehand into the net gave Klec a minibreak to lead 4-3. The Slovak looked on course to win when he fired down an ace for 5-3 but the pressure got to him and he sent a simple volley long to let Alex get back to 4-5. A forehand winner made it 5-5 and then Alex won arguably the point of the tournament to earn his first set point, hitting another blistering winner down the line. Klec saved it with another incredibly lucky netcord but Alex wasn't to be denied, taking advantage of a poor volley from the Slovak to thread another passing shot and lead 7-6. He wrapped up the set with a big serve followed by a backhand volley into the open court, setting up a decider. Both players had several half chances at the start of the 3rd but were serving well on the key points. Neither player even had a break point and so a 3rd successive tiebreak ensued. Alex blasted down 3 aces to take a 4-1 lead, a second minibreak made it 5-2 and Alex sealed the match with his next two service points In Friday's quarter-finals he faces Czech Tomas Zib who reached the final here last year. Zib defeated 6th seed and 2005 Wroclaw champion Robin Vik in round 1; 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 and in round 2 he overcome Daniel Koellerer 6-7, 6-4, 7-5. Zib is currently ranked 139 but has a career high of 51, reached in July 2005. He's had a good start to 2007, making the semis in Heilbronn a couple of weeks ago. To discuss Alex's progress in Wroclaw click here Murray and Butorac power into Dallas quarters  Top
seeds Jamie Murray and Eric Butorac cruised into the Dallas Challenger
quarter-finals with an emphatic 6-0, 6-2 win over Americans Hugo
Armando and Todd Widom.On Thursday, they face Germans Benedikt Dorsch and Simon Greul who also enjoyed a straight sets round 1 win. Greul is ranked 82 in singles , in 2006 he made 3 challenger finals and an ATP semi in Mumbai. Dorsch is ranked 225 in singles but 381 in doubles. In 2006 he made the Lanzarote challenger final and 3 semis in US challengers. To discuss Jamie's progress in Dallas and to follow live scores of his quarter-final match click here Cavaday cruises into Tipton round 2  Naomi
Cavaday breezed into round 2 of the Tipton 25K,
dispatching Italian clay-courter Valentina Sassi 6-2, 6-0, a result
which made a mockery of the 70 place ranking difference between the two
players.Cavaday won a marathon encounter in the final qualifying round last night and she was in no mood to mess around this morning, the serve and forehand firing on all cylinders. Naomi now faces Georgie Stoop who defeated 4th seed Mel South for the second time in two weeks; 7-6(4), 7-6(10) Katie O'Brien won the second of the all-British clashes, defeating Jane O'Donoghue 7-6(5), 6-1. Anne Keothavong also progressed with a routine 6-4, 6-3 win over Hungary's Zsofia Gubacsi. However, it wasn't such good news for Amanda Keen, Natasha Khan, Anna Fitzpatrick and Sarah Coles who all lost in round 1. Amanda was outplayed 6-3, 6-4 by an on-form Margit Ruutel and Sarah was desperately unlucky against German qualifier Justine Ozga. She battled back from losing the first set, to take the second 6-1 but was edged out 7-3 in a final set tiebreak. Natasha and Anna were heavily outranked but took their opponents to 3 sets, in Natasha's case only just losing 2-6, 6-4, 7-5. Speaking afterwards about the day's matches, head of womens tennis Nigel Sears, said "Georgie versus Mel was a lot closer than last week, as I thought. Georgie's playing great at the moment, she's still riding off the confidence of that 25K win in Australia at the end of last season. In the first set, Mel had set point at 5-4 but Georgie hit a second serve ace. She held her nerve well to take it on a tiebreak. In the 2nd set tiebreak, Mel fought hard and saved 5 match points before eventually succombing. Naomi was very impressive today in beating Sassi so it'll be an interesting round 2 match between them." "Natasha played superbly in the first set, definately the best set of tennis I've ever seen her play but unfortunately she wasn't able to maintain it. From the second set onwards she seemed to lose confidence in her backhand and didn't have the conviction to come through and win the match. However, Salerni is a very experienced player, I've watched her for a long time." "Anne played very well today, a lot better than in Sutton. However, Amanda Keen was disappointing, it was a fairly routine 6-3, 6-4 win for Ruutel. Jane looked very fit and was moving very well in her match against Katie but Jane is a little rusty and Katie was just too consistent today." "Anna Fitzpatrick played a great second set against Hlavackova. Anna's still only 17 and she, Naomi, Jade Windley and Jocelyn Rae are our 3 best upcoming teenage prospects. I have high hopes for all of them." Rae
stuns top seed in Bolivia There was further British success as Amanda Elliott defeated Paraguay's Adriana Pereira 6-3, 6-1. Amanda played really well, stuck to her game plan and it paid off,” Ahl said. “She is starting to feel the rewards for the work she has put in so far on this trip. She felt arriving here early has given her the edge over a lot of players and her first round win is just what she needed to build her confidence up.” Caitlin Steel and Olivia Howlett play their round 1 matches on Wednesday. Caitlin has been handed a really tough draw against Japanese second seed Yuuki Tanaka who's ranked just outside the junior top 100. Tanaka is on top form right now, having reached the final of a grade 2 event in Peru last week. Olivia has drawn the 3rd seed Kurumi Naka, also from Japan. 15 year old Nara has a junior ranked of 159 and lost in round 1 of the Peruvian tournament last week Scott Sears had a first round bye in the boys singles and takes on Columbian 12th seed Eduardo Struvay in round 2. 16 year old Struvay has a junior ranking of 291 and has played several tournaments in South America already this year, reaching the quarters of a grade 2 in Ecuador. The Condor de la Plata event is the first of a series of tournaments which British juniors are competing in over the next 6 weeks. Graeme Dyce, Daniel Cox, Daniel Evans, Josh Milton and David Rice are also travelling to South America and play their first tournament next week. Caitlin Steel: LTA player diary
Caitlin is Scotland's top U18
player, the 17 year old from Glasgow is part of a squad of British
juniors who are playing a series of tournaments in South America over
the next 6 weeks. "After a 24-hour journey with a nine-hour stop in Miami en route it was a huge relief to finally land in Bolivia. However, the first few sights weren’t the nicest – a little
girl
playing among some rubbish and hundreds of stray dogs roaming around. On the first afternoon we went to the tennis club which was surprisingly luxurious. It had both an indoor and outdoor pool, a good gym, nice places to eat and obviously the tennis courts – 15 red clay. We had our first hit that afternoon and I don’t think we left with more than two of the balls we started with! The balls were really flying because of the altitude – the slightest of touches was all you needed to keep the ball in the court, it was so difficult to adjust to. To read the full article click hereKasiri exits in Bressuire with a ranking point and a breadstick  Miles
Kasiri's run in the Bressuire 10K+H came to an end today with a
comprehensive 6-0, 6-1 second round defeat at the hands of rising
French star Adrian Mannerino.Kasiri was only able to win 41% of the points on his 1st serve and just 29% on his 2nd serve. In contrast Mannerino dropped just 2 points on his first serve in the entire match. Kasiri now heads back to Britain where he'll play a 15K in Barnstaple next week and he'll be hoping for a wildcard. Marray out till end of February  British
no 7 Jonny Marray faces a further 3 weeks on the sidelines as
his shoulder injury continues to keep him out of action.Jonny felt some soreness in his shoulder before playing Australian Open qualifying last month (he reached the final round) but participation there seems to have strained the muscle and as a result he hasn't picked up a racket since returning to Britain. Jonny expects to make his comeback in the Cherbourg 50K challenger which begins on the 26th February and depending on how things go, he might play a 15K futures in Exmouth the week before. Boggo going for 8 weeks of tournaments in the States  Boggo is planning an
8 week series of ATPs and challengers in the USA which will last until
mid-April. After the Wroclaw challenger, he'll play qualifying for ATPs in San Jose, Memphis and Las Vegas followed by qualifying for the Masters Series event in Indian Wells. Then he plans to compete in the Sunrise super-challenger followed by the Masters series tournament in Miami (the self-styled 5th grand slam). He'll then play two challengers in Tallahassee and Valencia before returning to Europe for the clay-court season. It's a risky schedule as he'll be playing a lot of ATP qualies and in the past Alex has tended to struggle on outdoor hard tournaments in the USA. It also means that he'll miss the European indoor season, a time of the year where he traditionally has some of his best results. However, I think that Alex realises that in order to get into the world's top 75 and higher, he needs to do better on slower surfaces and so he's decided to compete in a lot more of them this year. Bogdanovic looks to continue Wroclaw form against Klec  Alex
will be looking to reach his first quarter-final of 2007 when he takes
on Slovakia's Ivo Klec in round 2 of the Wroclaw 125K+H challenger on
Wednesday. Klec defeated France's Stephane Robert 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 in round 1. He's currently ranked 230 with a career best ranking of 184 (reached in August 2006). In 2006 his best results came on slow hard courts in South America, where he reached a challenger final and 3 quarters. He also qualified for ATP Dubai and won a round. Klec's had an average start to 2007, lost in round 1 of Aussie Open qualifying and has made round 2 of a couple of challengers. He's played Alex once before, winning 6-3, 6-3 on indoor carpet in Japan. However, that was back in 2004 so not much can be read into it. Bogdanovic v Klec is 4th on centre on Wednesday at approx 5pm GMT. To follow live scores of the match, click here Murray resumes successful partnership with Butorac  Jamie Murray
has teamed up with American Eric Butorac for this week's Dallas 50K
challenger. The last time they competed together, they reached the ATP
Los Angeles doubles final, Jamie's first ATP final.This week they're the top seeds and face American wildcards Hugo Armando and Todd Widom in rd1 on Wednesday. The match starts at approx 8pm GMT. Armando won the ATP Delray Beach doubles title with Xavier Malisse last week so it won't be an easy opener. On paper, Widom is the weaker player, he's ranked 260 in doubles and has only played singles so far this year. In 2006, he made 3 challenger finals. Murray and Butorac are seeded to face Robert Kendrick and Jim Thomas in the semis. Borwell outplayed in final qualifying round  British
no 5 Sarah Borwell was outplayed in the final qualifying round for the
Midland 75K challenger by an on-fire Olga Govortsova. Sarah had no answers to Govortsova's blistering groundstrokes and succumbed 6-2, 6-1. Despite being top seed in the qualifying she won't be guaranteed a lucky loser place if someone pulls out of the main draw as new rules mean that the player who takes the lucky loser place is drawn at random from all the losers in the final qualifying round Ulihrach proves too strong for Bloomfield in Wroclaw  Czech
Bohdan Ulihrach overcome Richard Bloomfield 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in round 1 of
the Wroclaw challenger.Bloomfield started off erratically and was forced to save two break points in the 5th game. However, his big serve got him out of trouble and the set went with serve till the 10th game with Ulihrach serving at 4-5. Some patient rallying from the British no 4 paid dividends and he broke to take a 1 set lead. However, Bloomfield handed the initiative straight back to his opponent with a poor service game at the start of set 2, double-faulting on break point. He was made to pay for this concentration lapse as Ulihrach held his next 5 service games comfortably to take the set. Bloomfield only had 1 break back opportunity, at 3-4 and an ill-timed unforced error ensured that the chance passed by. Ulihrach took full control in the decider, breaking in the 3rd game for a 2-1 lead. A further break to 15 in the 5th game to lead 4-1 effectively sealed the match. Bloomfield served well for most of the contest, what let him down was the amount of unforced errors he made from the back Cavaday and O'Donoghue qualify for Tipton main draw  Naomi Cavaday
and Jane O'Donoghue both reached the main draw of the Tipton 25K with
hard fought 3 set wins in the final qualifying round.Cavaday defeated second seed Veronika Chvojkova 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 and O'Donoghue beat Portugal's Neuza Silva 3-6, 7-6, 6-3 in what was only her second match of the year. Unfortunately Karen Paterson fell at the final hurdle, losing 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to top seed Carlo Suarez Navarro. Speaking afterwards, Nigel Sears (head coach of British women's tennis) said "Naomi did extremely well to win that, it was very close but she eventually came through 7-1 in the final set tiebreak. There were lots of baseline duels, she really had to grind it out and it's a great win. Jane also did well, Silva is a tricky opponent but Jane kept plugging away and once she won the 2nd set tiebreak 7-4, that was the turning point. Karen Paterson was the big disappointment today, she's beaten that Spanish girl twice before but got edged out 6-4 in the 3rd this time. However, Suarez Navarro is a very good player, she made the Sunderland 10K final last month and the last time they played it went to a final set tiebreak." In the main draw which starts on Wednesday, there are two all-British clashes. Wildcard Georgie Stoop faces 4th seed Melanie South again (Stoop won 6-3, 6-1 in rd1 of the Sutton 25K last week) and Katie O'Brien plays Jane O'Donoghue. Katie and Jane have played twice before; Jane won 6-2, 7-6 in February 2005 and Katie won 7-6, 6-4 last autumn. Both matches were on indoor acrylic courts. Naomi Cavaday plays Italy's Valentina Sassi (ranked 281). Sassi is a clay-court specialist and is yet to win a main draw match so far this year so Naomi should have a good chance. Amanda Keen plays Estonia's Margit Ruutel (ranked 216). It'll be a tricky match for Amanda, Ruutel was in fine form last week in Sutton. She reached the semis before losing a close 3 setter to top seed Elise Tamaela. Anne Keothavong opens against Hungary's Zsofia Gubacsi, Anna Fitzpatrick plays Keothavong's Sutton conquerer Andrea Hlavackova, Sarah Coles faces German qualifier Justine Ozga and Natasha Khan is up against Argentina's Maria Salerni. Looking ahead to the main draw, Nigel Sears said "Georgie versus Melanie will be an interesting match. Last week Mel had spent the previous two days in bed so it'll be a lot closer this time round. Both have played well so far this year. Anne's the second seed but she doesn't have an easy opening match, her opponent's ranked 195. Her loss to Hlavackova in Sutton was unexpected but I'm confident she'll play a lot better this week. Natasha has a very tough draw, Salerni's currently ranked 225 but she's been a lot higher in the past. Used to be a regular on the WTA tour." Kasiri continues winning streak in Bressuire  Miles Kasiri earned
his first ranking point for nearly a year with a 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-1 win
over France's Ludwig Pellerin in round 1 of the Bressuire 10K+H.
The Kasiri serve was very effective in his qualifying matches and it
proved so again today. Both players had 1st serves percentages in the
high 60s but the difference between them was the 2nd serve. Miles won
74% of the points on his weaker delivery and while Pellerin bombed down
13 aces, he only won 45% of his 2nd serve points. Miles resisted a lot of early pressure from Pellerin, saving 4 break points at the beginning of the match and then converting his first chance to take the first set. The second set was very close and Pellerin just edged it in the tiebreak. However, in the 3rd set he started to miss more first serves and Kasiri stepped up a gear with his returns. As a result, Pellerin won just 9 points on serve in that final set. Next up for Kasiri is France's Adrian Mannarino who surprisingly defeated 4th seed Gary Lugassy in round 1. Mannarino is an 18 year old leftie, currently ranked 443 and in 2006 he reached 3 futures finals. Mackin, Goodall and Baker all out in Dallas  British
interest in the Dallas 50K challenger suffered a severe dent today with
Alan Mackin, Josh Goodall and Jamie Baker all losing.First up was Baker, playing his final qualifying round match against Sweden's Marcus Sarstrand. Unfortunately, Baker wasn't consistent enough today making too many backhand errors. He was broken when serving to stay in the first set at 4-5 and from then on it was all downhill. Sarstrand broke in the 3rd game of the second set and wrapped up the match 6-4, 6-2; breaking again as Baker served to stay in the match at 6-4, 5-2 down. Sarstrand's ability to work the rallies was superior today, often using the backhand slice to take Baker out wide or heavy topspin to push him back behind the baseline, opening up the court for a big groundstroke. Baker is first in line for a lucky loser place into the main draw. Josh Goodall (pictured) was in action against 8th seed Zack Fleishman in rd1. He started brightly, taking the opening set 6-4 and breaking midway through the 2nd to lead 3-2. However, Fleishman broke straight back and the set went to a tiebreak. The American led 3-0 with a minibreak but Josh pegged him back to 4-4. Unfortunately, Fleishman took the next 3 points to win it 7-4 and level the match. He broke to lead 3-2 in the 3rd and never relinquished that break to win 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4. Josh's miserable day continued when he and Ross Hutchins lost their final qualifying match in the doubles to Alex Kuznetsov and Phillip Simmonds, 6-4, 6-3. On indoor hard courts, athletic serve-volleyer Rajeev Ram was always going to provide a stiff test for Alan Mackin. However, Mackin's returning was on-song in the first set which he took 6-3. Unfortunately, from 5-5 in the second, the Scot played a sloppy couple of service games and Ram was able to take the set 7-5 and open up a 3-0 lead in the 3rd. Mackin was unable to get back into it and Ram won 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. To watch highlights of Baker-Sarstrand click here Bogdanovic powers past Schuettler into round 2  Alex
secured an excellent 6-3, 6-4 win over former top 5 player and second
seed Rainer Schuettler to reach the second round of the Wroclaw 125K+H
challenger. Schuettler was unhappy about playing this match today as he'd requested a Tuesday start and he didn't come on court with a particularly positive attitude. In contrast Alex started the match with plenty of verve, playing aggressive all-court tennis. He broke in the 2nd game and again in the 6th to open up a 5-1 lead. At this stage he'd dropped just 1 point in his opening 3 service games and Schuettler was looking a little bewildered. However, Alex was perhaps guilty of thinking that the set was already over and he let the German back into it, getting broken to 30 and Schuettler held to narrow the deficit to 5-3. Serving for the set for a second time, Alex slipped to 15-40 but came up with some big serves to save both break points and he took the set 6-3 on his second set point . The second set was a lot closer, it was decided by a single break for Alex in the 3rd game to lead 2-1. He never gave Schuettler a chance to get back into it and sealed the match with a hold to love. Schuettler was simply unable to deal with Alex's precise and powerful hitting from the back and the British no 3 also mixed up his game well, regularly taking advantage of openings in the rallies to finish points at the net. Alex's serving was also very impressive in this match, it's an area which he worked hard on during the off season and that certainly paid off today. In the first set, he got 83% first serves in and although that percentage dipped slightly in the second set, he more than made up for it by winning 79% of the points on his second serve. Auckland/Huss lose in champions tiebreak  James
Auckland
can take heart from his first ever ATP doubles final, even though he
and his partner lost 3-6 7-6 5-10. The Brit/Aussie pairing played a
good match, saving match points in the second set and taking it to a
championship tie-break. Malisse and Armando started out strong, breaking Auckland and Huss in the first game of the first set and consolidating it shortly thereafter. Auckland/Huss then had to fight to hold their second service game, succeeding at 40-30. Malisse/Armando then experienced their only hiccup of the set: Armando double faulting to give the game a 40-40 scoreline. The Brit/Aussie pairing failed to take their only break point opportunity as Malisse/Armando held for 3-1. In the next game Auckland and Huss appeared to take their frustration out on the ball, holding easily for 3-2. At 4-2, Auckland/Huss were in trouble again; a second serve necessary at 30-30. Huss pulled them to safety by acing their opponents and winning the next point easily. At 3-5, Auckland double-faulted on his first serve of the game, followed by a string of second serves for them to go down 30-40. Malisse/Armando went on to win the set 6-3. The second set was a better story for the Brit/Aussie team as they found their rhythm, holding serve until 4-3, where Malisse/Armando broke at love. Malisse and Armando then seemed set to win the match, but a few well played points by Auckland/Huss saw them break back for 5-4. They then held their serve easily to tie up the second set at 5-all. The following two games went with serve, thus forcing a tie-break. Auckland and Huss got an early mini-break, promptly racing to a 3-0 lead, winning it 7-4. The match was to be decided in a super-sudden death tiebreak. Malisse/Armando raced into the lead and eventually won it 10-5. Borwell one win away from Midland main draw  Top seed
Sarah Borwell moved into the final qualifying round for the Midland 75K
challenger with a hard-fought 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 win over American
wildcard Hillary Barte.She now faces Belarus' Olga Govortsova on Tuesday. Govortsova is ranked 321, she knocked 7th seed Bettina Jozami today, 6-3, 6-1. Her best result so far this year, is qualifying and then reaching rd2 in the Tampa 25K. Bloomfield opens Wroclaw campaign against Ulihrach  British
no 4 Richard Bloomfield will be hoping to emulate Bogdanovic when he
faces Czech qualifier Bohdan Ulihrach in rd1 of the Wroclaw challenger
on Tuesday.31 year old Ulihrach is currently ranked 313 but back in 1997 he was ranked as high as 22. He was a regular in the world's top 75 until he was wrongly convicted of testing positive for nandrolone in 2002. He returned to the tour in 2003 but by then his ranking had slipped to 228. Ulihrach is at his best on clay, he reached a challenger final and two quarters on the red dirt in 2006, but he has the game to be an effective player on indoor surfaces aswell as he showed last week in Heilbronn when he knocked out Rainer Schuettler in straight sets on the way to reaching the quarters. He breezed through the Wroclaw qualifying without dropping a set. Given Richard's recent form indoors, he will be very confident but will need to serve well. Tipton 25K - Qualifying round-up, rounds 1 and 2  Karen
Paterson, Naomi Cavaday (pictured) and Jane O'Donoghue reached the
final qualifying round of this week's Tipton 25K.All three players received rd1 byes and then enjoyed straight sets wins in rd2. Cavaday was untroubled against wildcard Elizabeth Thomas, winning 6-2, 6-3, Paterson continued her recent good form with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over France's Kildine Chevalier and Jane O'Donoghue beat France's Louise Doutrelant in her first match of the year; 7-6, 6-2. However, there was disappointment for teenagers Julia Bone and Olivia Scarfi who lost in rd1. Scarfi can count herself unlucky, losing to Doutrelant in a final set tiebreak. Danielle Brown reached rd2 with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Amy Sargeant but came a cropper in a hard-hitting contest against Russian 6th seed Olga Panova, losing 6-1, 7-5. In the final qualies round, Paterson faces Spanish top seed Carla Suarez Navarro. They have played twice in recent weeks with Paterson winning both matches; 6-4, 6-2 in the Sunderland 10K final and 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(4) a week later in rd2 of the Hull 10K. Cavaday comes up against Czech 2nd seed Veronika Chvojkova. Chvojkova is currently ranked 288, she hasn't had the best start to 2007, losing in qualifying for a 25K in Italy last week. In autumn 2006, she played two British players, beating Mel South in 3 sets in Glasgow but losing to Amanda Keen in two tiebreaks in Milan. Portugal's Neuza Silva will provide a good test of Jane O'Donoghue's early season form. Silva is a very consistent baseliner, hits with heavy slice on her backhand and has a decent serve but doesn't possess any big weapons. Last week she qualified in Sutton, beating Anna Fitzpatrick in 3 sets along the way, but was outplayed by Amanda Keen in rd1. Jane should have a good chance of beating her but will need to serve well and keep her unforced error count low. Kasiri powers into Bressuire main draw  Miles Kasiri
produced an impressive serving performance to reach the main draw,
defeating Russian 5th seed Dmitri Sitak 6-4, 6-1 in the final
qualifying round.Despite being ranked over 700 places higher, Sitak was totally outplayed. Overall, Kasiri got 83% first serves in (an incredible stat !) and unsurprisingly didn't face a single break point. He dropped just 5 points on his serve in the entire match. In contrast, Kasiri was able to attack Sitak's first and second serves with success and converted 3 of his 7 break point opportunities. In rd1 on Tuesday, he faces France's Ludwig Pellerin. Pellerin is currently ranked 469 but he's been involved in several close matches with much higher ranked opponents recently. A couple of weeks ago, he reached the quarters of France F1. Kasiri will need to up his game again but if he continues to serve like this, he'll be hard to beat ! Mackin now enjoying life as a pro  Alan Mackin is
finally enjoying life on the baseline after years on the breadline. The
25-year-old Scot struggled for years to make ends meet in his bid to
make the grade in world tennis. Just a few months ago, Paisley's
Mackin was on the brink of chucking his racket in the bin. But he has
been rescued from despair with funding instigated by the Lawn Tennis
Association's new chief executive Roger Draper. In the first
six months of last year, he won only a handful of matches and by August
had slumped to 385 in the world.
After 10 years on the road, his average earnings just about topped £8000 a year and he felt no one cared whether he won, lost or quit. That changed with Draper's appointment. Mackin said: "I'd had enough of feeling I didn't belong and wasn't wanted. Thankfully Draper has agreed to fund my coach Mike Raphael and me to work at Saddlebrook in Florida rather than insisting we must stay at Queen's Club. Tennis isn't all glamour. I once had to hitchhike to a tournament in Italy and then there were long train rides in India where hotel rooms may not be very nice. It costs around £60,000 a year and tennis is one of the toughest sports in which to get to the top. Tennis isn't big in Britain because it still has that upper class image. My dad Alan was a footballer for Motherwell and Falkirk and my mum works from a benefits agency.We don't struggle for money but we're certainly not upper class. I have always had the hunger to do well and to aim for grand slams. Mackin has been receiving tips from compatriot Andy Murray and his coach Brad Gilbert. And Murray is impressed with Mackin's achievements. He said: "With the right
guidance and right people, Alan could be in the top 100. He just has to
relax a bit on court." Paterson eyes Fed Cup place  Karen
Paterson is desperate to follow in the footsteps of childhood
friend and British No.1 Andy Murray by gatecrashing the world's elite
in 2007. "I grew up with Andy Murray and his progress is a real inspiration," said Paterson. "We've always known that Andy is a talented player and his success pushes us all on. "Winning last week was a good start to the season and now I just need to keep my form going - next week is very important for me. "The Federation Cup is obviously a real goal but I'm also just trying to improve my rankings." Paterson has set herself a target of progressing more than 100 places up the world rankings by the time the first ball is served at Wimbledon in June. "My main goal is to be somewhere around the 300 mark in the next half of the year," added Paterson. "Wimbledon will be a great experience but I want to ensure my development continues at full speed in the coming months."To read the full article, click here Futures qualifying round-up (4th Feb) Miles Kasiri outplayed the 14th seed 6-2, 6-1 to reach the final qualifying round in Bressuire. Kasiri's victory was based around his serve, he got 70% 1st serves in and as a result, only faced 1 break point in the entire match. He really attacked his opponent's 2nd serve when given the chance, winning 15/21 points on it, which enabled him to break 4 times. Unfortunately Ed Corrie was unable to emulate Kasiri, losing 6-2, 6-3 to Monaco's Thomas Drouet. The match wasn't quite as one-sided as the scoreline suggests. Drouet just served better and took all 3 of his break point chances. In Murcia, Matt Illingworth was the only British player to reach the 2nd qualifying round. He then lost to the 8th seed 6-3, 6-3. There was little success either for Ed Seator in Mexico City or the large contingent of British players entered for the Vale do Lobo 10K in Portugal. Seator lost in straight sets to the 8th seed in the final qualifying round and in Portugal, only Nikki Prosser and Jessica Jackson reached the 2nd qualifying round. Jessica lost 6-3, 6-1 while Nikki defeated Slovenia's Maja Kambic 6-3, 6-3 before losing to Holland's Romina Janshen 6-4, 6-4 Auckland reaches first ATP final A
superb performance from James Auckland and Stephen Huss saw them defeat
top seeds Jeff Coetzee and Rogier Wassen 7-6, 6-1 and reach the ATP
Delray Beach final. It was a case of 3rd time lucky for Auckland who
has previously made ATP semis in Mumbai and St Petersburg. Although there were no breaks, the British-Australian pairing had the better of the first set. Coetzee and Wassen had to save 3 break points in their opening couple of service games and another at 4-4. Auckland and Huss were relatively untroubled, winning 85% of the points on their 1st serve and 79% on their 2nd serve. In the tiebreak, they gained an early minibreak to lead 3-1 and held on to take it 7-3. The 2nd set was all one-way traffic as Auckland and Huss repeatedly attacked the 2nd serve of Coetzee and Wassen with success. They broke to 30 to lead 3-1 and did the same two games later, before wrapping up the set 6-1. This result means that James will overtake Jamie Murray to become the new British no 1 in doubles. He's guaranteed to move up to a career high ranking of 60 on Monday. In the final they face Xavier Malisse and Hugo Armando. Malisse is ranked 77 in doubles and has been in great form in singles and doubles so far this year. He won both titles in Chennai at the beginning of January (beating Nadal in straight sets in the singles semis) and he's made the singles final here aswell. Armando is ranked 126 in doubles and plays mainly on the US and South American challenger circuits, where he reached 5 finals in 2006. Before this tournament, he hadn't had the best start to the year but he and Malisse have definately combined well this week. In the quarters they knocked out 2nd seeds Butorac and Parrott; 6-4, 7-6 and in the semis they beat 3rd seeds Kubot and Pavel; 10-8 in a champions tiebreak. Forum member Stevemcqueen: "An excellent result! It looks like Aucks has every chance of carving out a profitable career a doubles specialist. $5,650 is not bad for a week's work, and it'll be more if they win the final." Tough start for Bogdanovic in Wroclaw  Alex
has been handed a tricky opener against German second seed and 2003
Aussie Open finalist Rainer Schuettler. Schuettler is currently ranked 99 and is not the force he once was (he reached no 5 in the rankings in 2004). At his peak he was one of the fittest players on the tour, his speed around the court, stamina and crunching returns made him a threat on all surfaces. In 2006 he reached 2 challenger finals and made an ATP semi in Dubai aswell as reaching the quarters of Tokyo. He's had a poor start to 2007, losing in rd1 of Chennai, the Aussie Open and the round-robin stage of Delray Beach. He played the Heilbronn challenger on indoor carpet a couple of weeks ago but surprisingly lost to Bohdan Ulihrach in round 2. Alex's new coach Peter Lundgren will be in Wroclaw and will then accompany him to the USA where he'll also link up with Josh Goodall. Richard Bloomfield has been more fortunate with his draw. He plays a qualifier in round 1. Baker opens Dallas campaign against Niland  Jamie Baker will play
Ireland's Conor Niland in the second qualifying round of the Dallas 50K
challenger.Niland is ranked 495 and beat American Vahid Mirzadeh 6-3, 6-3 in rd1. Jamie has played him twice before, both times in 2005. He won 6-7, 6-4, 7-5 in the Jersey 10K and 7-5, 6-1 in the GB 4 satellite. Unfortunately Ross Hutchins went out to 7th seed Scott Lipsky in rd1. Hutchins saved match points in the second set but went on to lose 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-3. He's still involved in the doubles though, where he'll be competing with Josh Goodall. In the main draw, Alan Mackin faces Rajeev Ram and Josh Goodall plays 8th seed Zach Fleishman. Ram is ranked 201 and made the Waikoloa challenger quarters last week. His game is very well-suited to the indoor plexipave courts in Dallas, he's got a big serve and is a serve-volleyer and he'll look to rush the net as much as possible. Given Mackin's recent form, he should have a good chance of getting through but he'll need to serve well and find a way to get past Ram's 6ft 4 frame at the net. Fleishman's also a big server, he's currently ranked 155 and has been ranked thereabouts for the past few years. He's started 2007 well, qualified for the Aussie Open and beat Calleri in round 1 before losing to Wayne Arthurs. Like Ram, he made the Waikoloa quarters last week. Futures qualifying round-up (3rd Feb) In Bressuire,
Miles Kasiri and Ed Corrie reached the second qualifying round, both
beating unranked French players. Kasiri was leading 7-5, 1-0 when his
opponent retired and Corrie won 6-2, 6-3. However, 7th seed Andy
Kennaugh surprisingly lost to unranked Alain Ntamag for the second week
running; 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Corrie and Kasiri will need to up their game to
progress further as they face the 13th and 14th seeds next.In Murcia, 17 year old Sean Thornley is in action in the qualifying along with James Feaver, Matt Illingworth and Robert Dee. There were rd1 qualifying defeats for Kirsty Woolley and Abbie Probert in Mallorca, both losing in straight sets to unranked opponents. However, Abbie's loss wasn't particularly unexpected as she's been out for 6 months with a wrist injury. This was only her second tournament since returning to matchplay and so she's still very rusty. Kirsty and Abbie will play qualifying for another 10K in Mallorca next week Murray all set for San Jose  Andy Murray has
recovered from the foot injury which forced him to pull out of this
week's Zagreb Indoors tournament.The British number one opted out of
the trip to Croatia because of a blister which impeded his
movement. However he seems certain to return to the tour
for the SAP Open
in San Jose, which begins on February 12.Murray is the San Jose defending champion, having won his first - and to date only - ATP title at the event 12 months ago. He initially avoided intense training after returning from the Australian Open, so as not to inflame the blistered area, but has been able to get back on court this week. "The reason I decided not to play Zagreb is that everyone knows blisters don't go away," Murray told his website www.andymurray.com. "If you keep playing on it and playing on it, it's going to get worse. So it was good to have a few days off my foot and it's much better now." Baker seeded top in Dallas Challenger qualifying  Jamie
Baker is the top seed in qualifying for the Dallas challenger which
starts tonight. He has a first round bye and in rd2 he'll face
either Ireland's Conor Niland or American Vahid Mirzadeh. Jamie
has played Niland twice before, winning both times in straight sets.Ross Hutchins is also in the qualifying draw. He plays American 7th seed Scott Lipsky in rd1. It's a tough draw as Lipsky is ranked over 200 places higher at 389. Lipsky has a massive first serve which is difficult to read due to the variety he has and he's got a good all-round game, very aggressive from the baseline and has good touch at the net. However, he hasn't had the best start to 2007, losing in qualifying in the Waikoloa challenger last week. Josh Goodall and Alan Mackin are in the main draw Ditty ends Borwell run in Palm Desert  American
Julie Ditty outplayed British no 5 Sarah Borwell 6-1, 6-2 in the
quarters of the Palm Desert 25K.Sarah will gain 7 points from this week's run which will move her up 10 places in the rankings to 226. She will now head to Midland for this week's 75K challenger. Sarah will have to enter qualifying which begins on 4th February. For more news items go to page 3 ------> |
