Tennis 2013

[Real ale Madrid]

And McGee takes the first set 6-4!!!!

[Acornvilla]

And McGee takes the first set 6-4!!!!
Pella tanked the 2nd set. Holy **** James actually won!!

[Acornvilla]

Arnaboldi (http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Ar/A/Andrea-Arnaboldi.aspx?t=pa) in the 3rd round.

He genuinely has a shot at doing this.

[Real ale Madrid]

Arnaboldi (http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Ar/A/Andrea-Arnaboldi.aspx?t=pa) in the 3rd round.


He genuinely has a shot at doing this.

Yeah he surely does - how long since we had one in the main draw there?

[swinfordfc]

Think sean sorensen back in '82?

[Real ale Madrid]

James is up 3rd on court 11 today - 2 WS qualies up before him which have just started so I'm guessing he will be on court about 12.30 / 1.00 Irish time.

[Acornvilla]

Lost 6-4, 6-3. About what would be expected if Arnaboldi played well, very good week for James thou, I checked the prize money, and he'll make about 10k euro this week, which is great considering up to this point so far this year he's won just under 15k in prize money.

Hopefully himself and Louk (Sean Sorensens son) make the cut for Wimbledon next month!

French open should be a good one anyway, Plenty of people have been giving Rafa problems this year.

[Sheridan]

I wonder why Ireland is so crap at tennis? It seems the kind of sport that this country would excel at it, by throwing huge amount of money at privileged individuals - something Irish sport and the Irish state has always relished.

[Acornvilla]

Alright then..

[Acornvilla]

Sam Barry up to #375, won his 2nd ITF singles title last month, and has won two doubles ITF competitions in a row! He's climbing up both doubles and singles rankings steadily.
McGee beat former world #63 Bobby Reynolds, and is in the 2nd round of qualifying for the Nottingham challenger later on today, should make it through and will probably face ginepri in the final round.


Gulbis and Djokovic were immense today! Sharapova also extremely impressive.

[Real ale Madrid]

For some (great) reason - James Cluskey is in the Main Draw at the ATP250 event in Bastad (No sniggering), Sweden.

He and Mikhail Kukushin take on Johan Brunstroem and Nicholas Monroe just about now.

Good luck to him - I may stand corrected but this is his first game in the main draw of an ATP World tour event.

Edit - Beaten 7/6 6/4

[Real ale Madrid]

Keeping an eye on James Cluskey - I completly missed Louk Sorensen who qualifed for the main draw in the 250 World tour event in Stuttgart as a lucky loser. He then went on to shock world number 68 Igor Sisling in straight sets before losing in 3 sets to 3rd seed Roberto Bautista Agut today in round two. Be interesting to see his ranking next week.

[Crosby87]

Do you think Serena was on something at Wimbledon? I still dont understand that.

[Acornvilla]

For the 1st time in a few years James McGee isn't Ireland #1 Louk's pipped him by one spot on the world rankings.

Great to see Cluskey get a shot at a 250. The lads they lost to won the comp afterwards. Sam Barry at a new career high again of 331. This lad might be the real deal.

[emissions]

Hard to know really. Think she was just completely out of the tennis zone. Illicit substances didn't play a part. Patrick Mouratoglou will be staying as Serena Williams’s coach but admitted the world No 1 was going through “a difficult period”.

[Acornvilla]

James McGee is in the semi of a challenger in Canada today, winnable match if he plays well. McGee also lost in the doubles semi. He rarely plays doubles, but it's a handy bit of extra pocket money for him!

In even better news our doubles #1 James Cluskey is in the final of a challenger in Italy. He mentioned in an article this week that he might consider quitting playing professionally at the end of the year if his ranking drops much further, so I'm very glad for his sake that he's had a good week.

[Acornvilla]

Career high #193 for McGee.

[swinfordfc]

McGee beat #111 ranked guy in 1st round in America - can he back it up now in the next game to get into the quarter final?

[Acornvilla]

McGee beat #111 ranked guy in 1st round in America - can he back it up now in the next game to get into the quarter final?
He did and emphatically. 6-0,6-1 win, one of those days where everything went right.

This quarter final v Odesnik is winnable, but a lot depends on which James McGee turns up. He's had a lot of chances to really push on and make a breakthrough but failed to take any. Let's hope tomorrow is a big step to changing that. He's also made a second doubles semi in two weeks as well. His partnership with Chase Buchanan is looking fairly handy!

Cluskey desperately unlucky to lose a challenger quarter final in Finland today, lost two tiebreaks to go down 2-1. His partner was terrible. James would actually easily be within the top 100 doubles players if he could get a decent and consistent partner from what I've seen of him.

I'm sure they've considered it and maybe finances are dictating otherwise, but it'd be great if we seen Cluskey go around the tour with either McGee or Barry and play doubles with either of them.

How did Glancy v Barry end in the Irish Open 1/4 final today? I assume Sam won handily enough, but can't see a score at the mo!

[swinfordfc]

Barry won handy enough

[Acornvilla]

Barry won handy enough
Meekly lost the semi sadly. McGee into the doubles final. He's never won a challenger level title before as far as I'm aware.

[Acornvilla]

Meekly lost the semi sadly. McGee into the doubles final. He's never won a challenger level title before as far as I'm aware.
And, he still hasn't! MGee played with an injured calf, was heavily strapped and he wasn't moving freely. Probably unwise to have even played. They were totally outclassed.

Himself and chase are both in the draw in a canadian challenger next week, so it'll be interesting to see if they carry on playing together. The singles draw is very strong, wouldn't hold out hope of James doing much.

[swinfordfc]

McGee up to #188 in world

[Acornvilla]

David Goffin has won 22 matches in a row, the mad yolke. Some resurgence after he had a terrible season last year.

[Acornvilla]

Louk lost in the USOpen 1st q round today, was 4-1 up in the 3rd set, lost it 4-6...

McGee should win his match tomorrow, but James likes to surprise us.

Goffinwatch update:

24 wins and counting!

[swinfordfc]

McGee wins first match 6-1 6-1 .... up against a seeded player from India next .....

[Acornvilla]

McGee wins first match 6-1 6-1 .... up against a seeded player from India next .....
Indian lad was world junior #1 in 2009, hasn't played much this year must have been injured, but he's won a few challenger titles and would be comfortably top 100 but for injury it seems, only 22 yrs old. I'd say it'll be tight enough.

Looking at the draw I really felt either James or Louk would make rnd 3 and maybe even qualify, but Louk shat his pants already. James has as good a chance as he's had so far in his career to make the breakthrough. Light a candle for him :P

[Acornvilla]

Oh, and 25 wins on the bounce for Goffin!

[Real ale Madrid]

McGee is 4th up on Court 6 this evening - I'm guessing around 9 or 10ish Irish time. Must look for a stream somewhere.

Incidentally - its 5 years ago next week I had the pleasure of visiting Flushing Meadows for Day 3 of the 09' US Open - had Grandstand tickets for Ashe and with a delay we ended up watching Radek Stepanek beat Leonardo Mayer is 3 sets out on court 17 ( I remember it being a few close sets) - When we got in I was amazed by the steepness of the stadium - it actually took 10-15 mins of getting used to - and we watched Sharapova destroy an American WC Melanie Oudin and then a set or two of Andy Roddick who dished out a bit of a thrashing as well to a French player (I think it was Giquel). Great memories - if anyone has a chance to visit a grand slam tournament; it is well worth it.

[Acornvilla]

I was at the Wimbledon qualies this year, but Roehampton isn't quite as impressive albiet nice :)

James is on at about half 8, depending on how the matches before his go, doubt there will be any streams, there very rarely is for GS qualies.

[Real ale Madrid]

And McGee is through to QR3. 5-7, 6-2, 7-5!
Was 3-5 down in the 3rd.

[Acornvilla]

Weeeew!!!

[swinfordfc]

Yes was looking at it - 3-5 down but turn it around - playing Ze Zhang in 3rd round .....

[Real ale Madrid]

6.00pm for a place in main draw - Court 8. Good luck to him.

[Real ale Madrid]

Lost First set 6-0 :(

[Real ale Madrid]

But wins 2nd set 6-4.

[Acornvilla]

2-0 up in the 3rd, just held from 40-15 down.

[Real ale Madrid]

Served for the match at 5-2, was broken , just about to try again ; 5-4.....,,,

[Acornvilla]

Ah this is tense, was 40-0 up serving for the match, hasn't finished the job, yet..

[Acornvilla]

wooo!

[Real ale Madrid]

5 match points later! He's through! God was only following that on slamtracker! Nerves!

[swinfordfc]

Great news - is this is first time to make a grand slam first round?

[Acornvilla]

Great news - is this is first time to make a grand slam first round?
Yep. This is massive for him, just pocketed himself about 30-35 grand, which is massive prize money. Will make a very big difference to his prep for future comps, and he's going to be floating near the top 150.

I had a look at the main draw, and some of the qualifiers have to play one another or wild cards in round 1, it'd be brilliant if he got to face someone he could beat, and then maybe play a big gun in round two in front of a crowd.

[swinfordfc]

He playing a Kaz ranked 108 in the world so he has a chance in this one - when is this match on?

It's great news and i hope it gets him into the top 150 in the world - should set him up to go at these tournaments in a bigger way now hopefully

[Acornvilla]

He playing a Kaz ranked 108 in the world so he has a chance in this one - when is this match on?

It's great news and i hope it gets him into the top 150 in the world - should set him up to go at these tournaments in a bigger way now hopefully
Provisionally playing on the 25th but no times/courts decided yet AFAIK. That lad is very big and strong, but James will have already played 3 games on these courts while he won't have played any, so there's every chance of an upset.

In other news, his win inspired me to give drawing him a lash.

2146

[Real ale Madrid]

McGee up 3rd on Court 13 on Monday. Play starts at 4.00pm Irish time so probably between 7.00 and 8.00ish Monday evening, maybe earlier. Sky may cover it. All good betting sites will :)

[Acornvilla]

McGee up 3rd on Court 13 on Monday. Play starts at 4.00pm Irish time so probably between 7.00 and 8.00ish Monday evening, maybe earlier. Sky may cover it. All good betting sites will :)
Chance to play Tsonga if he wins!

[Acornvilla]

James was on newstalk this morning. No real talk of just being happy to be in the main draw, seems very focused on winning.

[Real ale Madrid]

James was on newstalk this morning. No real talk of just being happy to be in the main draw, seems very focused on winning.

It's good that he has had a few days to let the achievement sink in and now he can focus on the task in hand.

[Real ale Madrid]

For some perspective on today's match:

From what I can gather - today will be just the 9th time a player repesenting Ireland will play a men's singles match in the open era. Matt Doyle - despite representing Ireland in the Davis cup from 1981 onwards, only started to represent Ireland on tour from 1985 onwards. Louk Sorensen's win in the 2010 Australian Open is Irelands only win in a grand slam mens singles game in the open era.

1977 Sean Sorensen L R1 Wimbledon to Rod Laver (AUS)
1980 Sean Sorenson L R1 Wimbledon to Patrice Dominguez (FRA)
1985 Matt Doyle L R1 Australian Open to Jay Lapidus (USA)
2010 Louk Sorensen W R1 Australian Open against Lu Yen-hsun (CTP) , L R2 to John Isner (USA)
2011 Conor Niland L R1 Wimbledon to Adrain Mannarino (SWI)
Conor Niland L R1 US Open to Novak Djokovic (SRB)
Louk Sorensen L R1 US Open to Rogerio Dutra Da Silva (BRA)
2014 James McGee R1 US Open v Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ)

Anyone know of any others ?