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What do you think Acornvilla - do you think he has a bit of a problem with nerves or what ? Seems that he gets into a lot of good positions but cannot convert? All in all it seemed a decent performance against a (nearly) top-100 player.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acornvilla
James Cluskey is in action in the doubles tonight at 10.30pm Irish time apparently. Top seeds as well.
Louk loss in 1st round in Glasgow as well ....
He's done it a lot, I remember him losing from 5/6-1 up v Sandgern in a 1/4 final tiebreak about a year and a half ago, which is one instance that springs to mind. Or last year in the Nouema semi when he was a set and a break up, serving for it and eventually lost. Not to mention numerous matches in bigish situations where you'd expect better. Last weeks semi for instance, or that 2nd quali round in the Aus Open even. The kid he was playing was good, but really, should he be losing to people like that on a stage of that magnitude at this stage of his career, when he seems to have his off the court house in order now?Quote:
Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid
The US Open last year is the one time you can say he time and time again fought back and got over the line, in both the 2nd and 3rd q round. But even then, he nearly died of cramp and could very easily have lost it :D McGee has been very Irish in his inability to seize chances that present themselves at times.
I like James, and he's a world away from where he was two years ago, that we can be disappointed that he's losing to people like Smyczek is testament to his achievements, but he's delusional in what he says about breaking the top 100 if he can't finish off matches like this. It's just not good enough at that level.
He'll lose a few ranking points this week, but he has very few points to defend for the next couple of month going forward. If he could break the top 150 and stay there, I'd think it a great success, but I can't see him ever breaking the 100 and if he did, staying there for any extended period of time would be well beyond him unless he makes a lot of changes. One thing I will say thou, is he's coming to the net a lot more now, and being more aggressive, which is great to see. He just needs to play the big points better, and keep shortening points, too many of his matches become wars of attrition, which hurts him in later rounds.
Louk mustn't be fit at all, he's played 2(?) matches this year, and only won about 3 games.
Cluskey was Top seed in every competition he's entered so far this year. It's not exactly served him too well. Lost an ITF Final, made an ITF 1/4 final, and lost in the 1st round last week. He's playing Mardy Fish of all people today, so you'd hope he can win. I can't imagine Fish is all that match ready.
Ireland off to a poor start in Estonia. Lost 1-2 to Finland. Ireland in a group with Slovenia and Luxembourg, all matches going according to plan, but Ireland need to beat Luxembourg and face Egypt in the play off. If no, it's down with the Congo next year. Budapest is looking fine, travel today.
Cluskey out in 2 sets as well. A bad week for the parish.
Ireland beat Luxembourg 2-1 yesterday to take a big step toward maintaining Div II status .
Assuming they lose 3-0 to Slovenia today, it is looking like a tough tie against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the play-off as they were beaten 2-1 by Egypt yesterday.
They loss to Slovenia and also loss to Bosnia so they are down to Div III status.
Amy is now 381 ranked and James down to 200!
McGee beaten in 1st round Quals of ATP 250 tour event in Delray Beach. Another solid perfomance against WR 136 and former WR26 Victor Hanescu (2) Romania. James had 2 break points to go 5-5 in the third set but could not convert - ended up losing 64 36 64.
Took in 2 days play in Budapest (Fed Cup Gp II) and was getting the feed from Estonia. Ireland really disappointed, it just goes to illustrate the lack of depth in women's tennis. Amy is a good player, she can do something with her career, but the rest are club players and from 14-18 we have a real lack of quality.
Budapest was cool though. Have to post up 1 or 2 pics.
Good news everyone..
James McGee has apparently been given a wildcard into the ATP 500 in Dubai next week. He's never played the 1st round of a main tour competition before exculding the GS in the US last year, so this is a very big deal and opportunity for him.
Wow .....Quote:
Originally Posted by Acornvilla
Enjoying the Twitter feed for Irish Tennis Updates! Players are too!
Draw done, plays Sousa in R1, if by some miracle wins that, gets Murray in R2.
So if he beats Sousa he faces his old hitting partner! Should be good. I cannot remember if it was Barry King or James who used to frustrate the hell out of Murray. I know Murray had great respect and time for our boys, thanks to Garry Cahill.
Thats a brilliant draw - I hope its not on at working o clock or stupid o clock so we can watch!
Have to say Spud I thought we put up a Sterling effort against against Slovenia. Lauren Deegan took the first set against a WR234, only to lose in 3. Amy then was a set all against WR 76 Hercog before Hercog had to retire. From what I can gather Amy was injured subsequently ( shoulder - which meant she had to serve underarm!) which scuppered our chances big time in the Relegation P/O against Bosnia.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spudulika
Deegan ( who performed admirably ) and Amy - should see us bounce straight back up next year - perhaps things are not as bad ? That Lauren Deegan looked very good - know anything about her?
I agree that things aren't that bad, but next year will be difficult with so many teams involved and if Amy is out or off form, it'll be a couple of years at the bottom level.Quote:
Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid
Slovenia are a good side, they've strength in depth and Tadeja Majeric is probably one of the lost 5-10 players who should be top-100 and with a good run top-75. She's a little on the short side and likes her grub, but her main problem is she was pampered and due to being a real looker, just didn't bother to use her talent. That being said, Ireland were unlucky.
One good thing, for Ireland, would be to concentrate on Division 3 for 2-3 years, leave Amy out of the equation and let Juniors and hopefuls face off against good opponents. It's not giving up, it's just building. There are a few decent girls coming through, but need to be pushed. Georgia Drummy looks very good, she's still very young and (have to check her ranking) benefitted from good hitting, and there's a Moldovan kid (Jenny something) who is very promising. If I were Fed Cup captain (or Irish TF), I'd bundle together 50k, get our top 4 players and get them travelling and playing together in $10k's, mixed with some good Junior events, where they can win points, train in different climates and next year (April probably) they'd win promotion right off the bat. It won't happen as parents will object, the Irish mob won't see any value in it as it won't return something tomorrow.
Lauren (from what I heard back from Garry and Tadeja) is a good player. She's never really broken fully from Grade 5 level in Juniors, no great crime, but she's strong, a good doubles player, and if her fitness was 80% she's the makings of a top-500 pro. From there on it's money, planning, luck and determination.
:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Spudulika
Jaysus a bit like meself - until you mentioned the pampered bit !!!!!
At least you have the good looks so!Quote:
Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid