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    #51
    In awe of a narky Scottish God

    Evans reaches his first ATP final in 3 sets. Gilles Muller will be his opponent.

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      #52
      In awe of a narky Scottish God

      Don't know if this is just a British tennis thread but Mertens has won the Hobart tournament today with a ranking of 127,which is pretty impressive

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        #53
        In awe of a narky Scottish God

        It is, and well done to her (she came through qualifying), but there is normally a handful of winners from outside the top 100 on the WTA each year. At least five last year by my count, for example. Plus the event in Hobart was riddled with withdrawals; it was the sort of tournament where the chance was there for someone unexpected to take a pot. Congratulations to Mertens for making herself one of them.
        It cost her a place in Melbourne, mind. She was signed up for qualifying and here but missed the sign-in deadline as she was still playing in Hobart. From her perspective it is therefore a good job she went all the way and took the crown, therefore.

        Talking of Melbourne, I'm not going to have a chance to write any previews, so if anybody else fancies doing so...

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          #54
          In awe of a narky Scottish God

          While all the excitment of the Aussie Open is going on, Laura Robson is finally winning a match or two. She's made it to the QF of the ITF 60k event in Andrezieux-Boutheon in deepest central France, and at the time of posting is at 5-5 in the first set of her QF match. [edit: but went on to lose that first set on a tie-break]

          http://www.flashscore.com/tennis/itf-women-singles/andrezieux-boutheon/

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            #55
            In awe of a narky Scottish God

            You appear to have jinxed her.

            Cameron Norrie is doing OK in Maui too. Though he'll probably lose now.

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              #56
              In awe of a narky Scottish God

              Well, that was all very exciting last week, but back to the mundane stuff. Some of which was happening as the OAPs convention was in full swing...

              Laura Robson’s loss in the QFs of Andrezieux-Boutheon to Amra Sadikovic is alluded to above. She also made the QFs of the Doubles (w/ Schoofs). One other Brit was at this event, but Amanda Carreras lost in the first round of qualifying. Hard Indoor courts are really not her thing.

              On the Men’s side, Cameron Norrie eventually made the SF of the Challenger in Maui before being beaten by Taro Daniel. Luke Bambridge and Joe Salisbury were also in Hawaii, but both lost in the second round of qualifying. They did better as a pair in the Doubles, reaching the QFs before losing just to the top seeds 13-11 in a match breaker. Meanwhile Norrie did worse in a team, losing in R1 (w/ Tearney) to the second seeds.
              A couple of Brits tried to qualify for the event in Rennes, and one succeeded as Ed Corrie and Lloyd Glasspool came into opposition in the final round of q. Corrie took the day in straight sets, but then ran into Lukas Rosol in R1 proper and went out. The best run of the week also happened here, as Marray/Knowle made it to the Doubles Final before being beaten by Donskoy/Elgin.

              As for this week, there is very limited Tour action as the ATP is on pause for the Davis Cup. That left Tara Moore in Taipei as the only Brit in action, and she didn’t last all that long, winning her first qualifying match but then being beaten in final q.

              So once again it’s Div.2 stuff that dominates. Luke Bambridge, Joe Salisbury and Alastair Gray attempted to qualify for the event in Dallas, losing in final q, q2 and q1 respectively. Bambridge and Salisbury are also playing the Doubles, but not together this week as Salisbury’s preferred partner O’Hare is around; they qualified with two wins and now play the #4 seeds in R1. Bambridge/Bangoura are through to the QFs after a two tie-break win.
              Liam Broady and Ed Corrie attempted to qualify for the event in Quimper, but were both beaten by the same Frenchman in q2 and q1 respectively. The Skupskis are the 2nd seeds for the Doubles here.

              Naomi Broady has a lot on the line in Midland, as she is the defending Singles champ and also made the Doubles final last year. She is going to drop outside the top 100 unless she has a very good week, starting with Jovana Jaksic in R1. Broady is the #3 seed for the tournament. And that applies in both singles and doubles, where her partner is Falconi.
              No joy for the Brits in singles qualifying in Burnie, despite Katy Dunne and Freya Christie being seeded. Dunne lost in q2, and Christie in q1, and did the unseeded Katie Boulter. At least Dunne qualified for the Doubles (w/ Hon), to join Christie/Reix.
              Finally to Grenoble, where both Amanda Carreras and Laura Robson are in the main draw, first round opponents being Ana Vrljic and Deniz Khazaniuk respectively. Gabby Taylor wasn’t able to join them, as she went out of qualifying at the second hurdle.

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                #57
                In awe of a narky Scottish God

                I attempted to start a Davis & Fed Cup thread last night.

                Posting the link here in case the title's a little cryptic (I don't think it is, particularly, just better to be safe than sorry).

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                  #58
                  In awe of a narky Scottish God

                  Robson has just won her first round match at the Grenoble 25k event. The fact that she was taken to a deciding set by her opponent Deniz Khazaniak, ranked 248, is probably further evidence, if any were needed, that Robson's return to the top 100, if it happens at all, is not going to come speedily.

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                    #59
                    In awe of a narky Scottish God

                    Robson broke 9 times in 3 sets. Really she is a top 100 player, with a sub 500 level serve.

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                      #60
                      In awe of a narky Scottish God

                      Whereas Naomi Broady*... who won her R1 matches on Tuesday in Singles and Doubles in Midland, incidentally. The first small steps on a steep path to remaining a top100 singles player next week. Next up today is Danielle Lao. And that is in both formats (w/Falconi vs Lao/Christian in the Dubs).

                      * - OK, that is slightly unfair on Broady. On both her serve, which is top 10 level, and her game otherwise, which is top 200.

                      In addition to Laura Robson's win over Khazaniak in Grenoble, there was also success for Amanda Carreras against Ana Vrljic. In fact, Carreras' win immediately proceeded Robson on the main court of the event. Both play their R2 matches today (on Court 2) Carreras facing Valeria Solovyeva whilst Robson takes on Quirine Lemoine for the second week in a row, Robson having won 4&0 at the same stage of Andrezieux-Boutheon.

                      No Brits left in Burnie after today's results. It was only Doubles anyway, but Christie/Reix and Dunne/Hon both lost in the QFs. Christie/Reix did beat the #1 seeds in R1... by retirement when the score was 1-1 in the first set!

                      Similarly only Doubles remaining on the ATP Challenger Tour. The Skupskis are close to justifying their second seeding in Quimper as they are through to the SFs for the loss of just 10 games. Two chances of another Brit reaching that stage in Dallas as Salisbury/O'Hare and Bambridge/Bangoura are through to the QFs. If both pairs can win their last eight matches, they would play each other.

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                        #61
                        In awe of a narky Scottish God

                        Robson lost 2 & 2 to the 7th seed, Lemoine, who she beat 4 & 0 last week (as Janik notes)

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                          #62
                          In awe of a narky Scottish God

                          Amanda Carreras also lost in R2 of Grenoble, ending British interest in that event.
                          It leaves Naomi Broady as the sole Brit standing in singles this week, as she has beaten by Danielle Lao and Sesil Karatancheva to get through to the Semis in Midland. Where she is, of course, the defending champion. Broady's opponent in the last four will be Katherine Sebov (Can). Broady is at #115 in the live rankings; making the final would mean being at #107 next week, and retaining her title would leave her at #99 or #100 depending on who she met in the title match. There is a lot on the line this week...

                          Broady is also through to the Doubles Semi in Michigan, and she got her second win in two days over Lao, this time with Falconi and Christian also on the court. If Broady reaches the Doubles final, she would become the fourth Brit this week to be in such a match as the Skupskis are through to the showpiece in Quimper (only 13 games lost in six sets doing it) and Salisbury/O'Hare are likewise through in Dallas, after beating Baker/Monroe in the Semis, who had beaten Bambridge/Bangoura in the Quarters.

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                            #63
                            In awe of a narky Scottish God

                            Broady won her singles SF at Midland - so just one match left to win in order to retain her title and (just) her top 100 place.

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                              #64
                              In awe of a narky Scottish God

                              Broady will have another 110 points to defend before the end of the month, which came from reaching the SFs in Kuala Lumpur last year; the combined 250 points from that and the Midland title formed a very substantial chunk of her overall rankings points as of last Monday (38% to be exact).
                              Heather Watson has a similar problem facing her, and in the same week to boot. Her current 825 point rankings total includes 280 from winning the full tour event in Monterrey in 2016. Fail to replace those and she will also be dropping outside that top 100. The silver lining to the black cloud is that Watson's ranking is so lumpy that single point R1 defeats are included amongst her best sixteen scores. So any ranking event win improves her total.

                              The final note on the Women's rankings from this week is that Venus Williams first up defeat in St. Petersburg means that Jo Konta remains in the top 10 for another week. And unlike Watson and Broady, she doesn't have to defend anything prior to Indian Wells/Miami. Her issue is the opposite of Watson's; her ranking is so consistently built that improving it means making the SFs of a Premier or the final of an International!

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                                #65
                                In awe of a narky Scottish God

                                Salisbury and O'Hare won their doubles tournament - from 5-9 down in the MTB they won the next 6 points. Given they had to qualify, that's a very fine win.

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                                  #66
                                  In awe of a narky Scottish God

                                  Broady has just levelled the Midland final at 1 set all on a tie-break (8-6) having lost the first set 4-6.

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                                    #67
                                    In awe of a narky Scottish God

                                    ... and she's lost the match (to Tatjana Maria of Germany) 4-6. 7-6, 4-6 (despite, I think, having been a break up in the final set at one point).

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                                      #68
                                      In awe of a narky Scottish God

                                      Broady also lost in the Semis of the Midland Doubles on Saturday, and the Skupskis lost in the Final of the Quimper Doubles to Elgin/Zelenay.

                                      So, on to this week. This time it's the WTA on hiatus for Team play, so just the Men playing at full tour level. Singles action is limited to just one event, Montpellier, and one player, Aljaz Bedene. He faces Borna Coric in R1. Dan Evans had also been signed up to play this, but announced his withdrawal yesterday after his Davis Cup rubber. “Too much Tennis” apparently. And too much travelling as well, one presumes.
                                      Not that that is stopping Dom Inglot, who will scoot over to Sofia to play that event with Florin Mergea. They are the third seeds and face Elgin/Kuznetsov in R1. The Skupskis are also here (presumably sharing a flight with Elgin as there can’t be that many Brittany to Bulgaria flights per day); their R1 opponents are Koolhof/Middelkoop. Flipping back to Montpellier, we find Marray/Shamasdin in action. First up for them are #3 Lindstedt/Venus.

                                      Down a level to the ATP Challengers, where the only singles players playing this week are Liam Broady and Ed Corrie, in the qualifiers of Budapest. Or were playing in Broady’s case, as he lost in q2. Corrie is through to final q, though.
                                      Also limited involvement on the Doubles side, with just Salisbury/O’Hare, fresh off their title in Dallas, going for another in San Francisco. A ways to go yet, their first opponents being a Mexican/USA pair (topical!) Hach Verdugo/Quigley.

                                      Also a quiet week on the ITF Women’s Circuit, unsurprisingly with the Fed Cup distraction. Just the one event, a $60k in Launceston, Australia. Katy Dunne made the main draw cut of this, and will play #7 Lizette Cabrera (Aus) in R1. Katie Boulter and Freya Christie were in the qualies and in the same section. Boulter beat a local wild card in q1, Christie lost to a different local wild card in the same, and then Boulter beat the player who had beaten Christie in q2 (all matches taking three sets). It leaves Boulter one win away from joining Dunne in the main draw.

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                                        #69
                                        In awe of a narky Scottish God

                                        Where did we leave it last week? Ah yes...

                                        Aljaz Bedene got a very welcome win (which he hasn’t had many of lately) in R1 of the tournament in Montpellier, beating Borna Coric in three. That set up a R2 meeting with Sascha Zverev, who took a wild card into the event. Bedene acquitted himself well in this, taking the second set to force it the distance, but ultimately fell short of tackling the young German giant. Who, incidentally, went on to win the tournament beating Tsonga and Gasquet back-to-back in the Semis and Final.
                                        Zverev also won the Doubles alongside big bro Mischa, beating Lindstedt/Venus along the way in the QFs after the later had toppled Marray/Shamasdin in the opening round. The other Tour level Doubles news was a QF defeat for the Skupskis in Sofia, which was a round better than #3 seeds Inglot/Mergea managed. Maybe Dom Inglot didn’t know which continent he was in?

                                        We had already lost one of the Brits in the Budapest qualifying (Liam Broady) by the time of my last post, and Ed Corrie soon followed him to defeat, losing to Vatutin in q3. Except... a string of late withdrawals handed Corrie a second chance, getting in as the third (and final) Lucky Loser. He made the most of this, recording wins over Zsombor Piros, Yannick Reuter and Yannick Maden to reach the Semis. Unfortunately at that point Corrie had to adapt from playing Yannicks to taking on a Jurgen, Melzer of the ilk, which proved too much to cope with. Melzer won the tournament, btw.

                                        No second chances for Katie Boulter in Launceston after she lost in q3 to Tian. That left Katy Dunne as the only Brit involved. She put up a good showing, beating #7 Lizette Cabrera and Irina Maria Bara to reach the QFS. This may have been a mistake, as the QF against Tamara Zidansek ended with Boluter retiring at 6-0 3-1 down. Let’s hope it’s nothing too serious.

                                        And that was week 6 of the season. What of week 7? Well, see below...

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                                          #70
                                          In awe of a narky Scottish God

                                          The first ATP500 tournament of the season is currently taking place in Rotterdam. This drew Aljaz Bedene, but such is his ranking at the moment he was forced to start in qualifying. However a win over a local wild card set up a match with Djokovic-killer Dennis Istomin (whose entries won’t yet be benefitting from his Aussie Open run), which Bedene won in two to progress to the main draw... where he met Istomin again after the Uzbek got in as a Lucky Loser! Guess what, this time Istomin won, with a very similar scoreline to Bedene’s win the previous day. It’s so annoying when that happens.
                                          The only other Brit playing ATP World Tour singles was Andrew Watson, who got into a rather denuded q-draw in Memphis as an alternate. Watson faced Darian King in q1 and lost 2&3, which maybe isn’t that surprising as the gap in rankings between the two men was just the 1350 places!
                                          Somebody in Memphis likes Brits, as both Doubles wild cards went to pairs including someone from over here, with no wild cards given to Americans. The beneficiaries are Sailsbury/O’Hare and Glennon/De Zutter (GBr/Bel). I must admit the later two names are new ones on me. Neither pairing has played their R1 match yet. Sailsbury/O’Hare will face the top seeds (Huey/Mirnyi) in that, Glennon/De Zutter get a tough local pair in Johnson/R.Harrison.

                                          Just one event on the Women’s side, a WTA Premier in Doha. With the Fed Cup players all giving themselves a little recovery time, it was left to Naomi Broady to fly the Union flag. Briefly as Broady lost in q1 to Annika Beck. Though let’s be clear here that this event is rather tougher to qualify for than a Slam; Beck is the World No. 65 and she was the 7th seed in the q-draw. The top two seeds in qualifying, Christina McHale and Jelena Jankovic, are both top 50 players (and both made it through, incidentally).

                                          Down to the ITF Women’s Circuit, where we have three $25k events. And where the draws haven’t been too kind this week. For example, in Altenkirchen, Amanda Carreras was the highest ranked player in qualifying and made it through to the main draw in straightforward style, losing just six games combined in her two q-matches. Her reward for winning through is a R1 match against #2 seed for the event... Tara Moore. On an indoor carpet surface, one has to strongly favour Moore for this. As if that wasn’t enough, Carreras and Moore have also drawn each other in the Doubles, Carreras playing with Fernandez Rabnea and Moore playing with other half Perrin, naturally enough. Moore/Perrin are the #3 seeds for this.
                                          The draw gods also pitched Katie Boulter and Harriet Dart into the same section of the Perth qualifying draw, with just one main draw spot on offer. Having both dealt with a couple of locals, the two met and Boulter came out on top to earn her main draw spot. She is joined there by Freya Christie, who also won through three rounds of q, but not by Gabriella Taylor as she lost in q2. Boulter plays #6 Riko Sawayanagi in R1, Christie faces Baijing Lin. Christie is also in the Doubles w/Zhang against [WC]Hon/Rogowska as is Dart w/Myers against #2 Namigata/Sawayanagi.
                                          One more player in action at the very extreme lower end of this level, veteran Nicola Slater having received a wild card into the Doubles qualifying in Surprise. She will play with Emilija Visic (USA), who is so unknown that she doesn’t even have an ITF profile!

                                          Just the two tournaments on the Men’s Challenger circuit this week, which is unusually few (but see the Memphis World Tour q-draw for possible reasons). Ed Corrie’s run to the Semis of Budapest last week prevented him from signing up for qualifying in Cherbourg, which was a blessing in disguise as it he meant he got straight into the main draw as a Special Exempt. He won’t be joined there by Liam Broady (baring any Lucky Loser shenanigans) as Broady lost in final q to Daniel Masur. Corrie plays Ilya Ivashka in R1. Marray/Shamasdin are also top seeds for the Doubles at this event.
                                          The other Challenger event is in Tempe, AZ. Luke Bambridge won through the qualifying of this and will play Alexander Sarkissian in R1. Thomas Wright didn’t win through the q as well though. Rather he lost his first match. Both are in the Doubles main draw, Bambridge w/McDonald, Wright w/Rakotomalala.

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                                            #71
                                            In awe of a narky Scottish God

                                            Salisbury, O’Hare and Glennon are all alumni of Memphis University which is hosting the tournament.

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                                              #72
                                              In awe of a narky Scottish God

                                              Ah, right. Glennon/De Zutter are out, beaten 3&2.

                                              I also missed someone yesterday; the Rotterdam event, being an ATP500, had a (pretense of a) qualifying draw for the Doubles, 4 pairs competing for one spot. Inglot/Mergea were the top ranked pair in this, won their opener but were beaten in the final qualifying match.

                                              Results since the last update are only in ITF Doubles. And it's a near clearing of the decks, Christie/Zhang and Dart/Myers losing in R1 of Perth, Slater/Visic beaten in q1 of Surprise.

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                                                #73
                                                In awe of a narky Scottish God

                                                I think that may be the end of the Inglot/Mergea partnership, as they are entered separately next week.

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                                                  #74
                                                  In awe of a narky Scottish God

                                                  R1 defeat in Memphis for Salisbury/O'Hare to Huey/Mirnyi ended British involvement in the full Tours this week (if we are frank it never really got started, Bedene wininng the only main draw match).

                                                  Down a level to the ITF Women's, and Altenkirchen where Tuesday brought two matches (singles and doubles) between Tara Moore and Amanda Carreras, Moore winning both. Moore/Perrin have since also won their Doubles QF. The singles R2 is today, Moore is first up against Romy Koelzer.
                                                  A win and a loss for both Katie Boulter and Freya Christie in Perth, Bouter beating Riko Sawayanagi but then losing to Priscilla Hon, Christie defeating Baijing Lin before going out to Katarina Zavatska. This ends British interest in Wsetern Australia.

                                                  Ed Corrie didn't make the most of his special exemption in Cherbourg, losing to Ilya Ivashka in R1. Marray/Shamasdin likewise did little with being the top seeds in the Doubles, going out in R1 to Junaid/Vliegen.
                                                  Luke Bambridge's run in Tempe (he came through qualifying, remember) was ended by Alexander Sarkissian in R1. He and McDonald are through to the Quarters of the Doubles, though. Where Wright/Rakotomalala will not be joining them, as the British/French pair were beaten in R1.

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                                                    #75
                                                    In awe of a narky Scottish God

                                                    Bambridge/McDonald lost to top seeds Molchanov/Novikov in the Tempe QFs, leaving Tara Moore as the sole Brit standing following her R2 win over Romy Koelzer yesterday in Altenkirchen. Or she was, as Moore has been whupped 1&1 today in the QFs by (World No. 432 journeywoman) Bibiane Schoofs. Oof. She will look to make partial amends later in the day alongside Perrin in the Doubles SFs vs #2 Grammatikopoulou/Kalinskaya.

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