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    #51
    OK, so World Group II play-off teams are:-
    Russia - missing many players in their 4-1 loss to Slovakia
    Ukraine - no Svitolina in their 3-2 loss to Australia
    Canada - beaten 3-1 by Halep-less Romania, and the 1 was the dead rubber doubles
    Spain - slightly surprisingly beaten 3-2 away to Italy, with the match over after rubber 4 as Italy lead 3-1 at that stage
    Britain - cruised through Euro-Africa Group I without losing a rubber, dropping just two sets
    Latvia - had to work a little harder than Britain despite a very strong team in Tallinn (Ostapenko and Sevastova); Ostapenko lost a pool match and then Sevastova lost the opening rubber of the play-off against Serbia before Ostapenko and then Ostapenko & Sevastova sorted things
    Japan - cruised through pool without losing a string, but play-off against Kazakhstan went to deciding doubles before being settled
    Paraguay - key pool win over Colombia, and then 2-0 victory over Brazil (who had beaten Argentina) in play-off. No.2 singles player Montserrat Gonzalez had a very good week, going 3-0 in singles and 5-0 overall.

    Rankings still to be figured out, but based on the ones before this round of matches that would give the following

    Seeds
    Russia
    Ukraine
    Spain
    Canada

    Non-seeds
    Britain
    Paraguay
    Japan
    Latvia


    Oh, and whilst on the subject the World Group I QF results were:
    Belarus 2-3 Germany - bit of a shock, as Belarus had marginally the higher ranked singles players. Decided in the doubles, which was won in three sets by Groenefeld & Maria.
    Czech Rep 3-1 Switzerland - straightforward, as one would expect with a team consisting of Ka.Pliskova, Kvitova, Strycova and Safarova. Was 3-0 after three singles rubbers, Golubic taking a set from Kvitova on Day 1. 10th straight Semi-Final for the Czechs.
    France 3-2 Belgium - Hesse & Mladenovic won a deciding doubles in three sets. Kiki Mladenovic was the only star to show for the match and she carried the French team, winning both singles rubbers (vs. Flipkens and Mertens) and that doubles. A shame for a strong Belgian team (van Uytvanck also played singles).
    USA 3-1 Netherlands - The Dutch got hit by a ten-ton truck in terms of team selection. For them, no Kiki Bertens. For the USA Venus Williams, CoCo Vandeweghe, Lauren Davis and Serena Williams! Venus and CoCo played and won the singles, despite articles on tennis.com bemoaning not letting Serena off the leash. When they finally did for the dead rubber doubles alongside big sis (probably a pre-planned move despite the announced nominations being Serena and Davis), well, um, the Dutch won 2&3. Hence articles entitled 'Serena makes return to competitive Tennis' rather than 'Serena makes winning return to competitive Tennis'. As per the BBC article this was never about the scoreline. Yeah, right. As if you would have written that if the result had been the other way.

    SFs are Germany vs Czech Rep and France vs USA.

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      #52
      Britain ended up as one of the seeds. They were drawn against Japan. A lack of recent meetings meant a venue decided by lot. It will be in ... Japan.

      Full draws:

      World Group play-offs
      Belarus vs Slovakia
      Romania vs Switzerland
      Australia vs Netherlands
      Italy vs Belgium

      World Group II play-offs
      Russia vs Latvia
      Spain vs Paraguay
      Canada vs Ukraine
      Japan vs Britain
      Last edited by Janik; 13-02-2018, 22:10.

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        #53
        It other news, Jo Konta got slight revenge on Bernarda Pera in Qatar today for defeat in Melbourne. Jo needs a good run in either this or Dubai next week as she has quite a lot of points to build back up having not matched her results in Sydney and Melbourne last year. A deep run this week would be the preferred option as the Qatar Open is the Prem5 this year.

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          #54
          Allegations of racism in the Young-Harrison match:

          https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...-new-york-open

          Similar to the recent football incident where it's unclear what was said or heard, but you'd think a tennis court would have enough people within hearing distance to settle this?

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            #55
            Romania is doing well in Qatar, and not just Halep. Monica Niculescu knocked out Sharapova and 14th seed Rybarikova (albeit by injury withdrawal). Buzarnescu has just beaten 6th seed Ostapenko and Cirstea has beaten 15 Mertens. Irina Begu has rather let the side down

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              #56
              Not quite as well today. Halep has gone through, but Cirstea lost to Muguruza and Buzarnescu lost to Goerges. Niculescu has just started against top seed Wozniacki

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                #57
                Federer is back at No. 1. Oldest ever.

                Comment


                  #58
                  Worryingly (for me) Halep has pulled out of the semi final in Doha still suffering from the ankle injury she got in the first round in Melbourne. No word on how long she'll need to be out

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                    #59
                    Federer oldest ever indeed, and by a good few years. And he'll be no.1 for at least the next few months, given the relatively few points he has to defend up to and including Roland Garros compared to Nadal (for more detail see the detailed numbers I set out on the Aussie Open thread).

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                      #60
                      Separate discussion, maybe, and possibly separate thread, but has tennis ever considered a "sliding scale" ranking system, like in golf, where events say more than 3 or 6 months ago lose value gradually instead of holding full value for 12 months and then dropping off a cliff edge?

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                        #61
                        It wouldn't really be fair because of the multiple surfaces, and the fact that there are certain times of year when each surface has its season. The ranking system works pretty well at the moment already, anyway, I think.

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                          #62
                          Harriet dart has won a $25, 000 tournament in Germany.

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                            #63
                            Re. Rankings

                            Would be harsh on Nadal if his French Open points were worth less than Federer's Aus Open ones, for example.

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                              #64
                              Kyle Edmund is the new British Number 1.

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                                #65
                                Konta loses her opening match in Indian Wells. As did Watson, against Azarenka in her case so not such a bad result. (More pleasingly, so did Sharapova a day or two ago.)

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                                  #66
                                  It was a pretty bad result for Watson given Azarenka has not played competitively in months due to her child custody dispute.

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                                    #67
                                    The British women at full tour level are having a torrid time of it at the moment, but a bit lower down in the 25k tournaments, there have been some really good results particularly for Harriet Dart (as Jon mentioned) and Gabi Taylor. Robson and Dunne have also won some good matches but in the current tournaments went out to Dart and Taylor! Dart is currently playing (and losing) in the semi-final in Yokohama, while Taylor has now reached the final in Australia. Taylor is now in the World top 200, and Dart is not far off.

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                                      #68
                                      Dart came back to win and go into the final. Win that and she should be very close to top 200.

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                                        #69
                                        The Top 10 in the men's rankings are all different nationalities.

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                                          #70
                                          Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                                          The Top 10 in the men's rankings are all different nationalities.
                                          Has that ever happened before? It sounds very unique.

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                                            #71
                                            Has that ever happened before? It sounds very unique.
                                            Well, I thought I'd try just checking the year end rankings positions first, working backwards from the year end of 2017. I got as far as, er, 2016, before I found 10 different nationalities in the year end top 10.

                                            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_ATP_World_Tour

                                            1 Andy Murray (GBR) 11,185 16
                                            2 Novak Djokovic (SRB) 10,780 16
                                            3 Stan Wawrinka (SUI) 5,115 20
                                            4 Milos Raonic (CAN) 5,050 18
                                            5 Kei Nishikori (JPN) 4,705 19
                                            6 Gaël Monfils (FRA) 3,625 17
                                            7 Marin Čilić (CRO) 3,450 21
                                            8 Rafael Nadal (ESP) 3,300 17
                                            9 Dominic Thiem (AUT) 3,215 27
                                            10 Tomáš Berdych (CZE) 3,060 21

                                            Edit: actually the eagle eyed who click on the link above might notice that I accidentally selected the final 2016 Race rankings, not the post-ATP finals year end rankings, to cut and paste above. But the actual year end list was a slight permutation of the same 10 players.
                                            Last edited by Evariste Euler Gauss; 12-03-2018, 22:28.

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                                              #72
                                              Dart lost her final, but Taylor won hers in fine style, 6-0, 6-3. It's her third 25k title of the season and she will go up to about 175 in the world.

                                              Comment


                                                #73
                                                Originally posted by Evariste Euler Gauss View Post
                                                Well, I thought I'd try just checking the year end rankings positions first, working backwards from the year end of 2017. I got as far as, er, 2016, before I found 10 different nationalities in the year end top 10.

                                                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_ATP_World_Tour

                                                1 Andy Murray (GBR) 11,185 16
                                                2 Novak Djokovic (SRB) 10,780 16
                                                3 Stan Wawrinka (SUI) 5,115 20
                                                4 Milos Raonic (CAN) 5,050 18
                                                5 Kei Nishikori (JPN) 4,705 19
                                                6 Gaël Monfils (FRA) 3,625 17
                                                7 Marin Čilić (CRO) 3,450 21
                                                8 Rafael Nadal (ESP) 3,300 17
                                                9 Dominic Thiem (AUT) 3,215 27
                                                10 Tomáš Berdych (CZE) 3,060 21
                                                Thanks EEG, I thought with the two Swiss that it wouldn't have been so recently.

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                                                  #74
                                                  Blimey, a 16 year old (Amanda Anisimova) has just been Kvitova in Indian Wells.

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                                                    #75
                                                    Taro Daniel has knocked out Novak Djokovic.

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