US open

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

Well the next grand slam is almost here so I thought I'd give you the run down on the british lads.

 

Tim Henman - Only won 1 game since his poor showing at Wimbledon and has lost to players with crap rankings since, Is seeded 12th as that's his position in the 52 week race but is 26th in the 2005 race. Last year he made the semi's here, an early exit will see his ranking plummet seriously as he'll lose all last seasons US Open points. He seems to of lost the fight and I predict another early exit.

 

Greg Rusedski - On the other hand has been in sparkling form, winning 13 of his last 16 on the american hard courts, his last two defeats have been narrow to Top 10 players (Agassi and Hewitt) and his ranking has sprung up 28 in the 2005 race and 30 on the 52 week race meaning he is seeded 28 in the draw which is pretty impressive as he almost didn't get entered into the US open last year. The seeding should see him through the first couple of rounds and then, with the luck of the draw (clay court specalist etc), he could make some waves in the latter stages of the tournment. Obviously I'll wait until the draw is made before commenting further.

 

Andy Murray - We all know about his rapid rise, he's risen about 190 places since Wimbledon, 122 in the 52 week race and 104 in the 2005 race, hasn't got a wild card as they've been given to yanks ranked about 700 in the world (I thought we stood shoulder to shoulder with our american brothers). Has also been in good form, beat Top 30 player Taylor Dent in Cincinnati and gave world number 7 Matin Safin a scare. Seedeed 15th in the qualifing tournment where he kicks off against world number 197 Sela who has won 2 of his last 3 challenger tournments. I predict Murray to fly through the qualifing and we'll take another look at him when the draw is made.

 

Of the other brits in qualifing:

David Sherwood has already gone out to 31st seed Sasa Tuksar

Johnathan Murray is up against 5th seed and world number 153 Thierry Ascoine who won his 2nd challenger event of the season in The Bronx last week, Murray (world number 197) on the other hand has gone out at the first stage in his last 6 tournments, I can only see this going one way!

Arvind Parmar beat Chadaj (world number 222) in the 1Q round and now meets Hugo Armando (world number 167) in the 2Q, Hugo has had a couple of games on the main tour recently but lost them while his last challenger event in San Marino saw him go out in the 1st round although he did beat 26th seed Calatrava. Parmar is currently 194 in the world and has reached 4 quarter finals in his last 6 tournments. I could see Parmer winning this

Mark Hilton (221) plays 25th seed Bennateau who is 100 in the world and has been a bit hit and miss in recent tournments (both challenger and main tour) going out in either 1st or 2nd rounds and has been as high as 61st in the world this year, i predict that he will adress his recent indifferenet form with a win over Hilton who has gone out in the 1st round of his last 4 tournments.

Alex Bogdanovic has already lost to number 32 seed Amer Delic.

 

Obviously I can't see past Federer <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[gertcha EFM]

Excellent preview mate. Good work.

 

I take it you are not concerned about Greg pulling out of the warm up tournament due to being tired.

 

Is the guy from Harpenden playing ?

 

What about Mello ? Did he not even qualify despite his great result at Wimbeldon ?

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

Greg has pulled out with fatique, it's a good idea as he's got a seeding now there isn't much point in risking himself, I'm not bothered hardly any of the top players are playing this week.

 

The guy from Harpended isn't playing

 

Mello is 84th in the world therefore automatically qualifies, the last direct entry was about 99.

[gertcha EFM]

Quote:

EFM The Firm, The Voice said:
Greg has pulled out with fatique,

Blimey, haven't heard of that before. Is it serious? sounds like a strange ailment to me.

How come the guy from Harpenden isn't playing, was he a wild card entry into Wimbeldon because it's an English tournament ?

Good news about Mello being in.

[Electric ~soul~]

Thornsy.

 

What's the thinking behind the men only playing three sets up until the quarter-finals this year instead of five?

 

Surely not because of the threat of bad weather??

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

Read Fatique read just wants a rest.

 

Most associations give their own players wild card entries hence the dozen or so first round losers at Wimbledon, the US Open has all US wild cards (apart from previous top ranked players like Phillapousis who got one) hence why Murray and Harpenden guy haven't got wild cards.

And you know as well as I do that he didn't play Wimbledon

 

Glad your such a Mello fan, let's hope he can get past round 1.

 

Zeal, that is a load of codswallop!

 

Draw is made later today!

[Electric ~soul~]

Wasn't Fatique one of the geezers on Saddam's cabinet?

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

Yeah, did he support Arsenal as well.

 

They should ban Arsenal on the grounds of world peace

[Electric ~soul~]

No need to ban them anymore. Can't see them winning a great deal over the next five years or so, now that they've offloaded their best player without securing a replacement, upset their star striker in the process, and their big gay centre-back is on the verge of a breakdown.

 

And Wenger will fk off to Barcelona in the next couple of years too.

 

I hope they employ Terry Neill or Bruce Rioch again!!

[gertcha EFM]

Spot on again CZ !

[Electric ~soul~]

There are some of us here who know their football mate, and we're two of them!

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

Wouldn't quite go that far as gertcha has told me before that Kanoute was crap so guess if two people do know their stuff than it may not be the two you think. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

 

Although I do also agree with CZ <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Electric ~soul~]

I'm sure if Gertcha thought that Kanoute was crap, he'd have mentioned it on the Kanoute thread, mate!

[gertcha EFM]

I've never even commented on him. Especially not to you Thornsy. Where do you get this from ?

 

I totally agree with Paul's assesment of him.

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

gertcha likes to keep out of things and tends to agree with the person he's sitting next to at the time.

Maybe his assessement of him fluctuates, it can happen!

[gertcha EFM]

I very rarely agree with you though.

 

St.Albans midfield can pass it better than Gerrard and Lampard. Fk off.

[Electric ~soul~]

Haha, is that what's been said!!?

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

What I actually said was St.Albans midfield was passing it better on Tuesday night than England were on Wednesday and as I watched both games I was in a position to comment.

Obviously I wasn't suggesting that St.Albans would pass better against Denmark or that Gerrard and Lampard would struggle against Cambridge City, try and see the statement in context please!

[gertcha EFM]

Yeah at Denmark.

 

Apparently St.Albans midfield were far superior in their 2-4 defeat against Cambridge. The midfield passed it around much better than Gerrard and Lampard were doing. He was saying this in the first half when it was 0-0.

 

Shows he doesn't watch much decent football, as apart from Cockers I've not seen anyone down the Park spray the ball about accuratley like Gerrard can.

[gertcha EFM]

Had he said it about Glenn Johnson I'd have agreed.