alexbogdanovic.myfreeforum.org

Catriona · Joined: 23 Jun 2008 Posts: 18 Location: Glasgow, Scotland

This will be my first time at DC & I'm really excited. It being held in my hometown of Glasgow is very useful - not too far between my house & Braehead Arena. Will Alex be taking part or has it not been decided yet?

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Catriona x

Jac · Site Admin Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 114

99% alex wont be there.

the team will be andy, then 1 of eiither jamie murray or ross hutchins, depending on who lloyd feels does best over the nest few weeks.

for the last 2 spots lloyd will be holidng a mini tournament for the following players:
baker, ward, evans, goodall, slabba, flemming. i think playing 3 best of 5 sets matches each, and he will choose the other 2 on that basis. Alex wasnt invited to take part - probably cause he'd have a high chance of winning and lloyd wants to give others a go.

i dont think it is a bad thing really, at least alex can focus on his singles. he would also probably have been forced to miss at least 1 and probably 2 indoor challengers he would be seeded at to take part.

Catriona · Joined: 23 Jun 2008 Posts: 18 Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Oh, okay. Well, if it's for the best, fine, but I must admit I'm quite disappointed. Alex has played at the last few, & now I'm actually getting to go, he won't be there! Just my luck. I'd have liked to see him play Sad

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Catriona x

LadyTigress · Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 5 Location: London

It's a shame you won't get to see Alex play. I enjoyed seeing him play at the last DC. His talent really came through, and he kept a level head even when Melzer cranked it up a notch and started winning - Boggo didn't just collapse like some players do. Also I noted Alex has a very interesting style of serve, it's difficult to describe, and I've not seen any other players with quite the same service motion.

Jac · Site Admin Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 114

Sorry you wont get to see him play Cat, his style is normally enjoyable to watch. Hopefully him missing this tie will be for the best in the long run though and he will play DC again. i like wtching DC as its too rare that i get to see him play live either.

i am sure you will get to see some good play tho, with Andy there i expect the atmosphere will be great. It will also be nice to see some of the other, less well known brits whose matches would hardly have been on TV in the past.

As for his serve, yes its quite unique, some say similar to Ivanisovic's. It can get him free points, but once the opponent figures it i dont think he mixes it up enough.

doubtingthom · Joined: 05 Mar 2009 Posts: 1 Location: London

Hi am new to the boards but a big fan of what i've seen of Alex. I thought the way he was treated last year by Lloyd and the rest of the team was disgusting and that it's obvious that the UK needs to do more to support the players they have in more ways than just money. He was hitting some wonderful shots there and obviously has the ability.

As it's quite likely that the GB team will loose without Murray it's good that Alex isn't there to be made a scapegoat for the lack of UK competitors. Hopefully he can focus on doing his own thing, improving his ranking and enjoying his tennis.

Matt

Jac · Site Admin Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 114

Hi Matt, welcome to the site.

I certianly agree that it would be nice if Lloyd and LTA defended their players, especially Alex, in public better. Unfortunately from what i can gather there seems to be a blame culture in British tennis at the moment.

i hope team GB can put on a good show this weekend, i have a horrible feeling that regardless of the outcome of either a GB win or lose the media will try and find a negative light to put Alex in. Perhaps if we win saying we should have done away with him ages ago, or if we lose by saying that its his fault for not being mentally tough enough and forcing less talented players to play.

Anyway hopefully Cat will have a good time, even if the line up is drastically different to the one she expected when she bought the tickets Smile

Jac

Catriona · Joined: 23 Jun 2008 Posts: 18 Location: Glasgow, Scotland

You got that right, Jac, it definitely isn't what I expected! Apart from Alex, I wouldn't know any of the British team members if I fell over them, so it'll be good for me to see more of them. Ironic that my friend & I got our tickets for the players' box off Andy Murray's website & now he won't even BE there. At least we've got Colin Fleming on the team, so there IS actually going to be a Scot playing in his homeland, lol. But anyway, I'm REALLY looking forward to it, my second live tournament, & in my home town too. I think the GB team (& the Ukrainians of course) are in for a bit of a shock when they hear just how loud a Glaswegian crowd can be!!!

I hope Alex returns to the team sometime in the future, I really would love to see him play some day. I'm actually more disappointed that he won't be there than I am about Andy missing out - I've seen Andy before & obviously will do again, but I don't get many chances to see Alex & this would have been ideal. We were hoping that those who weren't playing this time round might come & watch, but sadly not. Oh well, c'est la vie. Go Team GB!
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Catriona x

Jono · Joined: 05 Oct 2006 Posts: 130 Location: Surbiton

As John Lloyd says,only Andy Murray can save Britain. We have no British men even close to his standard yet. Boggo has tons more work to do to even get close to Gilbert's top 40 prediction.

Catriona · Joined: 23 Jun 2008 Posts: 18 Location: Glasgow, Scotland

But what a weekend it has been! I don't know when I last enjoyed myself so much. According to people who've been responding to my friend's blog, we were on TV a few times - I think that's cos the group we went with ended up waving several interesting banners. I met all the team members - if I'm honest I'd only heard of any of them by name, but Josh, Ross, Chris, Colin & James were all such LOVELY guys, always willing to say hi (as my friend & I were always down at the court when the gates opened, we had plenty of time to chat with them, which was cool), sign autographs or have a picture taken. What a contrast to our visitors - they looked PERMANENTLY miserable, even when they won matches. They did come out into the crowd on this final day along with the GB team before play started to sign autographs, but they never said a word, just kind of grunted. I bet we have the nicest DC team in the world (and I'm including Alex, Andy & Jamie here too, as the team itself is so changeable), & they're ALL - repeat, ALL - rather nice-looking too! Wink

Right, back to serious stuff. Okay, we lost the tie, but personally I think the media grossly exaggerated everything, esp just by focusing on Andy all the time. Yes, we may not WIN without Andy, fine. But the matches themselves were all brilliant. We fought really hard, nothing to be ashamed of, on some occasions it could have gone either way. I remember hearing Josh Goodall being described as 'nervous & unfocused' in his match, which is tripe, & that the Ukrainians 'dominated' us in every match. Were these people THERE? Did they SEE the matches & the scores? We may have lost, but we put up one helluva fight! And WE WON THE FINAL MATCH!!! Chris Eaton is officially my new god, I don't think I've ever felt so excited in my life as I did during his match today. That was certainly, as the MC man said, ending the weekend on a high.

Anyway, like my subject says, it's all over, but it's been one of the most fantastic weekends of my life. Can't believe I've got to get back to the dull world of coursework after such a wonderful time. But I now can't wait till the next one against Poland in September - I'll be first in line for tickets!

Remembering what forum I'm on, I'll just say now that I hope Alex is there either in September or one of the next few - he's still near the top of my list of people to meet! Smile

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Catriona x