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Nottingham 25K+H ChallengerEntry list:
1 Pless, Kristian DEN 109
2 Galvani, Stefano ITA 114
3 Economidis, Konstantinos GRE 122
4 Carlsen, Kenneth DEN 124
5 Waske, Alexander GER 126
6 Bogdanovic, Alex GBR 146
7 Lu, Yen-Hsun TPE 148
8 Cakl, Tomas CZE 161
9 Lorenzi, Paolo ITA 168
10 Mertl, Jan CZE 187
11 Vico, Uros ITA 196
12 Cipolla, Flavio ITA 200
13 Lacko, Lukas SVK 204
14 Carraz, Gregory FRA 207
15 Elseneer, Gilles BEL 220
16 Vagnozzi, Simone ITA 209
17 Lee, Martin GBR 221
18 Snobel, Pavel CZE 222
19 Bloomfield, Richard GBR 224
20 Tourte, Nicolas FRA 226
21 Stoppini, Andrea ITA 228
22 Robert, Stephane FRA 229
23 (SE)
24 (SE)
25 (WC)
26 (WC)
27 (WC)
28 (WC)
29 (Q)
30 (Q)
31 (Q)
32 (Q)
Alternates
1. Schukin, Yuri RUS 238
2. Galimberti, Giorgio ITA 243
3. Adaktusson, Jacob SWE 244
4. Prpic, Filip SWE 245
5. Ionita, Victor ROM 253
6. Goodall, Joshua GBR 254
7. Zitko, Radim CZE 255
8. Parmar, Arvind GBR 261
9. Santos-Gonzalez, Pablo ESP 267
10. Summerer, Tobias GER 268
11. Pequery, Jean-Michel FRA 270
12. Vacek, Jan CZE 277
13. Przysiezny, Michal POL 280
14. Rehnquist, Bjorn SWE 281
15. Masik, Jan CZE 292
16. Rojer, Jean-Julien AHO 293
17. Navratil, Michal CZE 295
18. Uebel, Lars GER 296
19. Chadaj, Adam POL 298
20. Chardy, Jeremy FRA 299
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admin
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A pretty strong entry list here, considering it's only a 25K, I thought Alex would be in the top 3.
Of the guys ranked above him, he's never played Galvani, Economdis or Carlsen. He's played Pless twice before, he lost in Southampton last year but beat him on the way to winning Wrexham earlier this year.
He's played Waske twice, both times indoors, and beaten him twice in straight sets.
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Jono
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I would agree a tough one for 25K but must look for a semi plus result.
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Arka
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Alex will be the second seed out here, so he'll go in there with a lot of hope.
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admin
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Main draw:
Kristian Pless DEN [1] vs. Tobias Summerer GER
Qualifier vs. Martin Lee GBR
Stéphane Robert FRA vs. Flavio Cipolla ITA
Qualifier vs. Yen-Hsun Lu TPE [6]
Konstantinos Economidis GRE [3] vs. Tim Hewitt GBR [WC]
Pavel Snobel CZE vs. Grégory Carraz FRA
Jamie Delgado GBR [WC] vs. Nicolas Tourte FRA
Jonathan Marray GBR [WC] vs. Kenneth Carlsen DEN [5]
Jan Mertl CZE [7] vs. Simone Vagnozzi ITA
Jan Masik CZE vs. Richard Bloomfield GBR
Filip Prpic SWE vs. Qualifier
Qualifier vs. Alexander Waske GER [4]
Uros Vico ITA [8] vs. Alan Mackin GBR
Ross Hutchins GBR [WC] vs. Jan Vacek CZE
Joshua Goodall GBR vs. Andrea Stoppini ITA
Lukas Lacko SVK vs. Alex Bogdanovic GBR [2]
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admin
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Alex's rd1 opponent is 19 year old Slovenian clay-court specialist Lukas Lacko. Lacko reached a high of no 3 in the juniors in 2005, making the semis of the French Open juniors that year. Since then, he's been concentrating on his senior ranking, currently at 232 with a career best of 204 reached earlier in October. So far in 2006, he's reached 3 futures finals and a challenger final in Binghampton plus the quarters of the Bronx challenger. He hasn't had the best of indoor seasons so far, losing in rd1 of Grenoble, Mons qualifying, Rennes [to Richard Bloomfield in 3 sets] and in rd2 of Kolding last week to 2nd seed Kristian Pless though Lacko pushed him to 3 sets.
Lacko has a decent serve but he doesn't particularly have big weapons from the baseline. He troubles opponents with his intensity and shot placement rather than raw power.
It's a good opportunity for Alex to reach a challenger final but it certainly won't be easy. If he gets past Lacko, Goodall or Stoppini await in rd2. Goodall is a very big hitter and is one of Britain's most improved players this year, raising his ranking by around 200 places in the 2nd half of this year. Stoppini beat Alex in straight sets in Orleans in September.
Good luck to all the Brits this week, Tim Hewitt is the national U18 champion but has a very, very tough draw. I reckon Marray, Mackin and Bloomfield will cause quite a few upsets here.
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admin
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Alex lost 4-6, 6-3, 7-6[5] to Lacko.
This was a match which Alex really should have won but he was unable to produce his best tennis throughout. In the early stages, it became clear that Alex was the better player but his timing was off. In particular, his cross-court backhand was causing him problems, he kept pulling the shot and in the end started running round his backhand a lot. He took his first break point opportunity when leading 5-4 in the 1st set to break Lacko in 30. However, in set 2 he seemed very flat. He was broken at 3-3, Lacko held to love and then Alex was broken again to lose the 2nd 6-3. In the 3rd set, Alex saved 3 break points early on and hung in there to get to a tiebreak. Minibreaks were exchanged and it looked as though Alex had struck the decisive blow when he took 2 points on the Lacko serve from 3-4 down to lead 5-4. Unfortunately Lacko got the minibreak straight back and crucially, Alex double-faulted at 5-5 to hand Lacko match point which he took.
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admin
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It was a disappointing defeat but Alex was nowhere near his best. He was a little lucky to win the first set, capitalising on his 1st and only break point and from there onwards he was just hanging in the match, saving a lot of break points at the start of the 3rd set.
Lacko surprisingly caused quite a few problems for the British players this week, beating Josh Goodall in 3 sets in rd2 and was a few points away from victory against in-form Alan Mackin in the quarters but Mackin recovered from 3-5 down in the 3rd set to win it 7-5, hitting a string of winners to get himself out of trouble.
I was surprised as having seen Lacko in action before; he's got a decent serve and works the rallies well, manouvering opponents round the baseline and using the angles; but he doesn't have any really big weapons from the back of the court.
Alex could have been feeling the pressure this week as due to recent form everyone was expecting him to win the tournament and at challenger level there are no easy matches. Also, being back in Britain means that there were other off court distractions as Alex is getting ready to move to the USA at the end of November. Overseas he can just concentrate on the tennis
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