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Bronx 50k ChallengerQualifying rd1: J Baker v P Wessels [Hol][6]The qualifying draw has been made for the Bronx Challenger and Jamie has received a tough but not impossible task in order to reach the main draw. In rd1 he plays the sixth seeded Dutchman Peter Wessels, a former top 100 player [he reached 72 in the world in Feburary 2005] currently ranked 225. Wessels is a big server but his attacking serve-volley game is most effective indoors rather than on slow, outdoor hard courts. As a result, since April he's lost 8 of his last 9 matches. If Jamie gets past Wessels then he has the prospect of an easier match in the second round against either Gianluca Naso or Mark Clemente. Baker v Wessels is second on court 6 at around 16.00 GMT today so hopefully the result will be available tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. Jamie is joined in the qualies by fellow Brits, in form Josh Goodall, the resurgent Martin Lee and Arvind Parmar. Richard Bloomfield has made the main draw. |
| Niall |
That is tough looking qualifying draw, especially as this is just a 50K challenger, I guess that as there is a masters series tourny on a lot of players who would be spread arround 3 ATP qualifying events have entered challengers.
There are no byes for the seeds so everyone will have to play three tough matches for just 3 ranking points. All the British players will have to raise their game to get through. btw, why is there no poll option for Jamie to win the tournament? Lets have a bit more optimism on this board. 
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| Niall |
Bad news from the Bronx. 
Bizarrely Jamie won his first 10 games in this tournament but managed to win just 6 from 18 there after. q1: Baker bt Wessels 4-0 ret q2: Naso bt Baker 0-6 6-2 6-4 
Naso is another up and coming player but he roughly 80 places below Jamie and should have been beaten. Maybe Jamie got overconfident after winning the first set 6-0 but there are worse things than bageling an opponent. I thought Jamie had got back on track at Binghampton, now he will be looking to once again bounce back from disappointment. |
| admin |
Jamie had a really great stroke of luck in rd1 when Wessels arrived on court struggling with a stomach upset and had to retire after just 4 games, in no real shape to play tennis.
The loss to Naso was disappointing, I was looking forward to a Baker-Levy rd3 qualies match. Jamie was red-hot in the 1st set and cruised through, totally outplaying Naso who's a 19 year old leftie clay-court specialist [he reached no 19 in juniors last year and is rising fast through the rankings]. However, Naso's clay-court skills served him well in sets 2 and 3. He hits with tons of topspin, really pushing Jamie right back and opening the court up and Jamie made too many errors. Disappointing that no Brits actually qualified for this challenger. Next up is US Open qualies for Jamie or maybe ATP New Haven qualies. Jamie is currently no 31 on the alts list for the USO qualies. 3 of the Americans who've entered qualies are likely to get wildcards and Peter Wessels may also withdraw so that'll move Jamie up to no 27. However, it's going to be pretty unlikely that 27 more players will withdraw so Jamie's chances of getting into the qualies seem slim. I'm hoping he'll go for ATP New Haven qualies at the weekend. With most of the players in the 100-250 range playing USO qualies next week, the New Haven qualies draw will be pretty weak and Jamie should have a pretty good chance of getting through so hopefully he'll enter for that |
| Niall |
The qualifying draw has been published for New Haven and sadly Jamie isn't there. I think that is a real shame, Jamie definitely would have had a chance to qualify and that is the kind of thing that catches the attention.
He is currently 18th in line for USO qualies so that doesn't look promising either.
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