Well, Nicholas Mahut carried on where he left off at Queens, beating the potentially tricky Noam Okun of Israel in straight sets.

Elswhere, Bracciali, who pushed Roddick hard a couple of years back, won his 1st round match. Vemic, who no-one on here has probably heard of (but who impressed me at Roland Garros - big serve-volleyer), won his 1st round match. Doubles specialist Moodie won a marathon 3rd set, 17-15 against Bhopanna of India.

For the Brits, James Ward lost, but James May won, Tom Rushby and David Brewer lost, Lee Childs (remember him?) beat Neil Bamford in the battle of the Brits, and Chris Eaton won.

George (I once beat Sampras at Wimbledon) Bastl beat Brian Wilson - presumably not the Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame, Gilles Muller won, the legendary Dick Norman won, along with Aussie stalwart Wayne Arthurs, Christophe Rochus won

I believe Mahut is on course to meet Weley Moodie if he gets through his next qualifier, who won an epic third set 19-17 against an indian player i've never heard of!

Moodie might be able to spoil things for nic, I hope not, it's awful on the part of the wimbledon committee that wildards seemed to be given out on early round performances at queens (Tsonga and Cilic would surely have had to qualify had they waited till the end of Queens)

If Mahut falls in qualifying then the qildcard committee ought to hang their heads, he may well have do quite a bit of damage in the wimby draw.

Sam, love the caption you've done to that picture signature!! But I think Boggo is your wrong target - what on earth is Jonny Marray doing with a wildcard - as entertaining as Marray is he's done nothing since that nice run at Queens 2 years ago.

Boggo's an easier target roflmao

I've liked Marray from a couple of years back when he nearly beat Hewitt at queens - shame nothing has happened since but hey...

thanks about my caption - just thought i'd do something in salute of his great showing at queens! :D

well to be fair, if he cant win a few qualy matches, then surely he doesnt deserve to be in the main draw :shrug:

Although he is probably shattered from last weeks efforts...

Dick Norman won first set 6-3, but down a break early in 2nd set to the wonderfully named Snobel...

Britain's Lee Childs is on serve in 1st set in his match against the Slovak player Cervanak, whilst Dick Norman is into a 3rd set against Snobel

Good news for the plentiful ranks of Lee Childs fans - your hero has gone 1 set up and has already broken Cervenak in 2nd set.

Dick Norman a break down in 3rd set - come on Dick, you're a legend! (he's about 36 or 37 and reached Wimbledon 4th round as qualifier a few years back).

Dick Norman lost : (

Good news for Mahut fans - his potential opponent in final round of qualifying, the dangerous Wesley Moodie is down a break 3-1 in his first set against Stadler of Germany.

Wayne Arthurs about to win his match.

Out of the Brits, Chris Eaton lost to Germany's number 14 seed, Mischa Zverev, James May is about to lose 1st set to Warburg of USA, and Lee Childs fans will be sweating...the Somerset legend is in a dogfight, at 3-3 now in 3rd set.

Ahh well, surprised Dick didn't do better on grass being so tall!

Lee Childs fans who are sweating on the result of his match yesterday can breathe easy...the Somerset legend squeezed through 12-10 against Slovak player Cervenak.

Lee Childs will play his final round qualifying match against Marco Crugnola of Italy today - hope Lee isn't too tired after that long 3rd set yesterday. A cursory glance of the draw suggests that Lee is the only British male left in qualifying...or am I mistaken?

It does look like Childs is last man standind, although all the 'better' players have got wildcards i guess. Also, having a quick look at the draw, I noticed that good ol' mahut isn't actually top seed - that honour goes to Patience - who i believe is the man who took Djoko to 5 sets at the FO (and who the commentators insisted on making every bad pun imagineable about). However, he went out in the second round........

Come on Mahut - it would be a travesty if you weren't at SW19... :pray:

Mahut will complete his 2nd round qualifier today - he's 2-0 up from the match he started against some Aussie bloke.

Fingers crossed for Lee Childs - he's probably Britain's last realistic hope of a qualifier reaching the main draw, as he's the last remaining British male in qualifiers, and the two remaining British ladies, Borwell and Fitzpatrick have tough matches against players ranked much higher than themselves today.

I think the qualifiers are always a good barometer of how well a country's 2nd-string players are doing and what their future potential is.

Can be - however a lot of second string players from other countries get straight into main draws! :o

Mahut vs. Moodie will be interesting

By the way Mr I, it's good to see you on here, you're always good to talk tennis with!

Are you playing any matches at the moment?

Hi Sam - cheers for that. Yes, I am playing matches...my doubles team are top of table with 8 out of 8 wins, 2 matches left, although both remaining fixtures are tricky and we have a weakened team for the next one against our main rivals!

How's your tennis doing these days?

As for Mahut v Moodie, Mahut (should he get through his 2nd round match) is not forced to be playing him. Moodie is at 4-3, on serve, in final set against Simon Stadler of Germany - that match could be another epic, and Moodie's not forced to win it.

Yeah am still playing, though doing just about as much coaching these days too!

Am playing in our clubs first team, but have quietly bailed out the 2nd a number of times too this season costhey want to go up!

1st team has 6 wins out of 7, i've won 20 rubbers out of 21 though so i've held up my end!
2nd team has won every match to my knowledge and I have won all the games i've been involved in. Also playing NCL matches, but results there have been very up and down, got a pasting on some clay courts in Swansea (they were very strong though), but have also managed to win our home matches so we'll probably consolidate there.

I'm set up in some schools with the pro coach at our club - usually assisting him so it's not a nightmare! Also help run sessions on our clubs coaching programmes on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays!



True, it's not a given we'll get Mahut-Moodie, as long as Mahut goes through i'm not too worried :D

News for the growing ranks of Mahut fans...he's up 6-4, 3-1 in 2nd set against Joseph Sirianni of Australia...

Good news for him is that his potential opponent for next round is in a dogfight - Moodie is serving at 5-4 down in 3rd set against Simon Stadler of Germany...

Mahut now one game away from the 3rd round of qualifiers, about to serve for match at 5-4.

If he closes this match, he won't have to play Moodie...Simon Stadler of Germany will be his opponent.

Wins elsewhere for Chilean Paul Capdeville (dislikeable character but has some nice shots) and Canadian Frank Dancevic (Viva will be pleased).

Bracciali is playing, and leading 4-1 in his first set against Pujol of Spain.

Also on court now is Dusan Vemic, a Serbian not heard of by many of you, but a player who has the game (big serve, nice volleys) to be a tricky opponent at Wimbledon, should he get through the qualifiers. Vemic up a break in first set.

Mahut just finished his match, a 6-4 6-4 win for him. He's winning his matches in straight sets, which bodes well for his energy levels for Wimbledon.

Lee Childs up 4-1 in 3rd set of his final qualifying match...looking good for some more British representation in the mens' singles at Wimbledon, and he fought through a tight match yesterday...so far so good Lee!

I liked Marray too. :D

I guess there are other targets than Boggo though, but having said that he's had 6 first round exits at SW19 so should he have another chance? :shrug: It is fair to focu son the Brits though because we need to give our own players a chance and they wont; get experience otherwise.

So looking at the foreign players, we have Cilic, Tsonga and de Bakker. Mahut shurely deserves it more than any of these guys. Cilic and Tsonga showed promise at Queens. Cilic has only just joined the tour I think and will have other chances in the future. What has de Bakker done cos I don't know him?

Good news. :ok: He's the main one I want to qualify this year. So deserved. :clap:

I can understand giving De bakker a WC. Last year's junior world champ, and the same goes with Pavyluchenkova who still is the world's top junior. I do think it's fair to give the top junior's the chance to mix with the best at Slam level.

Some British players are sitting cushy with WC's- again :rolleyes:

Honestly, people like Jonathan Marray etc, Sarah Borwell have been given far too many reprieves in the past. Qualifying and winning matches is surely the way for them to develop further, not by easy passages to the main draw.

I agree however that Mahut really should have the WC. Unfortunately, beaten by the cut-off point :(

I guess that's the problem. The final 2 WCs were given on Friday, so i guess the committee decided on Thursday. By that point, Tsonga had beaten Hewitt and Cilic had beaten Henman and Tsonga. Mahut had beaten Bjorkman, which, whilst good is not quite the :yikes: of someone beating Hewitt. Cilic might seem a bit of an odd choice, but he was the world junior number 1 in 2006 and was also not ranked that much lower than Mahut going in to Queens.

Yes, they could have given the WCs later, but at some point it becomes unfair to say 'yes, you have to play the qualies' - i'd guess players need to plan and things. Plus, Mahut may be a great grass court player, but before last week he'd never been past the quarters of Queens and had only played Wimbledon once as a senior.

I dunno, i just don't think it was necessarily an appalling decision by the WC committee - not their fault they can't see in to the future......

Thanks, I did not know who de Bakker was. I think it's fair then that he has a WC. I reckon they shoudl give one to Goran though. ;) roflmao

I knew you would demand a Goran WC roflmao

Havent you enough croations to drool over :lol:

No, none of them are as good looking as Goran dl. I like Kalrovic but Ljubicic, Ancic and Cilic arent; doign ti for me I'm afraid! roflmao

I want Pat Rafter to have a WC as well. :D

roflmao

Rafter played his last slam at the Aussie Open in 04 playing doubles....

You've missed him SB :lol:

I know dl, but I'm sure a few of the ladies on here (and possibly blokes) will agree that he deserves a wild card purely for eye candy purposes! roflmao

you shallow creature roflmao

i want Conchi martinez back! Not for the eye-candy mind though. She's hardly a glamour girl roflmao

I love Rafter's tennis too. I was gutted that either he or Goran had to lose that Wimby final. :( Thing is though, if Rafter is a littel rusty, he'll make up for that on the eye candy - that was my thought, honest! roflmao

Get him a WC and Conchita can have one as well. :D

Wildcards always generate a bit of controversy. Regarding Bogdanovic and Marray though, Boggo clearly deserves a wildcard more - he's ranked higher for a start, and has had good results on other surfaces - qualifying at US Open and a couple of ATP tournaments. Marray though, as enjoyable his style of tennis is, he really is a one-surface wonder who's career has been propped up by wildcards.

I didn't realise Boggo had 6 first round exits at Wimbledon, although to be fair he has faced Federer and Nadal in his last two outings at SW19.

Cilic, Tsonga and De Bakker are all worthy of their wildcards, although I am a little disappointed that Nicholas Kiefer wasn't awarded one - he has probably pushed Federer as hard as anyone at Wimbledon, but has slipped down the ranking due to injury problems - definitely deserved a wildcard in my opinion.

Mahut's run missed the cut-off point, so don't think you can blame the authorities too much. Hopefully he'll beat Simon Stadler in his final qualifier today.

As for the female (and male for that matter) fans of Rafter, Ivanisevic and co, Goran already plays the over 35s, and hopefully Rafter will too - his presence on that tour would really give it some fresh impetus.

Oh, and why is no-one else mentioning Lee Childs' fine win through qualifying - he's the sole British representative at Wimbledon to get through the tough route, and had a really tight match in 2nd round of qualifiers.

:clap:

I did notice that - just wondering, how old is he? has be been around a while?

Not sure how old Childs is, he's older than Bogdanovic but younger than the likes of Jamie Delgado and Arvind Parmar - is he 26 or something?

The growing army of Mahut fans note: the French serve-volleyer is playing his final qualifying match today against Simon Stadler of Germany.

BUT, they shouldn't even consider Queen's at all then...

how did this go? or has it not happened yet? I cant seem to keep up at the moment :(