Vandenbogaerde/Davies - Clearly didn't think Mario was an overwhelming favourite or anything like that, and Davies clearly had chances, but that was a pretty darned poor showing, only coming close in two sets? With your tour card on the line? Sure, as things have transpired he only needs a double to retain but that's probably the most important match he's had for two years and he was not close in it.
Gilding/Crabtree - Really expected a lot more from Cam here. Sure, not necessarily a get the win sort of performance, but conceding the first six legs basically kills the game.
Woodhouse/Krcmar - This looked like a fairly solid display from Luke in one that could have got twitchy with a very solid opponent taking the opening set, but very steady stuff from there saw him safely through.
Anderson/Hunt - This was weird. Hunt kept this one a lot closer than it really should have been, and if I remember the gameflow right, he was in position to actually win the match. Gary came through, but that was a lot less comfortable than it really should have been.
de Graaf/Lim - This one was really great to see, and it looked to be mainly Paul bringing it rather than Jeffrey throwing it away. Big story and real happy to see this one happen - not least because I bet on Lim.
Nijman/Sedlacek - Mentioned this was a tough draw for both pre. Maybe Karel could have got a bit closer on some of the sets, but Nijman did more than well enough to keep him at arms length with one of the better showings so far.
Humphries/Evetts - Another one that can go in the dull matches pile, Luke really not being touched at all, before Ted played OK for a set, only for Luke to finish it off in the fourth. Not much to say here.
Clemens/Spellman - This was very disappointing from Alex. He's a good player and this looked like a more than reasonable draw, but to win just the single leg is really quite a shame. Not as if Clemens was blowing him away, seven of nine won legs were in more than five visits so the game was open for Spellman.
Edhouse/Tata - Think most people had identified Edhouse as a seed that might be in danger early, and Tata as someone competent enough that he could cause problems, but I don't think anyone was really seeing a straight sets win for Jonny. Not a bad showing.
Taylor/Lukasiak - Straight forward win for Dom here, dropping just the one leg. Very good showing, Oskar's probably a bit overrated, but Taylor's really very good so to get through this easily ought not to be that much of a surprise.
Veenstra/Kumar - Now this is the shocking one. This is very much being opportunistic - Veenstra was averaging a fair chunk more and the two sets he won were very comprehensive. That said, Nitin came through when it mattered so fair play to him for getting this result after years of trying. Nice job.
Cullen/Brooks - Another one that was disappointing. Joe just doing his usual thing of deciding to show up at the worlds after doing not a great deal all year. Brooks missed a couple of chances but looked a bit below what he had been doing and should have had more than a couple of chances in all honesty. Thankfully I tempered my suggested betting size on this one.
Wenig/Plaisier - Lukas did well to pull this one back to some degree, could have run a bit out of control after Wesley won the first set to love, but couldn't get the key leg in the third set to really make things interesting.
van den Bergh/Beveridge - God knows what's up with Dimitri. I didn't have high expectations, but that was below even what I thought he might have been able to do. An absolute gift for Darren.
Bunting/Bialecki - Oh wait, we've got tiebreakers in the first round. Nice of someone to mention this rule change. Of course, this shouldn't have been anywhere near a tie breaker with Bunting two sets up and Bialecki not exactly tearing things up either, but Stephen will move on. Just about.
Hurrell/Buntz - Had a small flier on Stowe in this one. Think he was slightly unfortunate here, he had the chances to take this to a deciding set but Hurrell had just about enough.
Betting is going OK, as long as Brendan clears up this fourth set, got a few moderate sized bets in play today, Manby winning would put us in a really good spot so let's see what happens there.
No comments:
Post a Comment