colinflemingonline.myfreeforum.org

admin · Site Admin Joined: 23 Jun 2006 Posts: 88

From SW19 to Shelbourne:

After his rd1 doubles defeat at Wimbledon, Colin and Jamie Murray headed straight to Dublin for the Shelbourne Irish Open, a 50K Challenger which is one of the few tournaments in the world held on artificial grass. Colin is planning to play singles qualifying and main draw doubles with Jamie. Artificial grass is a very low bouncing, skiddy surface so it will suit Colin's attacking game. He'll try to get into the net as much as possible to minimise baseline rallies. Colin has been seeded no 2 in the qualifying and in rd1 he faces American Troy Hahn who's ranked 737. Although Hahn is ranked over 300 places lower than Colin this will be a tough match for him as Hahn is at his best on fast surfaces such as artificial grass and so far this year he's increased his ranking by several hundred places. Earlier this year he beat Jamie Murray in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. Having been concentrating entirely on doubles for the past week and a half, Colin will have to get back into singles mode quite quickly. Colin will face Hahn on Sunday morning and he's seeded to face Britain's Lee Childs in the final qualifying round which takes place on Monday.

admin · Site Admin Joined: 23 Jun 2006 Posts: 88

Rd1: C Fleming bt T Hahn [USA] 2-6, 6-4, 7-6[4]

Rd2: C Fleming bt B King [Ir] 6-2, 6-4

Colin moved through to the final qualifying round of the Dublin 50K Challenger with victories over American Troy Hahn and Ireland's Barry King. The match against Troy Hahn was the most testing, Colin was outplayed completely in the 1st set as he struggled to adjust to the conditions, losing it 6-2. Colin raised his level in the 2nd to take it 6-4 and levelled the match but Hahn kept fighting and pushed him away in a tight 3rd set in which both players had chances to close out the match. Colin's extra class eventually told at the business end of the tiebreak and he took it 7-4. Home favourite Barry King trains regularly on the courts used for this challenger but he's unranked and has never won a match in the main draw of a pro tournament. Colin eased past him 6-2, 6-4 to set up a match against compatriot Lee Childs for the 3rd time this year. Childs was very impressive in the 1st two qualifying rounds, whitewashing an unranked Canadian and defeating Italy's Claudio Grassi [wr:948], 6-3, 7-6. Childs won on clay in the Scottish Open in May but Colin won their most recent meeting a few weeks ago in the LTA Wimbledon wildcard playoff on grass, 7-6, 7-6.

admin · Site Admin Joined: 23 Jun 2006 Posts: 88

Qualifying round: C Fleming lost to L Childs [GB] 6-2, 6-7[5], 4-6

Colin will be rueing missed chances as Lee Childs' dogged counter-punching cost him a place in the Dublin Challenger main draw. Colin raced through the 1st set consistently proving to be an impregnable wall at the net and causing Childs all kinds of problems. However, in set 2 Childs began maintaining a more consistent length with his groundstrokes and making it harder for Colin to get into the net. Colin had chances to win it in 2 but instead it went to a breaker in which Childs played the better tennis on the big points and levelled the match. In set 3, Childs broke early and his big serving meant that Colin was unable to get back into the match. Colin is 1st in line for a lucky loser spot but there's only an outside chance of someone withdrawing from the main draw. Colin is still in action in the doubles with Jamie Murray, they're the 3rd seeds and they open their campaign on Tuesday evening against Irish wildcards Conor Niland and Kevin Sorensen.

admin · Site Admin Joined: 23 Jun 2006 Posts: 88

Lee Childs now leads Colin 3-2 on head-to-heads.

Lee won their 1st match in 3 sets in early 2005 and then in August 2005 Colin beat him on outdoor hard in straight sets in the GB 3 satellite. Lee Childs won a bad-tempered match 7-5, 6-1 on clay in the 2006 Scottish Open in May aided by some dreadful line calls and Colin won 7-5, 7-6 on grass in the Wimbledon wc playoff 3 weeks ago.

Colin and Jamie have a great chance of going far in the doubles this week, they're 3rd seeds and reaching the semis could see Colin's doubles ranking move up close to the top 200. Their rd1 opponents Niland and Sorensen are good singles players and will have home support but in doubles they shouldn't cause too many problems.