[scotthongkong]

Maybe injured Azza?

[Matchu]

Carsten is playing in an American challenger this week in Illinois and has drawn number 1 seed Vince Spadea in round 1. Good test for Carsten here and a big oppurtunity with nothing to lose against him.

[Consigliere]

Carsten sends Vinny packing 6-4, 3-6, 7-6.

[save ausdecline]

wow

[azza]

woah good win there! well done

[scotthongkong]

Great win there from Carsten. Be great if he could go and win the thing now.

[Matchu]

Yeah very impressive win against an experienced player in Spadea. It would be great for Carsten to pick up his first challenger title here. It would be hard to see how Carsten would not get given main draw wildcards into Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne given his impressive performances this year.

From next week until March he has no point to defend so I hope that his ranking rises and he can get inside the top 100 by March next year.

[Consigliere]

I could've sworn this guy played Davis Cup for Australia a few months ago yet not one article, interview, or mere mention in the press about his summer aims.

[jmf07]

Does anyone know what he is up to? He was on the entry list for the Dallas Challenger but is not in the main draw.

[Matchu]

Originally Posted by jmf07

Does anyone know what he is up to? He was on the entry list for the Dallas Challenger but is not in the main draw.

Very confusing choice by Carsten, he has entered a future tournament in New Zealand that starts in two weeks. I do not understand why he is not playing the Asian challengers. Maybe he just needs some confidence and feels he can gain that confidence through a futures victory. He will be number 1 seed and favorite by a considerable margin as the next highest ranked player to enter this future is ranked 338.

God I hope he wins this future and gets his ass back to the states to play challengers. I'm sick of these guys playing futures.

[scotthongkong]

Rameez Junaid is playing in New Zealand as well. Some very strong players there.

[Matchu]

Carsten has again teamed up with Guccione to pull off a great victory in Davis Cup. Straight sets victory over the Ratiwatana brothers is no small feat. Carsten has also kept his undefeated Davis Cup record intact. I really want him to do a lot better in singles though so he can get to the ATP level and stay there.

[scotthongkong]

and then lost in the first round of the doubles in a 15k NZ Challenger!

[Matchu]

Well although it was strange scheduling it seemed to have worked for Carsten as he picked up his fourth future title this week in Hamilton, NZ. Heads to Wellington next and would be great if he could pick up two future tournament victories before he heads back to the US to start playing some challengers again (finally!).

None the less Carsten got 5 match victories in a row with only dropping one set, so a nice week for Carsten.

[OZTENNIS]

Wonder if he will trek to Europe and play some red clay challengers...It would be good experience and thus leads into FO quallies...