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Ben Mitchell's Banana Party

118K views 862 replies 61 participants last post by  Sombrerero loco 
#1 ·
:banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:



:banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:

Ben is through to the final of the Under 18's Championships this week, where he plays Jason Kubler in the final tomorrow.


RR: def Jonathon Cooper (NSW) 6-3 6-1
RR: def Alex Sanders (QLD) 6-4 6-3
RR: def Maverick Banes (QLD) 6-3 6-3
QF: def Joey Swaysland (NSW) 6-2 7-6(3)
SF: def Sean Berman (VIC) 6-4 7-6(4)

Hopefully he can win tomorrow and guarantee his place in the AO WC Playoff.

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#470 ·
Well done Ben. Congratulations.
Now we'll all be praying for the draw Gods to look kindly upon you...

Merry Christmas and a great start to the New Year.
 
#472 ·
I thought Duckworth was the favourite after his win here last time but I guess it is almost a home tournament for Ben and Duckworth will get a WC in Sydney plus the WC playoff works in Ben's favour. Hopefully he puts in a competitive showing.
 
#480 ·
Brisbane R1: Baghdatis def Mitchell 64 64

I'll just repost what I said in GM...

I really was impressed by Mitchell. He kept with Baghdatis mostly, even had 4 BPs to go up 46 *31 but some good serving got Baghdatis out of trouble, then Mitchell hurt his back at 46 43* but played the match out. Hopefully he's okay for the rest of the summer.

Mitchell's serve is a big strength, it's a very simple motion and generates speeds upwards of 200km/h regularly. Places it well, too. He got plenty of free points when the first serve went in, I didn't see the stats but he appeared to get a good amount of first serves in. His second serve is okay, but needs to place it a lot better.

BH is very reliable, generates good pace and gets good depth and angle. Absorbed pace really well off it aswell, unlike his FH - which is obviously his biggest weakness. I'm surprised Baghdatis didn't go there more than what he did. When he's got time on the FH he hits it well but when Baghdatis drilled it with any sort of depth and/or pace the reply was weak. He didn't miss a great deal of them, but he just can't deflect pace very well off that side at all, and the reply was regularly very short and lacking any pace. It was probably the deciding factor of the match.

Mitchell looks extremely fit and is SUPER fast. And I mean that. Like, Gael Monfils type athletic. VERY VERY VERY VERY FAST! Which is good. Kept him in a lot of points. He seems to have a bit of court sense about him as well. Any time he'd hit a good CC BH and saw Baghdatis would have to slice he was in at the net to put it away, which was great to see in a junior.

All in all, I was surprised how well Mitchell matched it with Baghdatis, there was only 2 breaks in it, and one of those came after he hurt his back, and he had his chances so good effort from him.

Also, Daria Gavrilova, Luke Saville, Nick Kyrgios and James Duckworth were all in Ben's player box :)
:banana::banana::banana:

He was looking delicious, btw. :hearts:
 
#481 ·
I must confess I had a very quiet NYE and found myself watching this match last night and I wasn't even drunk. It was good to see Ben play so well but he needs to make sure he replicates these sort of efforts in the Challengers. He was unlucky with the timing of the injury in the second set.
 
#482 ·
Mitchell's tennis really looked impressive in that match. He moved very well and had good court awareness, good shot selection and cranked his serve. Should carry him a lot further in his career.
 
#496 ·
Ben will play fellow Australian Greg Jones in the first round at the Kyoto challenger event.
 
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