sam whitaker hands ben carter a bagel and his last shred of dignity
Ben Carter didn't so much beat Sam Whitaker as file him away, 6-2, 6-0, in a match that felt like a training drill with an unusually sad cone. That makes it three out of three in their head-to-head. Sam has now found three different ways to lose to the same man, and his footwork looked like it was still stuck in traffic. The second set was a bagel served piping hot.
Sam stays rooted to the bottom: 2 points, zero wins from 7. Ben climbs to 7 points, level with Tom Fletcher, who already beat him this season, so a rematch smells like revenge. Aisha Rahman (3 points) is next in line for a debut against Ben. Lukas Horvat, on 19 points, is in another postcode entirely.