Heather first brit to be seeded at the Aegon Classic for 20 years apparently...

adz1983 · Intermediate Club Player

Heather first brit to be seeded at the Aegon Classic for 20 years apparently...

steven · Tennis legend

You have to wonder why, when they've got Mike Dickson & Alex Kay, they let people with apparently no tennis knowledge whatsoever loose on these stories.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Yes because of the 64 draw, we have 16 seeds 8 of which get byes, so anybody generally inside the top 60 gets seeded.

blob · All-time great

I think too much has been made of the "into the top 40" thing.
There is a very common and simple misunderstanding here, but more presciently, the terms into and inside are colloquially interchangeable.
It is arguable that 'inside [or into] the top 40' has a perfectly valid interpretation of '39 or better', that 'in the top 40' more probably doesn't; both in fact and certainly the common understanding.
Things become become especially muddy if some iteration of Chinese Whispers is applied to the language before it is used.

None of which is to say that I don't agree with the general point that the standard of fact checking and proofing in all journalism has declined, and continues to do so. Many papers scarcely seem to employ subs at all any more, with the task now falling to unpaid interns at some departments of at least 2 major British papers [source Private Eye].

Addition: I also agree about the neglect for Bally & Anne's fine careers, and to a lesser degree the lack of acknowledgement for what Katie O'Brien & Mel South acheived and how that helped spur the others on.

-- Edited by blob on Saturday 9th of March 2013 05:56:21 PM

PaulM · Tennis legend

korriban wrote:
In world tennis terms what achievements have they to boast about? Yes they have been GB #1s. Yes, they have represented GB a lot. Yes they made top 50......just. Have they won WTA tournaments or reached finals. Have they done damage at Slams over the last 10 years. Have they beaten big name players a lot over these 10 years? Did they ever win junior slams? have they won doubles titles or Olympic medals?
I like both players very much, they are positive and entusiastic and are solid pros. But if the press doesnt list their achievements alongside Laura and Heather, well, its not unreasonable and hardly disrespectful. Its reality. And they have had many more years to boost their CVs.
Sorry! Im with the press on this one

Bally has done much more damage in Slams and beaten more top 10/20 players than Heather. Although hopefully Hev will change that in years to come.

Annes breakthrough raised the bar, on and off the court. She is directly responsible for the increased level of professionalism both by players and support staff. She would have achieved more if it wasn't for Stanford and her second ACL tear.

Anne started the revolution in British womens tennis which we are now enjoying. Without her and Bally there would be no Hev and Laura because the structure to support world class athletes wouldn't be there. It'd be like what it was 10 years ago when bumbling old Keith Woolridge was in charge. Laura and Hev had had targets and role models and a system in place to properly support and help bring them through irrespective of where they were based.

Both Laura and Hev has said how they looked up to Anne and Bally, saw how hard they were working, and saw what they needed to do to be as good and better.

whilst Laura and Hev will/already are more successful, to not acknowledge the work Anne in particular did to lay the groundwork for womens tennis being taken seriously in the UK shows a lack of understanding of the game in this country. When Anne started to succeed there was much overhaul in the game to be able to support her properly -people and roles and responsibilities.

So I'm sorry, but I cannot and will not ever agree with you on this one. To assign Anne and Bally as a footnote, or worse forget about them altogether, is a disgrace. What they have done for tennis in the UK on the girls side is huge.

-- Edited by PaulM on Saturday 9th of March 2013 06:13:33 PM

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Love this stuff, always amuses me and makes me wonder what other s**t the media put out that the less clued up of us believe.

steven · Tennis legend

David Law repeated this on the Tennis Podcast this week, so it's not even only the less clued up who believe it. Then of course there was the Heather breaking into the top 40 for the first time thing recently that lots of people who should have known better repeated when it wasn't her first time in the top 40 at all.

PaulM · Tennis legend

To be frank, the media in this country are determined to wipe/ignore every achievement of Bally and Anne.

Total lack of respect is shown to those two.

Miriambee · Futures level

I hope Anne and Bally decide to write and tell the Mail they've got their facts wrong!

korriban · Challenger level

In world tennis terms what achievements have they to boast about? Yes they have been GB #1s. Yes, they have represented GB a lot. Yes they made top 50......just. Have they won WTA tournaments or reached finals. Have they done damage at Slams over the last 10 years. Have they beaten big name players a lot over these 10 years? Did they ever win junior slams? have they won doubles titles or Olympic medals?

I like both players very much, they are positive and entusiastic and are solid pros. But if the press doesnt list their achievements alongside Laura and Heather, well, its not unreasonable and hardly disrespectful. Its reality. And they have had many more years to boost their CVs.

Sorry! Im with the press on this one

blob · All-time great

korriban wrote:
In world tennis terms what achievements have they to boast about? Yes they have been GB #1s. Yes, they have represented GB a lot. Yes they made top 50......just. Have they won WTA tournaments or reached finals. Have they done damage at Slams over the last 10 years. Have they beaten big name players a lot over these 10 years? Did they ever win junior slams? have they won doubles titles or Olympic medals?
I like both players very much, they are positive and entusiastic and are solid pros. But if the press doesnt list their achievements alongside Laura and Heather, well, its not unreasonable and hardly disrespectful. Its reality. And they have had many more years to boost their CVs.
Sorry! Im with the press on this one

Well, yes, if you widen the scope enough, it obviously becomes insignificant. In the course of human history what relevance is Roger Federer's achivements - what contribution does the sum total of all tennis matches ever played give?

But, as British sports press, dealing with British players, the best for a generation, I find them neglectful. Especially as the space that could ahve been spent - just once - on them probably was filled with the transfer rumours of Burton Albion - or similar, you get the point!

Peter too · Tennis legend

I remember back in 2007 there were 5 girls in the top 200 fighting to be the first to break into the top 100. The general view on blogs at the time was that none of them would make it and it would be another 10 years before we had a top 100 player. I said I thought we would have a top 100 player by the end of Wimbledon 2008, however the one of the 5 I expected to be first was the only one who never made it - Naomi Cavaday. The final breakthrough came when Anne won the $50K in Jounieh, Lebanon despite having a civil war in progress all round her and having to make a dash for the border after the tournament ended. After smashing through that psychological barrier she was followed by Bally, Katie, Mel, Heather and Laura.

korriban · Challenger level

Fair enough Paul and Blob, fair enough. But you are talking more about their impact OFF the court and as role models, which I don't dispute. You could argue that Judy Murray has a similar impact - possibly bigger. And I agree that journalists are often ill informed or fit a story to their own agenda. Im really focussing on actual success on the court or potential to achieve at the highest level.......(trophies, big wins, major scalps) and with respect, that's probably the only thing that interests journalists, their readers and the general public (beyond the tennis nerds like us).

I think Anne and Bally deserve huge respect, but the journalists focus on Laura and Heather because they are young and could be GREAT, rather than just quite good.

steven · Tennis legend

blob wrote:
I think too much has been made of the "into the top 40" thing.
There is a very common and simple misunderstanding here, but more presciently, the terms into and inside are colloquially interchangeable.
It is arguable that 'inside [or into] the top 40' has a perfectly valid interpretation of '39 or better', that 'in the top 40' more probably doesn't; both in fact and certainly the common understanding.

I don't think it is arguable at all - saying that 40th isn't "in" or "inside" the top 40 makes no sense at all (would anyone say you had to be ranked 9 or better to have got "inside" the top 10?!) and I think it's almost certain that none of the media who reported the second occurrence as the first were thinking along these lines, they'd just forgotten - or rather, the first one to report it had forgotten and the rest just followed like sheep, as they are wont to do.

Given that they managed to forget that in a couple of weeks, it's hardly surprising that they have managed to forget most of Anne and Elena's achievements. I noticed Anne called them out on one such error/omission recently - good for her.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, I was going to comment on Anne calling out a journalist at a Fed Cup PC ( maybe different occasion since this one was foreign - probably been briefed by a British journalist ! )

He asked Heather about the pressure of her and Laura being the first British women in the world top 50 in 20 years.

But before Heather could really get going there was a sort of "ahem" from Anne, who clearly and in a very dignified way pointed out how recently her and Bally were in the top 50.

We can argue about how great Anne and Bally's achievements have been, but to me their is no arguement that this ongoing almost scratching from the records of what they have done ( in the rush to hail Heather and Laura ) is on the face of it very disrespectful, although probably more often poor / lazy standards.