Interesting article here from an interesting fansite about Slimbomb. Clearly making an impact more than just on the Futures circuit. Are people starting to sit up and take notice?
Indeed I too like much that I see in Marcus's play and personality, and he did make a certain impact last year in US Challengers with his style of play and yes his ( now much reduced ) weight, largely because he was just different.
Be great though to see a whole lot more tennis substance in results and indeed some of his scheduling.
The weight loss hinted at a renewed purpose that I am in recent months somewhat unconvinced about how much is following through.
This year his tennis impact has been much less than I had hoped to see and actually thought that we might see. And time further moves on ...
Over the coming two weeks he has 19 ( 1 + 18 ) ranking points coming off. If he wasn't to add any he would be on 102 points, currently equivalent to WR 416. The ability is there to be considerably higher ranked, but there is much more involved in making that happen if he wants to make it happen.
-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 13th of September 2015 02:41:25 PM
Marcus when he started his A1 sponsorship nov 2012 he was 117 kg when he completed his 2 years sponsorship program he had gone from not winning a singles title in over 5 years to first singles title in 3 months & 6 within 2 years by end of 2014 he was down to 101 kg
credit to marcus since his sponsorship ended he's continued to work hard and weight down to new PB 92kg which with his heavy build is probably about right . Marcus has got all the tools to the job , he's a lovely lad and at A1 we wish him the best of luck . I hope A1 Pharmaceuticals 2 year sponsorship gave him
the kick start he needed and he can now move on to the next level ! Marcus is still a very popular member of the A1 Pharmaceuticals men's team and much to his credit he played a key role in the successful defence of our national Aegon men's team title . The future plan at A1 Pharmaceuticals LTC is to help support player funding with generous renumeration when playing national club league matches in their current 2 forms Aegon & premier indoors ( national doubles only competition founded by mike Dixon ) .
as the article pointed out Marcus variation and specialist shots with the right match up creates great entertainment compared with 2 closely matched even top 10 players
I have always advocated that given the right doubles partner Marcus could easily break into the top 100 doubles which was a key goal for me finding the right partner is not easy I certainly tried when 2 players have different schedules and a higher ranked player does not want to pair . I believe doubles is more of a future B plan although personally I would like to see Marcus with a regular doubles partner with a singles or doubles ranking 250 or better .
-- Edited by A1 tennis academy on Tuesday 15th of September 2015 07:57:51 AM
Marcus when he started his A1 sponsorship nov 2012 he was 117 kg when he completed his 2 years sponsorship program he had gone from not winning a singles title in over 5 years to first singles title in 3 months & 6 within 2 years by end of 2014 he was down to 101 kg
credit to marcus since his sponsorship ended he's continued to work hard and weight down to new PB 92kg which with his heavy build is probably about right .
As an aside, there are physios (with testing equipment) who can more accurately pimpoint optimum weight range for any individual relative to power/speed/strength requirements. Optimum weight for a tennis player may be lower than you think.
Clearly you have one of tennis's more interesting characters on your hands (that video of mid-match rehydration/refuelling and the TV commentator's reaction!). It's great you provide the support for him you do. The LTA could adopt you as a beacon for other individuals with resources who could become significant tennis sponsors.
How much has injury been a factor in Marcus not capitalising on his weight loss?
Also did others expect to see him do a bit better on the grass this year than he did? It seemed to me that he was perhaps a bit too tight/excited at the close stages in the sets where he had chances to go ahead against higher ranked players in the grass season - an easy pitfall if you're in that 'I think I can do it, now's my chance to prove it to everyone else' kind of match.
Anyway, as I said then, it looked to me from watching his matches than his main problem was that he throws in too many weaker shots amongst all the amazing ones and while that's to be expected a bit more if you prioritise diverse variety of strokes and unpredictability, you only have to throw in a slightly weaker one once per rally every other point and a good player will usually take advantage and win half those points. I think if he tightened up in that aspect his serve would be so much harder to break for a start.
Before I start, I will just leave in the caveat that I am not a tennis expert, so this is just an idea from reading these pages.
Marcus had guaranteed funding for two seasons right? Then why was he playing doubles at all? He had the luxury of time and resources to throw at being the best singles player that he could have been. Time to work on all the things in his game to make him a better player. Time to scout his opponents weaknesses and tailor his game accordingly. Doubles is what you do for a living when you haven't made it in singles or for extra money to pay for life as a tennis player.
If you want to get to the top, look how those who are there did it. Andy Murray is a great example: Started on ITF Circuit in 2001:
Marcus did though have the investment and advice of someone who did ( does ? ) consider him a future Davis Cup doubles player and certainly doubles top 100, and Gary also loves his doubles and is keen to see good all British partnerships.
Of course, it is great the time and investment Gary gives, and Marcus made great initial strides in the singles rankings, something like 900s to 300s with seeming scope to push on much further still, having been previously hugely underranked as against his talent. He certainly seemed to have maybe been drifting a bit before linking up with Gary so could use help and encouragement. The stalling in the last couple of years has been a pity.
But over the last few years there have been mixed and changing messages about whether or not he was going to really concentrate on singles for a while. At some stage I feel Marcus has really needed to more go for it in singles, to be all he can be, but I do sometimes wonder how much of a "go for it" guy he is ...
I actually don't particularly think Andy is a great example as from early on he was always going to make it at singles and those are young ages accompanied by injury issues which varies his progression.
With Marcus though, yes, I do wish that he had before now really gone for it more in singles. There is some real ability there, but also issues to work on and the priorities and skill sets required do vary a fair bit between singles and doubles.
To try and progress both singles and doubles simultaneously for the period he has, in his early to mid twenties, actually unclear as to which is the priority, seems to me to be an extremely bad idea.
Thank you Indiana, more precisely expressed than I did. I would liken trying both singles and doubles to trying for multiple promotions at work at the same time. Somehow the focus on each one is lost.
Was being nosey on Twitter and I see he says he hopes to play again in June/July. I assume it's an injury unless he is committed to coaching till then.
Was being nosey on Twitter and I see he says he hopes to play again in June/July. I assume it's an injury unless he is committed to coaching till then.
I know he picked up a knee injury playing doubles at the start of the year. I think that is the reason for the lay-off.