not sure exactly how long this has been known for but the lta will have to dig ito their pockets a bit more from 2008/2009!
$25k +h challengers are going to be phased out from next season, replaced by $35k+h, which already are starting to appear. Quite right too I think - its ridiculous that prize money has stayed the same for so long as the "real" value is eroded by inflation!
also I wish the lta would stage some slightly more generous challengers - e.g. $50k + h (like I'm sure surbiton used to be) and even $100k perhaps!
I'd rather all our futures were $10k, thus making it easier for our lower-ranked players to pick up points, with the "spare" money being used to boost challenger prize money.
the thing is how many of our players would benefit from a 100k? boggo probably, but atm thats about it. a lot of the bigger challngers are some of the countrys biggest events, bar france which is a bit unique, i would like to see a small upgrade, but in 100k we would only have 1 de and a few wc's etc. if we had a bigger player base it may be better.
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
yeah prob a fair point - tho would be good if we did have $50k+h events. I don' think the entry lists would really be any stronger as, for example, both british challengers so far this yr have been in the same week as 2 $100k or better challengers, which would attract the best players, and can't imagine many extra players would enter our grass challengers if just a bit more was on offer.