Mackin Retires

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Mackin Retires

Drew · Apr 28, 2007

Count Zero wrote:

i have seen an announcemnt on the btz board that says alan has retired.

anyone have any other info on this?

Well he has withdrawn from the Naples Challenger this week coming !

Salmon · Tennis legend

This can't be true.

Drew · Apr 28, 2007

He is only 26...right ?

Count Zero · Tennis legend

maybe he has been havig some kinda injuries?

Salmon · Tennis legend

25.

VSandhi20 · Futures qualifying

i hope he hasnt! i'd be surprised if he has retired. i know he always maintained his goal to be in the top 100, but it is difficult these days to maintain a consistency which he hasnt shown this year.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Sheddie · administrator

I'm absolutely stunned, he seemed to have been making a lot of progress from last June onwards..but since he split with Mike Raphael the results seem to have dried up. I wonder what the issues were, maybe financial as even when you're 250ish it's very hard to make a living with all the travelling costs...Alan got funding from Tennis Scotland and Sport Scotland which would have helped but it's still tough to break even.

Maybe he just got fed up of the grind of the tour, it does get to you after a while...he's certaintly been to most places in the world

Alan's certaintly someone who's done the utmost to make the most of his talent...one coach once said that if all the British players worked as hard as Alan Mackin, there'd be more breaking top 100. He's never won an ATP tour match and although he's qualified for countless ATPs and the Aussie Open, maybe that got to him and made him feel he wouldn't be able to make it.

He told Boggo that he was stopping but Boggo told him to give it a go till Wimbledon

Salmon · Tennis legend

Is it confirmed?

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Maybe Boggo can persuade him not to

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

I hope he follows Boggo's advice and stays till Wimbledon at least so we can see him play one last time (presuming they give him a wildcard). I've always enjoyed watching Mackin's matches. I wish him the best of times in whatever he decides to do next.

Salmon · Tennis legend

It's depressing to see the number of Brits we now have at Challenger level. Last year we had - Bogdanovic, Bloomfield, Martin Lee, Mackin, Marray, Goodall, Parmar, Baker and Auckland, plus Col Fleming, Matt Smith and Delgado every now and then.

Mackin, Lee and Parmar have retired; Fleming is back at uni; Smith's ranking has dropped; and Delgado and Auckland have quit singles. With Boggo knocking on the doors of Tour tennis we are now left with just Bloomfield, Marray, Baker and Goodall.

Sheddie · administrator

The Panda Bear wrote:

Is it confirmed?

It's definate...expect an article on the LTA site in the next week or so, once they've read the news on the britishtennis.net homepage

Mackin told Boggo that he was tired of all the travelling...may sound strange but once you've been to as many countries as he had, it gets to you in the end ! Money was also an issue, when you're ranked 250ish you don't earn much. You only start to get some real dosh when you're top 150 and getting to the latter stages of challengers

Sheddie · administrator

The Panda Bear wrote:

It's depressing to see the number of Brits we now have at Challenger level. Last year we had - Bogdanovic, Bloomfield, Martin Lee, Mackin, Marray, Goodall, Parmar, Baker and Auckland, plus Col Fleming, Matt Smith and Delgado every now and then.

Mackin, Lee and Parmar have retired; Fleming is back at uni; Smith's ranking has dropped; and Delgado and Auckland have quit singles. With Boggo knocking on the doors of Tour tennis we are now left with just Bloomfield, Marray, Baker and Goodall.

Yeah I was thinking exactly the same...only a short while ago we had 16 in the top 400 !!!! Sounds incredible now ! However, of those guys, only Goodall and Baker have really pushed on while Bloomfield and Marray have moved up a level from the 300ish mark they were at....for Bloomfield, a lot will depend on the grass season and whether he can defend those Wimbledon pts, hopefully he gets a Queens wc too.

It's a shame that while on the women's side there are a number of promising players starting to make inroads in the 17-20 age range while the cupboard is a bit bare on the men's side. You have to wonder how long Lee Childs is gonna continue and then there's a big gap between Bloomfield, Baker, Goodall, Marray and the next guys....no one really knocking on the door to push up into top 500 and beyond atm...the big two hopes to do so have to be the clay-court specialists Morgan Phillips and James Ward, they've made massive strides in past 12 months.

Aswell as them: Smith's got the ability to do it again, doesn't seem to be the same player as before his annus horriblis of 2006, though probably best to wait till end of the year before making a judgement. Slabba's got the ability to be top 500 aswell but he needs to start coming through some of those tight matches in main draws and get some more md wins to get his confidence up. Kasiri has the talent to be where Jamie Baker is atm..hoping for big things from him this year. Then there's the big 4 of Cox, Evans, Dyce and Rice...hopefully they can start to deliver on the mens tour (and in Cox's case continue to deliver) in next couple of years