Anyone else getting sick of this?

Bladetiger · Pro player

Anyone else getting sick of this?

Count Zero · Tennis legend

same stuff comes around year after year. It will be forgotten in 2 weeks. brief spurt when the USO starts, then nothing till the YEC.

murray 's article comes across as the best of them, i think boggo should tell Jo Durie to shove it. but you are right why the hell would a kid in thsi country ever want to get into tennis, thing is this problem is a long term one, remember Henman is generally a loser. unfortunatly its very diffciult to be a winner at tennis.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

if the comments refer to anyone in partciular then at a guess josh has the attitude and boggo expects the easy ride.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Ignore it.

The press publishes such rubbish to incite a reaction. Don't give in. Just don't read such articles.

Bladetiger · Pro player

The press are only able to publish it tho' Arka because people like Andy Murray and Tim Henman are saying it.

If it was just some bi gob jouno then I coud ignore it easier but if Tim says they are all slackers and expect a golden ride then people are going to believe it.

It's not like many of them have had all that much from the LTA anyway.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Murray's article was the best of a bad lot I think, he didn't just attack the players but said instead that everyone was to blame for the negativity. Tim on the other hand, I agree shouldn't have said that. He knows how much the media will jump on his words and I think it was a poorly thought out statement made in the aftermath of a frustrating loss.

steven · Tennis legend

Sick of what?

aria81 · Club Coach

I think it's attitude more than ability that Andy is getting at - not so much the performance, but the way some of the players are acting. You know, Josh refusing to show up at Queens when Lungdren wanted to work with him for example and then complaining that he only lost because his coach was missing.

The thing that strikes me most about Andy's opinion is that he doesn't usually criticise British players - God, mind him when he qualified for the USO and the interview he gave afterwards talking about how the players were getting all the negativity. I can't mind the exact phrasing he used but it was pretty clear that he was upset at the attitude people and the press had about the other Brits.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I guess the players would know better than us what is going on and whether everyone is busting a gut trying to make the most of their talents. I think naming names, as Durie did, was wrong especially as I don't think Boggo deserves much criticism for his performances of late.

I can definitely buy into the 'once your 22/23 you shouldn't get a WC' viewpoint but that's a different argument I suppose.

steven · Tennis legend

Aha, the thread appeared empty when I clicked on it, but now some messages have appeared.

Yes. it's generally a load of rubbish and even the bits that have some truth in them shouldn't be getting aired in public.

It's a bit rich Paul Hutchins having a pop at Josh too when Josh has just helped Paul's son Ross get a top 100 doubles ranking!

What tennis insiders (and the ranking system in general) fail to recognise (or fail to admit to) is that for players who aren't playing ATPs every other week (and even to some extent for those who are), luck of the draw is everything.

Why has Bloomers for example failed to defend most of his grass court points this year? Is it because he's playing worse than last year? No, he's playing a damn sight better than last year! But last year he got Berlocq (35 points, thank you very much, even if in order to get them he did have to avoid the usual GB trick of looking a gift horse in the mouth in order!) and got loads of points in Dublin, this year he got Hewitt and the rain at Wimby has kept him out of Dublin because he and Jonny committed the cardinal sin of winning their R1 doubles match. (ok, even if they'd lost, he'd probably have been counted out of Dublin because of the mixed anyway, but hopefully you get the point)

I think what's shocking is that we've gone down from 21 players in the top 500 to just 10 (after Martin Lee drops out next Monday) in under two years and we don't have anyone who is obviously going to join them in the foreseeable future. The guys who are left in the top 500 (and haven't retired yet) are actually doing pretty well.

In fact, they're doing a damn sight better at getting their rankings up than those who should know better are doing at making kids think it must be good idea to be a tennis player!

-- Edited by steven at 16:38, 2007-07-02

Count Zero · Tennis legend

i guess jo durie picked on Alex cause he is the easy target. Alex sums up everything that is wrong with british tennis aparently.

he should just quit now, oh hang on then we'd only have tim and andy in the top 200!

aria81 · Club Coach

Alex is an easy target. His problem is that in the past, he has underachieved considering the talent he's got at his disposal. I think everyone would admit that at various times over the past few years Alex has driven them crazy because there are at least a dozen, and probably far more less talented guys than him in the top 100. In the past his attitude was a bit suspect but that seems to be sorted now and he's starting to get results.

Durie, instead of picking on Boggo should maybe concentrate on working on a better coaching philosophy for her own player instead of the 'keep hitting the ball as hard as you can and it'll fly in eventually' mantra she had for Elena a few years ago.

helki · Futures qualifying

I don't pretend to know as much as many of you appear to about the success/failure of certain players, so I'm not going to comment on the rights and wrongs of the present situation. All I will say is, if players are given wildcards simply because they are Brits, and yes, I do realise it's common practice in all countries with a Grand Slam event, but don't qualify by their ranking to have one ( Boggo excepted) then there is something wrong somewhere. Should they have them if they are going to be humiliated and then castigated for not winning a match they were never likely to? At least under those circumstances no names would have been mentioned either in the newspapers or the media and a discussion could have been held without causing all this angst.

-- Edited by helki at 20:56, 2007-07-02

johnnylad · Tennis legend

hear hear to bladetiger

mjd · Challenger qualifying

Well summed up Bladetiger.

Today on TV Sue Barker tried to persuade Roger Federer to support those stupid comments by Tim, Becker and Andy, but 'he did not bite' instead he said that he had many wildcards himself (including Wimbledon) which had helped him progress quicker than he would have otherwise.

He acknowledged how tough it was in the challenger circuit and how little amount they won and that virtually anyone could beat or lose to anyone, but by giving them wildcards they would have the possibilty to show how they could play and would help them financially.

Roger also said that Switzerland had a similar problem to GBR and that there was no-one close to himself and Warinka and that it didnt seem right naming someone ranked 250 for Davis cup but they had to.

I am glad that Fed stuck to his opinions did not allow Sue Barker to put words in his mouth although she tried more than once and in fact he spoke more sensibly than those other snobs.

Apart from anything else if the highest ranked players in GBR were only 500 or 600, then it would still make sense to give them the WC rather than to some foreign unknown. As I commented elsewhere it was very difficult to get close to an outside court where Brits were playing just because they were Brits, unheard of by most of the public no doubt, but it was much easier to get close to much higher ranked and better known foreign players (even Cilic!), so I guess that the AELTC know that and will continue to support British in future years.

-- Edited by mjd at 08:17, 2007-07-03

mjd · Challenger qualifying

Norfolk's Richard Bloomfield has hit back at Boris Becker after the three-time Wimbledon champion blasted the All England Club's wild card policy.

Becker, who won his first title as a 17-year old, claimed only teenagers should be handed invitations to compete and anyone over the age of 24 should quit if they are not in the world's top 150.

But Bloomfield - a 24-year-old wild card who is ranked 194th in the world - answered Becker's comments by booking his place in the third round of the men's doubles last night.

I think this proves why I deserve to be here, said Bloomfield.

My ranking has gone up every year, so that shows I'm not standing still. It hasn't gone top 50, so maybe that isn't recognised - but some people don't look at it like that.

What you have to understand is people play within certain levels and everyone has a different level.

I'm happy with how things are going and if you look at some of the other British players, a few are close to making the top 100.

Full story HERE