No UK challengers?

steven · Tennis legend

No UK challengers?

Drew · Feb 1, 2008

I have had a reply from the LTA and the full calendar will be released next week.

Paul Hutchins will be explaning the changes to both UK futures and challengers in next weeks ace magazine.

Bascially the change in futures going from 15k to 10k and the reduction in uk challengers is aimed at getting players to play abroad more often.

It remains to be seen.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

there were only 7 challengers in a 52 week year! how many challenger does france have? or germany or spain etc.

its all well and good trying to get the players to play abroad but there should still be some home events i feel.

maybe less futures? at the end of the day the player like boggo baker bloomers etc who do well at challenger level all play abroad regualy anyway.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

yeah as drew says it in the bt mag,

i can kinda understand cutting down the futures a bit but i dont think thats the same with the challengers. i think its an excuse to save money. none of our players would survive on the few uk challengers alone.

if they dont want brits to play the challengers dont give them wild cards, simple surely. then only the ones with good enough ranking can make it and they will have done so by playing over seas.

aparently henman picked up a lot of his points overseas so everyone else should, why do you get the impression that they think the only way to succeed is the henman way? i wonder hiow many hoem events rafa played?

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

For those of us who don't get the magazine please could someone explain the main points of the article. From reading between the lines of Count's post it seems that the lta want our players to play overseas more and so they've completely stopped all UK challengers. Is that right or is there more to it? (I'll wait for a response before I blast what could be only half the story!!)

Count Zero · Tennis legend

jist:

many brit players are spending too much time in their comfrot zone and need to make more effort to toughen up in more demanding envirmomets.

to make them play abroad PH has taken out several challengers and reduced some 15k's to 10.
in 09 he may well cut down the challengers and futures even more!!

he thinks that brit players rely on the home fut's and ch's for wild cards and poimts

he praised baker for not relying on that as he qualfied for the AO, jamie is a player who will 'max out' other player must ask why am i not 'maxing out'

he also commends josh, slabba seator and feaver from sutton. they are not int he comfrot zone, they dont mind playing in rough places.

he looks at tims back grouund, he went to indand morroc and malaysia and gusted it out.

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i dont know how many home challenegrs there are left, 2 of 7 are definiately gone, but i dont know where to find their calendar and the atp isnt updated yet. the uncofnimred ones left are surbs, notts, manch and the 2 late indoor ones that often move venue.

steven · Tennis legend

That's pathetic. We've just been noticing today how the Argentinians in the 100-200 range can get there without really going overseas very much

There is an easy answer to the issue of some players relying on home WCs to get points (which doesn't really hold much water anyway now that you don't get points for R1 losses) which is instead of penalising those who do make the effort to play overseas on a regular basis by cutting the opportunities to earn points at home events, just give the WCs to them and withhold them from those who can't be bothered!

Also, this claptrap about Tigger roughing it in the early days to build up his points is a myth. Yes, he did go overseas quite a lot, but he has been known to go on about his trips to darkest Africa on a quest to pick up points. That would be the Morocco Satellite followed by the Central African Satellite, both in 1992, which were quite enough for him, not that I blame him!

steven · Tennis legend

Since I can extract this from ITF in a couple of minutes, here are Tigger's tournaments between 1992-1994 (in 1995, he won his first match at Wimby before going out to Sampras in R2)

Tigger's trips ... GB Africa N America Europe Asia

Great Britain 2 Satellite Wk 1 20 Apr 1992 to 26 Apr 1992
Wimbledon Qualifying Draw 15 Jun 1992 to 19 Jun 1992
Morocco Satellite (3 weeks)
Central Africa Satellite (4 weeks)
Portugal 1 Sat. (3 weeks)
Great Britain 1 Satellite (3 weeks)
USA 1 Sat. (4 weeks)
Great Britain 2 Satellite (4 weeks)
Spain 4 Satellite (4 weeks)
Manchester Qualifying 12 Jun 1993 to 13 Jun 1993
Wimbledon Qualifying 14 Jun 1993 to 20 Jun 1993
Bristol Challenger 06 Jul 1993 to 11 Jul 1993
Newcastle Chall'ger Qualifying 11 Jul 1993 to 12 Jul 1993
Scheveningen Challenger Quali 17 Jul 1993 to 18 Jul 1993
Poznan Challenger Qualifying 24 Jul 1993 to 25 Jul 1993
Istanbul Challenger Qualifying 31 Jul 1993 to 01 Aug 1993
Liege Challenger Qualifying 08 Aug 1993 to 09 Aug 1993
Great Britain 3 Satellite (4 weeks)
Gothenburg Challenger Quali 16 Oct 1993 to 17 Oct 1993
Brest Challenger Qualifying 23 Oct 1993 to 24 Oct 1993
Israel 2 Satellite (4 weeks)

India Satellite (4 weeks)
Great Britain 1 Satellite (4 weeks)
Casablanca Qualifying 12 Mar 1994 to 13 Mar 1994
Tokyo Outdoor 04 Apr 1994 to 10 Apr 1994
Hong Kong Qualifying 09 Apr 1994 to 10 Apr 1994
Nagoya Challenger 18 Apr 1994 to 24 Apr 1994
Taipei Challenger Qualifying 23 Apr 1994 to 24 Apr 1994
Manila Challenger 02 May 1994 to 08 May 1994
French Open Qualifying 18 May 1994 to 21 May 1994
Annenheim Challenger 30 May 1994 to 05 Jun 1994
Queen's 06 Jun 1994 to 12 Jun 1994
Manchester 13 Jun 1994 to 18 Jun 1994
Wimbledon 20 Jun 1994 to 03 Jul 1994
Bristol Challenger 05 Jul 1994 to 10 Jul 1994
Winnekta Challenger 25 Jul 1994 to 31 Jul 1994
Cincinnati Challenger 01 Aug 1994 to 06 Aug 1994
Binghamton Challenger 08 Aug 1994 to 14 Aug 1994
New Haven 15 Aug 1994 to 21 Aug 1994
Seoul Challenger 12 Sep 1994 to 16 Sep 1994
Singapore Challenger 19 Sep 1994 to 25 Sep 1994

-- Edited by steven at 13:43, 2008-02-12

Count Zero · Tennis legend

ok, considering hutch likes people who travel, surely our fav player Amadeus should be given a wimby WC, this guy is prepared to go 'max out' for it!

i stick by my original idea that this is to save money and they have found a good excuse for it.

steven · Tennis legend

And what about Rob Dee - of his 51 tournaments, only 1 has been in the UK. And if they need the ... (allegedly - see the Times)

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

thanks for that Count.

Have to say I agree with you, this seems to be an excuse for saving money. Or at the very least a not very well thought through plan. Surely if they were that bothered about players staying in the UK, a) don't give them as many wildcards (though to be fair, if the lta started doing that we would all be in uproar against them) and b) actually talk to the players about it.

steven · Tennis legend

We wouldn't be in uproar against them if they gave the wildcards to those who have proved they are willing to make an effort and withheld them from those who have proved year after year that they aren't. It's this treating all the players like a single group of recalcitrant schoolchildren that bugs me - i.e. because some of them won't make the effort, they've decided to withdraw the 'privilege' of home challengers from all of them, when there are perfectly good ways of dealing with the 'can't be bothered to play elsewhere' problem that don't involve sending them all to the naughty boys corner, as it were.

seagull · Hall of fame

Well June challenger calender is out and Surbiton survives!!

Count Zero · Tennis legend

i had always thought surbs would. it probably pays for itself as such. i also expect to see the other 2 grass ones as they are also very well established. its the 2 autumn/winter ones i worry about.

Shhh · Challenger level

The Irish Synthetic Grass one, the 2nd week of Wimbledon has increased its prize fund but, the two 15k futures before hand have disappeared.