Week 18 - Futures F4 (15K) - Bournemouth, UK

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

RE: Week 18 - Futures F4 (15K) - Bournemouth, UK

DJ · County player

Ken and his French partner beat Edward and Dan in the (I'm about to use a naughty word here, so it may be asterisked out) doubles final - with apologies to Madeline, Bladetiger and Steven.

helki · Futures qualifying

I find your attitude to the doubles surprising and annoying and didn't realise the singles were the be-all and end-all of the board. Anyones success is worth celebrating and I, for one, shall continue to do so and flag up any tournaments the doubles boys play in. This isn't to say I don't appreciate any triumphs the singles guys produce and only wish there was more to applaud.

wolf · Tennis legend

DJ wrote:

Ken and his French partner beat Edward and Dan in the (I'm about to use a naughty word here, so it may be asterisked out) doubles final - with apologies to Madeline, Bladetiger and Steven.

The score being 7-6(2) 2-6 [10-6]. And in reference to Ken taking up doubles as a career, I really do see that as the way forward, as can anyone seriously tell me he will make the top 100 in singles?

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

helki wrote:

I find your attitude to the doubles surprising and annoying and didn't realise the singles were the be-all and end-all of the board.

I don't think anyone was suggesting it was Helki. All Steven, Bladetiger and Madeline were saying was why doubles isn't as interesting for them. Personally I agree with them. I adore watching doubles at the highest level, but my first love is the singles game. I'm more than willing to celebrate any doubles success and I thank you, DJ, Stircrazy and anyone else who posts doubles results and rankings. However, like the others I will never follow doubles as closely as singles, and therefore, given the choice I'd rather see singles success than doubles succes. Just as I'd rather see British success in tennis than in football, because I prefer tennis to football. But that's my opinion, and I understand you (and others) feel differently. This board covers all types of British tennis, and I believe I speak for everyone when I say that there is no desire to stop doubles results being reported. Just as some people prefer the mens game to the womens game, some will prefer doubles to singles and visa versa. All are welcome, and accomodated by the board and will continue to be so.

Passionate defence of this messageboard and people's right to their own preferences over..

-- Edited by imoen at 01:26, 2008-05-03

steven · Tennis legend

helki wrote:
I didn't realise the singles were the be-all and end-all of the board. Anyones success is worth celebrating and I, for one, shall continue to do so and flag up any tournaments the doubles boys play in. This isn't to say I don't appreciate any triumphs the singles guys produce and only wish there was more to applaud.

Of course singles isn't the be-all and end-all of the board, and I never meant to imply that. I was just trying to explain why I find it hard to consider a day when all our players go out in the singles but reach a doubles Final as an overall good day, since someone appeared to have a (very friendly smile

) dig at me for not being overjoyed at the doubles success.

I have no problem with valuing and celebrating doubles success, I just think it misses the point to celebrate it as if it were equivalent to singles success - though I'm not trying to suggest that anyone is actually doing that.

I also don't want GB players who could make it at Challenger level to start thinking "oh, this is a bit tough, maybe I should give up on singles and concentrate on doubles" before they've given singles a proper go.

If in a few years' time we have, say, 3 or 4 men in the top 100 for singles and 3 or 4 men in the top 100 for doubles, it would feel like we had moved on tremendously (and we'd have a great DC team!), whereas if we have 6 or 7 in the top 100 for doubles and still just Andy in the top 100 for singles, it'll feel to me like we have hardly moved on at all.

Sheddie · administrator

impressive that evo got a set in the quarters.....cervenak is a quality player, has been a lot higher (top 300 I think) and did well in a number of challengers

Michael · Pro player

Mens Semi-final:

Conor Niland (Irl) bt Benoit Paire (Fra) 6-4 6-4

Pierre Metenier (Fra) bt Pavol Cervanek (Svk) 5-7 6-3 6-4

Niland going well

helki · Futures qualifying

I'm interested to know, steven, or anyone else, who you think out of the current crop of players will/has the potential to become a top 100 player? There seems such a massive gap between Andy and the guys who are battling in Futures. Apart from Boggo, and occasionally Jamie B (who I greatly admire, I might add) we don't appear to be making a push towards the Challengers and the gulf between the two, let alone an ATP tournament, looks almost insurmountable.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

helki wrote:

I'm interested to know, steven, or anyone else, who you think out of the current crop of players will/has the potential to become a top 100 player? There seems such a massive gap between Andy and the guys who are battling in Futures. Apart from Boggo, and occasionally Jamie B (who I greatly admire, I might add) we don't appear to be making a push towards the Challengers and the gulf between the two, let alone an ATP tournament, looks almost insurmountable.

Honestly.... at the moment none of them look to be good enough to make the top 100, although this crop of juniors are showing some promise, but I'd like to see them top 500/600 by the end of year if they really are as good as we want them to be

None of the players who have been playing on the futures tour for a while look as if they are going to make it to ATP level, while only a couple of them look as if they will make it to challenger level which is an even bigger worry

Sheddie · administrator

well we all know that Josh Goodall has the talent to be top 100 for sure.....whether he can tame the tendency to self-destruct is another matter......he's been showing some good signs recently, hopefully this will be the year when he wins an ATP match during the British grass court swing.....I don't feel he's ever quite done himself justice in those tourneys in the past

slabba and ward and late-developers....they have potential to at least be top 200

some good talent in the juniors aswell.....

there are signs that it will get better, it will probably take a while though

Michael · Pro player

Niland won 7-5 6-0

Drew · May 3, 2008

Well done Conor !