Stircrazy wrote:

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Erm, instead of bemoaning the dearth of such courts elsewhere in the world & the consequent disadvantage at which that puts British players, shouldn't we, or rather TPTB at the LTA, be doing something to redress the balance?   What is the purpose in life of the all-singing, all-dancing, brand, spanking new, state-of-the-art NTC if not to equip our players with the weapons with which to succeed on all those nasty, how shall I put it?, hostile? alien? surfaces abroad?

 

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Well of course that is the natural long term solution however I do not see that happening around the country.  More and more clubs are replacing their shale/clay [i.e high maintenance] courts with fast, low bouncing astro turf/carpet courts, and this is often funded by interest free LTA grants.  If the LTA wished to spark a court revolution then they would be turning down such requests and instead offering the money in return for slower courts, even acrylic type surfaces. 

What I said before was my ideal solution to the current, here and now, problem; this current generation of players aren't going to become clay courters regardless of how many such courts are built in the next few years. If we are to help rather than hinder our current crop of tennis professionals then the LTA needs to show its might at bartering with the ATP to reconsider its selection of tournaments and surfaces. 

Unfortunately I doubt that either the short term or long term problems will be solved and the LTA will continue to fund the replacing of that natural surfaces with low maintenance carpet courts whilst simply accepting that clay court tournaments will eventually dominate the whole tour [a glance at the tournament selection for some of our junior players proves this]. 

 

freerider wrote:

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the positive is that it gives us a big home advantage when there are grass tourneys!

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*groans*  How simplistic is that?  Get real, freerider!  Very few posters on this board seem to rate the doubles, where we've enjoyed a modicum of success within living memory, but do I need to remind you that we haven't had a men's champion at Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936?  At least Ginny Wade has a claim to more recent fame!  The powers that be are never going to extend the grass court season, so what are we supposed to look forward to the rest of the time?  The only reason why we still have a grass court season is Wimbledon, arguably the best of the Grand Slams, & the need to give players some time to(re-)acclimatise!  Pat Cash puts it all nicely in perspective in his column in today's Sunday Times.  GSM la France,if you ask me!

14.48

Illingwoth lost 6-7 2-6

Skupski leads 7-5 3-2 on serve


(Fischer leads 6-3 4-0)




These scores are subject to confirmation

Does anyone know when the main draw is being made? Thought it would be available by now.

ianbez7 wrote:

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Does anyone know when the main draw is being made? Thought it would be available by now.

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Well you could always go to the LTA 'page'...yes a whole page given over to this 'Surbiton Sensation' event...

http://www.lta.org.uk/WatchTennis/Surbiton/

Or maybe you would be better checking here...might be worth the wait !

I am starting to believe that the LTA think the only tennis fans worth looking after are those who turn up at SW19 !

 

I'm finding it hard to believe they still haven't even got the qualifying draw up on the LTA site, unless it's in a different place from normal and I've missed it.

-- Edited by steven at 15:27, 2008-06-01