Boys & Girls: 44th Astrid Bowl Charleroi, Belgian International Junior Championships - ITF Grade 1 - 2008.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Boys & Girls: 44th Astrid Bowl Charleroi, Belgian International Junior Championships - ITF Grade 1 - 2008.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Main draw is out and it features Angus, Thompson and Coxy.

http://www.astrid-bowl.com/MAJ/Tableau/principaux/masculin/principal_masculin.htm

Girls main draw is not out.

Drew · May 25, 2008

Thanks Arka !

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Hopefully Coxy hits some form and at least win RG juniors as otherwise there's very little point in him playing it.

wolf · Tennis legend

Coxy lost 6-3, 6-2. Pointless.

Goldenslam · Intermediate Club Player

Look come on guys! It's not pointless! Its obvious if Dan is losing first round here...& easily I may add, then he is not ready to give up the juniors!! If he is getting taken care of easily by juniors then when he is outside the comfort zone of LTA wild cards etc he will be losing too often in futures qualies!!
He needs matches at both levels to help him develope his game & by giving up either juniors for senior or vise virsa he will not be helping his long term development!

johnnylad · Tennis legend

he's ranked in the top 1000 for men. He just needs to care about his matches and it seems to me he couldn't care less about these junior jaunts.

Test him against top 500 players in futures and he would be performing much better.

These scorelines reflect a player who is bored because he is being scheduled by the LTA's wallet to play tournaments that mean nothing to him.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Personally I think THAT is more obvious than the "he's not ready" argument. He was ready to give up juniors 12 months ago and he's bored stupid.

Goldenslam · Intermediate Club Player

Bored??? what a joke!!! If he is bored & losing matches because of that then he should just give up as with that attitude he will not get any where!!
I know Dan & he is ultra competitive & would want to win at anything including snap, so your argument is utter rubbish!!
If Dan were good enough to stop juniors he would be highier than 900ish ATP now, you just have to look at Eysseric to know when a player is ready to give up juniors! Eysseric is top 500, Dan wouldn't take a set off him!!
Dan needs matches & unfortunately he is not winning enough at futures qualies level or when given wild cards to MD's & the real fact is he is not even winning enough in juniors.
Having had a long conversation with Brad Gilbert some time ago his advice has always been to the players he coaches to achieve the level you are at before moving on as there are no hiding places in tennis, a plan that helped Agassi climb back from 141 to the top spot!! Sound advice that I think in this case fully applies to Dan Cox!!

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Perhaps bored was the wrong word. Lacking in challenge might be more apt.

I can't pretend to know more about the player or the process than you, but 12 months ago he was performing well in the mens game and he has moved backwards, and seems to be playing juniors which isn't helping his progression.

The reason he hasn't done much is futures qualies is because he has been sent to 128 draws on clay, rather than 32 draws on hard and indoor and green clay etc...

Also, Eysseric has no doubt benefitted from the WC opps that Dan had 12-18 months ago.

With more challenges and encouragement at senior level I think Dan would be showing his, "hates to lose at snap attitude" a little more and progressing in the way he can. It's just my opinion but I think it might be worth a shot.

Gilbert is obviously a great coach with some great ideas but not all ideas fit everybody.

wolf · Tennis legend

Pauffley beat the guy Cox lost to 2&2 just two weeks ago.

Goldenslam · Intermediate Club Player

If Pauffers beat him on clay then that says it all, why push him in to seniors when he is losing to guys that maybe he shouldnt be in juniors?
I am not saying do not play futures, far from it! What I am saying is that if used right juniors can & will enable any player the possiblity of producing their best tennis where it counts............... at senior level!
Use the juniors to help your senior performances!!!
Why push a player in to the harder tougher senior game when they are quite clearly struggling at junior level, which is a level or 3 below seniors?!
As for the 128 draws in spain, Dan's best chances of winning at this stage will come on clay but on top of that matches at this stage of his career on clay will only be good for his tactical development - he can be to easily out hit on hard to due to his height & lack of pace on the ball!
Really is playing GA, G1 or G2 really pointless??? For the stanard of the competition I fully believe it is great grounding for any good junior with senior prospects!!
I agree that Gilberts advice does not fit everybody...look at Nadal!! But in this case I think it is perfect for Dan Cox!

Salmon · Tennis legend

If the LTA thinks that Cox isn't ready to give up Juniors they should cut off his funding in the next half an hour and release him 'cause he'll never be ready in his life. At this rate, the boy will be playing G4s come December...

I'm afraid that we are happily heading towards the sort of thing that happened to people like De Bakker and Lojda. They bullied their way to titles in a weak field in 2006 (Cilic, Gulbis, JMDP, Korolev etc. weren't bothered), lived in ignorant bliss for months till they realised that they are hardly good enough. Heh... we are ten times worse off - we aren't even winning the titles.

I just hope that Cox and Evo will get over this nightmare without suffering any injury. I'm sure that when their coaches realise that they've decided that they've screwed up their careers enough, the boys will be back to full strength and once again we could have the old days back.

It's sad that two of the world's best young players a few years ago have fallen behind in spite of us having some of the world's best coaches. And it's plainly due to a pointless schedule they are made to play. Such a smart plan, no? Even if you can't create a Dan Cox out of Matt James, you can always reduce Coxy to the level of Matt James.

[With all due respect to Matt James who is a great prospect himself and quite likely to do well later on.]

Salmon · Tennis legend

And Juniors is pointless after a while - they're are loads of people who never played Juniors. Safin, Davydenko, Nadal, Korolev, Ferrer - how're they struggling? What good did playing Juniors do to people like Rieschick?

Ratty · County player

It took the genius of Eric Cantona to find the link between philosophy and soccer. And there is too a link between philosophy and junior tennis!!!!

I introduce you to Occam's Razor. Which is, where there is more than one explanation for a phenomenon, choose the simplest and most obvious.

So, if we are looking for an explanation for Dan Cox's slightly disappointing recent performances, we could come up with the following explanations:

1. Satan has cursed his rackets.

2. He's better than his opponents, but loses because he is bored.

3. His peers have improved more than him over the last few months.

Occam would, I think, go with (3).

Nurse, the screens ......