Week 24 - Queen's Club ATP - London

john · Top national player

RE: Week 24 - Queen's Club ATP - London

john · Top national player

Bloomers blazes a backhand at least 25 foot wide and Gonzo has a set point at 6-5*

john · Top national player

And Bloomers poor volleying lets him down for about the 50th time in the match and yet another great opportunity for a Brit against a top player practically begging to be beaten is gone.

7-6 Gonzo

James · Satellite level

Some very poor shot selection there from Richard and he could do with being a lot more clinical at the net rather than giving Gonzo chance after chance.

DUSTY DICK · Club Coach

Shame to lose that first set. Hope he doesn't just fade fast in the second.

john · Top national player

Still serving well at least in the second set. Can keep him in the match long enough for him to learn how to volley, return and hit backhands hopefully

john · Top national player

Richard is broken, Gonzo to serve for match at *5-3

Count Zero · Tennis legend

and does :(

only brit wins by retirement (biut he probably would have done anyway)

Josh · Challenger level

Did anyone hear the Draper interview

He said only Boggo and Baker would get Wimbly WCs and Goodall, Bloomers and Ward will all have to qualify.

Edit - Should read the other threads first. ashamed

-- Edited by Josh at 16:40, 2008-06-10

Bladetiger · Pro player

Josh wrote:

Did anyone hear the Draper interview

He said only Boggo and Baker would get Wimbly WCs and Goodall, Bloomers and Ward will all have to qualify.

Pretty disappointing, if you're gonna be strict then Boggo shouldnt be getting one, not that I am advocating that.

Well it makes me a lot less likely to be at wimbledon the first two or three days, would be great if no crowds bothered to go, see how long the policy lasts for then.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Cracks me up that people actually think the great WC debate is a Britain-specific thing!

Everyone helps out their local players / most promising youngsters. They have always done it. They always will do it. I'm bored of Sue Barker and others going on about it so much.

What is even more appalling is that Ward who qualifies beating Bohli, Klec and Udomchoke then performs so well against Safin only gets 5 points for his troubles. He could have beaten Allinson, Derekshani, Yarmola and gone close against Diaz-Ventura for the same number of points!

mjd · Challenger qualifying

I will no longer believe anything Roger Draper says with his b***s**t about how they pay for players travel expenses - I know for a fact that is a lie. (Although I guess a select few may be lucky!) It's those sort of statements that get people even like Tim and Andy believing it and talking rubbish (Perhaps based on their own experiences and assuming everyone is treated the same)

Rog would make a good used car salesman.

-- Edited by mjd at 19:19, 2008-06-10

Count Zero · Tennis legend

unfortunatly the crowds will be there, you are over estimating the average intellicence/ tennis knowdelge of the crowd goers Balde (sorry! sheddie thouhgt this was the funniest thing he had read in ages - says a more about him i think, oh and by the way he turned up the the qualies with his top on indside out!!!) . most of the people only go for the sake of it, a lot dont even bother to see a match through just wander in and out as they see fit.

Salmon · Tennis legend

I agree with what Blade says, although it's not like I'd be going to Wimbly anyway.

No, you cannot teach them a lesson by boycotting an event - 95% of tennis fans I know have no knowledge of the game (sorry for sounding smug there) and will go to watch the circus as long as there's an opportunity for some fun and food. But what you can do is ensure that these businessmen don't get even a penny from you - a drop in the ocean, no doubt, but it should help you feel upright.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

The less said about Evans's performance today, and although he showed glimpses of talent, he was very nervous going into the match and it showed with a very poor performance telling us he is nowhere near this level. Probably a waste of a WC, as I'm sure there are others who would benefit more from the WC and learn from it as well, but Evans didn't show us to suggest he should have got it.

Bloomers played well but you just knew he wasn't going to win the match. His serve was magnificent at times, and definately better than last week, but he knew he had to go for it every time as he would struggle to win points from the back of the court, and so made too many DF's. And he never got anywhere near Gonzo's serve which shows he needs to improve his returns a lot more.

The qualifying points debate? Yeah, it's not a great reward, but no-one can seriously suggest you should get more points from qualifying that you get for winning a first round match. Ward/Bloomers had a tough draw, but the point is that your reward for qualifying is the chance to play for a lot greater number of points in the main draw and then you can increase your ranking. If you want to get points straight away then you play weaker events in challengers/futures, but the counter to that is you get fewer points. There's nothing wrong with the system of points issued for qualifying at the moment, and if you look at the Halle/Warsaw draws this week, we wouldn't be having the same argument as those events had weak qualifying draws where most of the Brits wouldn't have needed a Wc to get in, and some would have been seeded - they choose to play Queens which had a strong field, so can't complain when they have to win 3 tough matches for 5 points.

Johnnylad - I understand what you are saying about it being unfair that you don't get many points for beating these players, but what you seem to be suggesting is that you get more points for beating higher ranked players rather than for reaching a certain round

WC's? They should be kept as it enables a home crowd to have some home interest in an event, plus allows talented players to test themselves against better players (and to move up the rankings quickly), and allows players who have been out of the game due to injury to get back into the bigger events. Without them, it would take a long time for anyone to progress up the rankings as they'd have to play challengers/futures for a long time as they'd never get a chance to even play in the qualifying of ATP events, and so couldn't access the big points.

And we know the LTA is a joke in terms of their comments, and I think James Ward got it right with what he said yesterday about what they do... and yet the BBC mentioned it but didn't really take the issue up as they should have done. Draper is current with what he says about funding as they probably do pay for travel for some of the players, but at a lower level they definately don't.