Week 28 - Great Britain F9 (Felixstowe 15K) - 2008.

Salmon · Tennis legend

RE: Week 28 - Great Britain F9 (Felixstowe 15K) - 2008.

Bladetiger · Pro player

Sileing it down in Felixstowe and no apparent prospect of it stopping, so very little chance of Willis getting the chance to play the match of his life today.

Think you might see some strange scores this week, after two to three days of sitting watching the rain fallin Felixstowe think a fair number might be keen to get away by the time they finally get on court, so might be an opportunity for some of our young guns to get on the board.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Anyone who wants to play qualifying for Manchester will probably be tanking as soon as they can, so the Brits who are playing the futures event next week as a great chance to score some points here (and hopefully with Goodall and Marray both knowing they're in the main draw next week, they'll play properly and try and set up a semi final with each other)

If there was betting on this event, and you were in Felixstowe, you could make an awful lot of money out of it, and I'm expected some strange results when play eventually gets underway

mjd · Challenger qualifying

I just noticed the charges levied to visit this FUTURES event - £3 Mon, £4 Tue-Wed, £6 Thurs-Fri, £8 Sat-Sun with £20 for a family ticket.
I guess they are just trying to restrict the crowds or limit it to 'the right class of people'.

Note - Last week's Dublin challenger was free all week! A much better way to get people to take an interest in tennis.

john · Top national player

Wow, they're charging to watch a Futures? Never thought the LTA ever did that

john · Top national player

And £8 is hardly cheap for a Saturday considering you can watch just as good players in Notts or Queens qualies for free just a few weeks ago. What a joke

Bladetiger · Pro player

Felixstowe is run by the club I believe rather than the LTA which explains new fangled inventions such as websites and admission prices and press releases.

In fairness Felixstowe probably do have a fair bit to pay for and though there is a tournament sponsor I would doubt that he is paying massivemoney so probably have to make a bob or two.

Felixstowe is pretty remote as well so it might be that locals there are happy to pay a few quid to see decent quality tennis which compared to anything else in East anglia it will be

RedCabbage · Club Coach

Contraversial, perhaps, but I think that charging entry for futures is a good idea. The only "futures" event I went to (Sutton £25k) I felt like a bit of an intruder into a private party for the players and families. Charging entry legitimises visitors' presence and turns the whole tournament into more of a public event.

If all the non-family, press, players and staff that went to Sutton that day were charged a fiver they probably would have made, I dunno, about a fiver.

There is a great deal of excitement and enjoyment to be had at these events and if they can make enough money to promote them then I would be more than happy to pay.

Salmon · Tennis legend

I'm fine with tickets at Futures, although 8 pounds is waaaay too much...

The LTA should give more and more tournaments to clubs, if they are willing to take. Sadly I am not sure if there'll be many takers given how much it costs but that'll not be a problem if they give them proper publicity.

That's how it works in the US, where most tournaments are held by clubs who charge a bit. Actually they have an even better strategy - some Challengers are held at universities (Lexington, Nashville etc.) and they are sure to attract crowds, especially if you give a local player a wild card.

Just imagine... a Challenger at Bristol with Sheddie and James playing and scores of people paying to watch them.

It's all marketing... the LTA needs a student of Economics who understands tennis, too.

Bring on Andy Kennaugh!

steven · Tennis legend

You missed "getting double bagelled" at the end of "paying to watch them"

but seriously, I think a nominal charge (maybe £ 8 is too much) but making it clear that spectators are welcome is far better than some UK Futures' approach of just assuming nobody will turn up.

Shhh · Challenger level

I went last year and its a very well run event. 112th year after all! Only one main court has good viewing, but I'd guess at least 200 were there, quite middle-class, but paying spectators whatever you think. Also dont foget that it may be a mens futures, but theres a ladies 25k on at the same time.

The only other futures level I have been to was at Redbridge which was free but, although a good viewing balcony, was just a large sports hall. At Felixstowe for reference, theres several grass courts, and even more hard courts.....this is a BIG club. I can only presume, that with the grass soaked, this will be played out on the hard courts for most of the tournament.

steven · Tennis legend

It looks like no men's matches got played today and there is a strange looking OoP for tomorrow.

They seem to be starting play on the grass courts at 13.00, presumably to let the grass dry out, but moving some matches (Q3 of the draw nad the top half of Q4 - see colour-coded draw below) onto hard courts starting at 10.30.

Also, they are playing the women's matches before the men's matches on most courts, which seems a bit unfair given that most of the women's R1 matches were completed today, so they are a round ahead already.

With tomorrow forecast to be the only remaining rain-free day, I'm also surprised they haven't scrapped the doubles (perhaps they're not allowed to though) in order to get through two rounds of the men's singles - all very strange, looking from here.

On grass On hard

L32: (1) Josh Goodall WR 261 v Divij Sharan (IND) WR 742
L32: Neil Bamford WR 690 v Patrick Eichenberger (SUI) WR 808
L32: (Q) Ashley Watling UNR v Shane La Porte (USA) WR 595 - winner to play (5) Ebden or Zhang
L32: (WC) Daniel Cox WR 952 v (4) Brydan Klein (AUS) WR 334
L32: (WC) Jonny Marray WR 670 v (Q) Marcus Willis WR 1088
L32: (WC) David Rice WR 1122 v Dayne Kelly (AUS) WR 1001 - winner to play (7) Jones or Kadir
L32: (WC) Josh Milton WR 1012 v (Q) Kyle Brassington WR 1173 - winner to play (3) Feeney or Grigorov (*)
L32: (Q) Edward Corrie WR 1205 v (8) Michael Koning (NED) WR 390
L32: Sean Thornley WR 901 v (Q) Baptiste Bayet (FRA) WR 984
L32: (Q) Dan Smethurst WR 1150 v Enrico Iannuzzi (ITA) WR 658 - winner to play (2) Chekhov or Singh

(*) there are no Brits in the top half of the third quarter, where (6) Nacho Coll (who comes from Mallorca and, while not renowned for his love of grass, was Rafa's hitting partner before the Final at the weekend) is the seed - he plays Mankad in R1.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

ForeverDelayed wrote:

Greenleaf wrote:

Evans could have a WC, mind it. I hope Bloomers/Skupski don't have wild cards - it's terribly annoying when you can be a direct entrant but get wild cards at home events.

After he and Smethurst were apparantly found out late drinking (or something like that) before their boys doubles match at Wimbledon, I'd be very surprised if the LTA are going to reward him for that with a WC.

(According to the Mail on Sunday, but I can't find an online version of the article at the moment - it basically said that Evans and Smethurst were out late before their boys doubles match and the LTA found out about it, and so will punish them accordingly, with Evans getting a harder punishment because he's been in trouble with the LTA before - I think it mentioned something about having the NTC training base taken away from the, but can't really remember it all)

If it's true, then Evans and Smethurst can expect every punishment that the LTA throws at them, given how the LTA has reacted to incidents like this in the past, how utterly stupid it was to do it the night before a Grand Slam match in the town where the LTA is based, and how it doesn't reflect well on the LTA after all the good publicity they got with Laura winning the girls singles (but as it hasn't been picked up by any other media outlet so far, maybe there's more to the story than the Mail on Sunday article suggests)

They now know their punishment.

I have to say I have little or no sympathy. Wasn't aware, either, that Evans was also in hot water because of yet another "incident", at the NTC during Queen's...

Is he ever going to grow up?

Salmon · Tennis legend

He won't have to waste his time playing USO now.

Lucky guy - this'll save his career.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

hmm likes a bit too much to party me thinks!

on a side note, i saw someone on bbc 606 mention that the lta pays the bbc to broadcast eastbourne. maybe makes a bit more sense why they make a loss.