I now feel justified in my earlier comments about Marcus's weight now that I have been backed up by Andy!!

Regardless of the specifics it's nice to read about the level of interest that Andy is showing in the younger players, players that need a point in the right direction from someone who knows the formula of how to get to the top and has been through it himself. Nice to hear...

good find this article was ,well done.

Simmy,Andy spoke to Marcus about his weight quite a while ago (if you read the article properly he said Marcus NEEDED to lose weight-past tense)-and Marcus did so.He has got less than 5mm excess fat and is well within normal BMI.He and all the players are constantly checked for weight,strength and fitness levels at Roehampton and I don't think that the LTA would continue to fund Marcus if they believed he was significantly overweight.

Drew wrote:

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I spotted that as well Polly 'NEEDED' is the key word in that piece.

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Sorry Drew, but i believe we have a correct thread elsewhere for discussing off season media reports

Not sure where to post this, but there's an excellent article about Andy from OEM in the Times today at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article5496808.ece which I imagine will forevr be remembered for the immortal line:

"There have been many improvements in the past 12 months: in his serve, his slice, his movement, his physique, his temper, his deportment and the metamorphosis of Roger Federer into his bunny."

Also, a relatively benign article from him on the LTA, talking to Stuart Smith at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article5497146.ece

Meanwhile, the Mail reminds us at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-1112135/Murrays-high-jinx-First-Grand-Slam-beckons-Andy-good-shape-dispel-curse-Qatar.html that 8 former Doha winners, including Andy himself last year, have gone out at the AO in R1 and only 2 have gone on to win the first slam of the year.

Both papers mention Mel being in for Sharapova and the Mail agrees with me (read that on its own and it sounds rather  LOL) that "this is the first time Britain has had two players gaining a direct entry into a Grand Slam since the 1993 U.S. Open" ... either that or they read this board too  (only joking - I imagine that is the kind of stat they can access more easily than we can or might have got from an LTA press release)

Finally, I thought the fact that Mel has got in for Sharapova might get her more coverage than if she had replaced someone else and it looks like that's right - the Telegraph at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/australianopen/4218399/Melanie-South-seizes-chance-as-holder-Maria-Sharapova-pulls-out-of-Australian-Open.html even points out that they have the same initials LOL (a tenuous link if ever there was one) but, to its credit, resists the temptation to illustrate the story with a pic of Maria and has a (sadly, awfully unflattering) pic of Mel instead.

-- Edited by steven at 02:29, 2009-01-12

The Beeb and the LTA were hours later to report this than the Mail which is turn was hours later than it appeared here.

It's not an obscure stat like the stuff comparing Andy and Fed at the same age and it's the kind of thing you'd expect the LTA to have a record of, so I imagine that's where they got it from.
 
My more primitive method was to use http://www.britishtennis.net/stats/ye-f.htm?n=1 to guess about what year it would have been then to work forward from there, with Tennis Navigator (which lets you customise what you see, but only really for tour level events and slams, so I don't use it often) coming in handy for 1995 onwards.

-- Edited by steven at 15:26, 2009-01-12