British Tour - Waste Of Space?

Shhh · Challenger level

British Tour - Waste Of Space?

mjd · Challenger qualifying

For once I disagree Shhh, these events are a stepping stone into senior tennis.
The idea is to encourage players at grass root level to enter competitive tennis, it attracts mainly younger players who can enter and gain important experience knowing that they will be against players of similar skills, unlike Futures where even qualifying can sometimes be daunting for players who has never entered senior tennis events.
In my opinion this is exactly the event to encourage young players to take part in competitive tennis, and where the star of the future may be found, all it needs is a bit more publicity in the clubs.

The Hoose · Satellite level

I agree with mjd. It may not be the strongest line-up, but that's probably a good thing. If it were a duplication of a futures event it wouldn't be serving its purpose of bringing together the next level of British players so that they can get good competition and they and the LTA can see whether they're cut out for Futures and beyond.

mjd · Challenger qualifying

As I indicated in my previous post " all it needs is a lot more publicity" and as we are well aware this is just what the LTA have little knowledge or interest in outside of Wimbledon despite their declared good intentions!

Silver · County player

I always found the whole thing a little bizarre but personally, were it on similar lines to the money tournaments in France or summat, then maybe it would make more sense to have them.

Personally, I can't actually think of many GB players who have taken off from doing well at these events, no disrespect intended. I wasn't even totally sure they were still going on. The younger players might actually be better off earning money on the tour, unless the prize fund for events like this are actually more than I am led to believe.

On a scale of 1 to pointless... I'm currently a 6.5.

freerider · Futures level

i think theh are good for high cklub players and im pretty sure you get at least £100 pounds for winning it AND in the masters the prize money seemed pretty good to me, the lta description - steppingstone to higher level isnt quite true but it does give players a chance to play competitive tennis gainst those of equal ability and with cash rewards and if it is elf funding itself through advertising- used to be robinsons, but even if it is costing the lta a bit of money, which lets face it there not exactly short of then whats the problem.

freerider · Futures level

for masters (think normal tour is half )

Prize Money - 2008
Winners £600
Runners Up £400
Losing Semis £250
Losing Quarters £150
Last 16 £75
Last 32 £25

£600 is quite a nice amount as is £75 in actual fact

wolf · Tennis legend

QFs
Thornley v O'Leary
Fitzpatrick v Hackett
Coupland v Pritchard
Ross-Hurst v Hewitt

The Hoose · Satellite level

..and anything that can give Fitzy some much needed confidence has to be good value!

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Tough one to call this but my guess is that Thornley and Coups will contest the final.

I think it's a good tournament to use as a warm up for futures qualies. They should be scheduled in the week before a British futures tournament and the winner should get a MD/Qualies WC for the following futures. That would give people a little more incentive to play.

They should be Brit only WCs though. If Rob Varga decides to play British Tour again I don't think he should get WCs.

Fitzy · Intermediate Club Player

Well well well, im sure you have seen an update, but i will give you it anyways.
thornley lost to o'leary 6-7 3-6
hackett lost to fitzpatrick 4-6 3-6
coupland lost to pritchard in 3 sets
hewitt lost to ross-hurst in 3 sets.

semi finals
Fitzpatrick beat o'leary 7-6 6-4
Pritchard beat ross-hurst 6-3 6-2 i think.

Final Second on after ten if you were wondering.

I was impressed with o'leary, he has improved alot since i played him like 3 years ago. I know he should have but his game has come on alot in the last few months i think.
Was a good match and gaining confidence and some much needed cash.

regarding the topic, i think the prize money should be increased and then more players would make an effort to play them when they are home, to get some needed cash for when they go away.
But as they are, its good for players who might start to play futures soon. As they get a feel for some of the standard in qualifying etc... and first rounds of main draw even somtimes.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

congrats on making the final, good luck.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Nice one Andy.

I'm done with predictions now

Drew · Dec 18, 2008

Well Fitzy are you £600 better off or not ???

freerider · Futures level

pritchard is £600 better off