More Joko related frippery from the WTA; she was the 37th most viewed player page on the WTA in the last year.
Thus, surpassing her highest ranking (or one suspects, her renown for most of the year), and putting her alongside players such as Kuznetsova, Stosur, Sloane, Cibulkova & Lisicki in popularity.
Just looking at prize money Jo earned $434K in prize money alone, which is the reason why the LTA have and should have stopped funding her.
Hev earned $512K
Naomi B $138K and counting
Laura R was next earning $109K - which probably doesn't justify her being funded by the LTA with all her other endorsements
Jos and Anna are next on the list earning just over $42K each
I understood that Jo's funding was reduced ( / stopped ? ) fairly well BEFORE she started surging up the rankings and earning the great bulk of that prize money.
They'll probably go and restore it now ! Or does having her base abroad now make her ineligible ?
-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 24th of November 2015 05:55:01 PM
The LTA stopped the funding last year, it said. Because her ranking had stalled.
JoKo was very clear that it was this that made her move to Spain and review her whole set-up.
Which, obviously, worked out well (well done, LTA - written with ironic overtones !).
But no thanks, in my view, to the LTA (although any success, of course, is a culmination of efforts and investment so the LTA should get some reflected credit, but a small 'some').
Cd she said in a recent interview that wasnt quite the case. She already had the existing set up in Spain she just had additional stress of not being able to afford to pay them, but the guys agreed different terms to stick with her and its paid off.
I guess it's in the details but The Telegraph interview a month or so back said that her funding from the LTA was basically stopped in March 2015.
It then says : "Her response was to move her training base from London to Gijon in the Asturias region of Spain, where she hired a pair of experienced coaches - Esteban Carill and Jose Manuel Garcia - who used to play on the satellite circuit."
The rest is all along the same lines, that she hired the guys, and moved to Spain, following the cut in funding, which was significantly before her big jump up the rankings
It always makes me cross that all our most successful players spent significant time abroad. We're a rich country, so why are we getting it sooo wrong that our only success comes from players with some strong ties to another country?
More Joko related frippery from the WTA; she was the 37th most viewed player page on the WTA in the last year. Thus, surpassing her highest ranking (or one suspects, her renown for most of the year), and putting her alongside players such as Kuznetsova, Stosur, Sloane, Cibulkova & Lisicki in popularity.
For the record, despite a highly variable season, Heather still came in 28th. This possibly speaks to her general personal appeal, as she is the player with just about the highest outperforming delta between actual ranking and popularity ranking (the ever popular Hantuchova's is higher).
For the record, despite a highly variable season, Heather still came in 28th. This possibly speaks to her general personal appeal, as she is the player with just about the highest outperforming delta between actual ranking and popularity ranking (the ever popular Hantuchova's is higher).
I suspect Heather's position owes a lot to a huge spike of views in early July....