Team AEGON 2010

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

RE: Team AEGON 2010

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Yeah she has 12 points to defend between now and July...the top 300 isnt unrealistic before then if she stays healthy, very weird. Plus her game is good on grass, so if she can get her ranking and confidence up with a good first half of the season, I see no reason why she cant have a great run during the British summer events. Any ideas where she is going to be next?

-- Edited by murray_2k9 on Saturday 19th of December 2009 04:37:47 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

The Shedman wrote:

Alex was set top 200 target by end of year by the LTA but as he was injured for 3-4 months he may get given a second chance. They originally said they were going to give him a chance to get back to his old ranking before looking at the contract again and they're going to have a chat about it in Jan - much could depend on next few weeks in Brazil !

The 200 target does not seem to have been an unreasonable one at the time, and the facts are that Slabba had a poor for him first half of the season and his ranking had dropped to 374 after Wimbledon.

Yes, he was unlucky with injury thereafter and and that was a great pity for him, but there were few signs of him being close to challenging that target and I am afraid I have to say that there seem to be a number of more deserving causes amongst the omissions.

Good luck to him though in Brazil and in his ongoing comeback.

One person that was also injured, is only 18, and has continued to progress after her comeback is Joss Rae, and like others I feel that it seems extremely harsh for her to have been "dropped" . In the 11 counting events Joss has had since June she has accumulated 59 ranking points and with 5 months missing has risen 146 ranking places this year from 643 to 497, during that time achieving a CH of 481, It would look to me she would have been challenging a top 400 place if she had enjoyed a full year. Based on all that, I find her omission rather perplexing, and wonder quite what the LTA were looking from her to retain her place.

I do hope that Joss is at least getting a certain funding help as philwrig indicated was happening for Lisa Whybourn, another person who to me is rather unlucky not to be on the list. Lisa has in the second half of the year quite suddenly broken through in the senior ranks and showed an ability to get results, results which some on the list are maybe lacking. To me she now should be getting all help possible to push on, presuming one is also looking at raw potential and latest progress and not just bare targets.

I wish I could more understand how Joss and Lisa are excluded from a list that contains such as Messrs Pauffley and A Ward

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 19th of December 2009 10:35:04 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

Apart from the obvious performance criteria there must be other criteria which the LTA must use to select the above list. Work ethic must another one and maybe is why some players are on this list who you wouldn't expect and some others aren't who you would have expected. It is always difficult to piece a story together when you don't have the full facts.

steven · Tennis legend

Here's a list of % changes in ranking so far this year for those who were ranked at some point during 2009 (it can be accessed from the BT.net stats pages, where it gets updated most weeks) with those in Team AEGON marked in blue or, if they are clearly included mainly for doubles, in purple.

They are ordered by the change in their ranking in 2009 as a % of how far they were from being world no. 1 at the start of the year, with unranked players given a notional ranking equal to the number of players in the ATP rankings + 1 at the relevant time, i.e. either at the start of the year or now. It's not a perfect measure by a long chalk but it's a lot better than just looking at the number of places moved, though I wouldn't deny that a move from 180 to 100 would be more valuable than a move from unranked to just inside the top 1000 even though they would both get the same % here, so maybe the change formula needs to be tweaked even more in favour of those who start out ranked relatively high up.

Obviously we need to take into account the fact that some players started 2009 well below their career highs, e.g. because of injury last year (Phillips and Baker are obvious examples, though I would argue that Phillips has done enough since his return from a devastating injury to merit inclusion as well as Jamie), and the LTA have to allow for this, for age (including performance in junior events for the U18s) and no doubt for lots of other factors.

Givne that, the list suggests to me that the most glaring omissions, taking both age and 2009 change into account, are Whybourn, Dr No, Meatball, Broady and (taking into account her injury layoff too) Rae.

+77.0% Phillips, Morgan (UP from 1872 to 431)
+62.0% Inglot, Dominic (NEW from UNR to 738)
+56.1% Smethurst, Daniel (UP from 976 to 429)
+55.1% Hutchins, Ross (NEW from UNR to 870)
+54.6% Whybourn, Lisa (NEW from UNR to 524)
+53.4% Pauffley, Neil (UP from 1531 to 714)
+52.4% Brown, Danielle (NEW from UNR to 550) - but not back at her CH yet
+51.9% Watson, Heather (NEW from UNR to 556)
+50.7% Jones, Max (NEW from UNR to 955)
+45.4% Evans, Daniel (UP from 477 to 261)
+44.9% O'Brien, Katie (UP from 159 to 88)
+43.4% Cox, Daniel (UP from 831 to 471)
+43.1% Rice, David (UP from 906 to 516)
+38.5% Baltacha, Elena (UP from 136 to 84)
+37.0% Willis, Marcus (UP from 965 to 608)
+36.4% Broady, Naomi (UP from 471 to 300)
+35.8% Curtis, Jade (UP from 520 to 334)
+29.0% Cavaday, Naomi (UP from 287 to 204)
+28.5% Burn, Tom (NEW from UNR to 1385)
+27.3% Baker, Jamie (UP from 430 to 313)
+26.6% Ward, Alexander (UP from 980 to 720)
+26.0% George, Nicola (NEW from UNR to 854)
+25.8% Milton, Joshua (UP from 745 to 553)
+25.2% Hewitt, Ashley (NEW from UNR to 1449)
+25.2% Angus, Niall (NEW from UNR to 1449)
+23.1% Rae, Jocelyn (UP from 643 to 495)
+22.0% Brooklyn, Jonathan (NEW from UNR to 1511)
+22.0% Davis, Ben (NEW from UNR to 1511)
+21.8% Carreras, Amanda (UP from 548 to 429)
+21.7% Robson, Laura (UP from 517 to 405)
+21.5% Barlow, Philip (UP from 1665 to 1307)
+20.1% Fleming, Colin (UP from 648 to 518)
+19.7% Parish, Helen (NEW from UNR to 927)
+19.1% Brassington, Kyle (UP from 1140 to 922)
+17.9% Smith, Olivia (NEW from UNR to 948)
+17.3% Bettles, Andrew (NEW from UNR to 1603)
+17.3% Broady, Liam (NEW from UNR to 1603)
+17.3% Chaudry, James (NEW from UNR to 1603)
+14.4% Feaver, James (UP from 839 to 718)
+13.9% Gabb, Richard (NEW from UNR to 1668)
+13.9% Carpenter, Jack (NEW from UNR to 1668)
+12.8% Bogdanovic, Alex (UP from 188 to 164)
+12.4% Bains, Maniel (UP from 1137 to 996)
+11.4% Ren, Jessica (NEW from UNR to 1022)
+11.4% Brooks, Richard (NEW from UNR to 1717)
+11.4% Golding, Oliver (NEW from UNR to 1717)
+9.7% Evans, Oliver (NEW from UNR to 1750)
+9.2% Slater, Nicola (NEW from UNR to 1048)
+7.9% Windley, Jade (UP from 696 to 641)
+7.9% Bradshaw, Timothy (UP from 1127 to 1038)
+6.1% Ren, Jennifer (UP from 1009 to 948)
+4.9% Moore, Tara (UP from 650 to 618)
+4.4% Richards, Holly (NEW from UNR to 1103)
+4.3% Corrie, Edward (OUT from 1900 to UNR)
+4.1% Thornley, Sean (UP from 813 to 780)
+3.2% Ward, James (UP from 280 to 271)
+2.9% Harfield, Chris (OUT from 1872 to UNR)
+0.5% Janbakhsh, Ines (OUT from UNR to UNR)
+0.3% Thomas, Elizabeth (UP from 700 to 698)

same Murray, Andy (UNCH from 4 to 4)

-1.0% Vickers, Samantha (DOWN from 914 to 923)
-2.7% Cornish, Stephanie (DOWN from 1048 to 1076)
-3.7% Rushby, Tom (OUT from 1754 to UNR)
-4.0% Illingworth, Matthew (DOWN from 707 to 735)
-4.0% Pritchard, Ben (DOWN from 1441 to 1499)
-6.5% Mooney, Nicola (OUT from 1078 to UNR)
-6.5% Sargeant, Amy (OUT from 1078 to UNR)
-6.6% Miotto, Alex (DOWN from 1418 to 1511)
-9.3% Cavaday, Nick (DOWN from 1202 to 1314)
-11.3% Bishop, Paul (DOWN from 1572 to 1750)
-12.9% Webley-Smith, Emily (DOWN from 357 to 403)
-15.7% Marsalek, James (OUT from 1572 to UNR)
-16.0% Warburton, Lucy (OUT from 990 to UNR)
-16.4% Smith, Anna (DOWN from 372 to 433)
-17.9% Fitzpatrick, Andrew (DOWN from 1272 to 1499)
-18.6% Wigan, Tara (DOWN from 890 to 1055)
-19.1% Arlidge, Burnham (DOWN from 877 to 1044)
-20.7% Stoop, Georgie (DOWN from 218 to 263)
-22.4% Coupland, George (OUT from 1486 to UNR)
-26.2% Patient, Timothy (OUT from 1441 to UNR)
-27.3% Eaton, Chris (DOWN from 389 to 495)
-28.2% Watling, Ashley (OUT from 1418 to UNR)
-28.4% Scarfi, Olivia (OUT from 894 to UNR)
-37.2% Khan, Natasha (DOWN from 581 to 797)
-38.3% Howe, Gregory (OUT from 1315 to UNR)
-38.6% Smith, Matthew (OUT from 1312 to UNR)
-41.8% Farquharson, Alexander (OUT from 1282 to UNR)
-44.1% Brown, Katharina (DOWN from 554 to 798)
-44.8% Hewitt, Tim (OUT from 1256 to UNR)
-48.7% Blake, Myles (DOWN from 790 to 1174)
-51.5% Goodall, Joshua (DOWN from 203 to 307)
-53.3% Brewer, David (OUT from 1186 to UNR)
-55.4% Fitzpatrick, Anna (DOWN from 483 to 750)
-59.1% Bloomfield, Richard (DOWN from 297 to 472)
-60.2% Marray, Jonathan (DOWN from 456 to 730)
-67.8% Keothavong, Anne (DOWN from 60 to 100)
-72.5% South, Melanie (DOWN from 110 to 189)
-74.2% Kasiri, Miles (OUT from 1044 to UNR)
-85.5% Skupski, Ken (DOWN from 635 to 1177)
-88.9% Slabinsky, Alexander (DOWN from 351 to 662)
-106.5% Kinsella, Jonathan (OUT from 881 to UNR)
-107.0% Clarke, Yasmin (OUT from 555 to UNR)
-108.1% Flanagan, Ian (OUT from 874 to UNR)
-126.8% Elliott, Amanda (DOWN from 318 to 720)
-128.6% Seator, Edward (OUT from 796 to UNR)
-150.0% Borwell, Sarah (DOWN from 363 to 906)
-159.2% Bamford, Neil (OUT from 702 to UNR)

-- Edited by steven on Tuesday 22nd of December 2009 12:28:20 AM

philwrig · Hall of fame

Wow how long did that take Steven ?
Great information and highlights some of the seemingly strange selections or non selections.

steven · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:

Wow how long did that take Steven ?

It's just a copy and paste of http://www.britishtennis.net/stats/mv-c.htm?n=1 so the stats took about 10 seconds LOL (obviously they took a bit longer to set up in the first place a year or so ago, but they get updated each week from a simple copy and paste of the new ranking lists)

philwrig · Hall of fame

I've never spotted that section in your stats bible so 10 seconds is about as fast as it takes me to run the 100m !

steven · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:

I've never spotted that section in your stats bible so 10 seconds is about as fast as it takes me to run the 100m !

Why weren't you selected for the last Olympics then? wink

philwrig · Hall of fame

I knew I couldn't beat the Usain Bolt so I thought whats the point.

HossTheBoss · Strong Club Player

Would have liked Ricey in the list ,done well in second half of the year.

Sheddie · administrator

indiana wrote:

The 200 target does not seem to have been an unreasonable one at the time, and the facts are that Slabba had a poor for him first half of the season and his ranking had dropped to 374 after Wimbledon.

Yes, he was unlucky with injury thereafter and and that was a great pity for him, but there were few signs of him being close to challenging that target and I am afraid I have to say that there seem to be a number of more deserving causes amongst the omissions.

Good luck to him though in Brazil and in his ongoing comeback.

True but what people don't always realise is that the Aegon funding (particularly for the players in their mid 20s) can be the difference between a player being able to continue on the tour and being forced to retire.

If Alex is out of team Aegon then the situation is grim.....either he finds sponsorship, something I'm looking into for him via local media outlets and other sources or he won't be able to compete regularly on the tour. He'd have to spend considerable time coaching to get cash to travel which would mean less tournaments and less chance to climb the rankings.

It's interesting as even though the other European countries don't have the same financial resources as the LTA, a lot of the French, Italian, Spanish, Czech and Eastern European players have access to more financial backing than British players as those countries have well established club leagues or regular series of money tournaments which enable players to finance travel. In Britain we have the British tour but the events are simply not frequent enough or carry enough prize money to really help players

philwrig · Hall of fame

That's a fair assessment of Alex's position but having funded him to the max. throughout his whole professional career maybe perversely it is the kick up the * Boggo needs as he now knows he has to lay everything on the line for one final push and basicially support himself. Maybe now we will see him finally reach his potential by getting into the top 100 when funding will be irrevelent anyway. It could make him more hungry and desperate. Just a thought.

Akhenaten · Pro player

Sheddie's talking about Slabba not Boggo. (too many Alex's!)

indiana · Tennis legend

I do appreciate that good funding support is extremely important, if not indeed often absolutely vital, to a player's future.

What would be great if it was possible for the LTA to adequately fund many more players, and maybe indeed they could. I am not particularly knowledgeable on LTA finances. Clearly it would be devastating for any player to have to give up the game through lack of support.

Maybe as Shedddie indicates, there are things that could be learned from other countries that would help the funding situation. Although looking at these could only be a longer term thing, particularly with the speed the LTA occasionally moves at.

However, in discussing the Team AEGON 2010 list, I do stick to my comments that with the Team AEGON system as it is I believe that there are more deserving causes amongst some ommisions. Based on his current age and results over the last year or so, I do not find Slabba's potential ommision surprising or controversial.

I wish Slabba every good wishes for trying to raise funding from whatever sources and admire Sheddie for his help in this.