The new American no. 2 in the ATP rankings is ...

steven · Tennis legend

The new American no. 2 in the ATP rankings is ...

Josh · Challenger level

Speaking of nationality changes how's the Johanna Konta saga progressing?? It must have been over 2 years since we first heard about her intentions but still no progress. This change (trying not to give the answer away) seem to have gone relatively under the radar so surely it can't be that hard for a much lower profile player to change.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

curveball. Interesting though. Remember when we tried to poach Djokovic?

LadyTigress · County player

Okay, no I did not guess that! I was going for Isner seeing as Roddick is the USA #1.

And I do remember back when there were negotiations with Djokovic for him and all his family to move here and him to play for us... I thought it was the Djokovic family that approached the LTA first though, then there were negotiations anbout LTA paying for his training costs and in return he'd play for us... and I thought that in the end the LTA just didn't follow up on it and Nole decided that he wanted to be patriotic and play for his home country.

I often wonder how things would've spun out if we'd had Djokovic on the British team. Presuming that his progress and titles would've panned out the same way, we would've had two "Brits" in the top 5 and not just Andy holding down the fort in the top 100... we'd also have a British Grand Slam champion, ending the 74 years since Fred Perry line that keeps coming up, and there's a possibility that we'd still be in the World Group in Davis Cup too. Hmmm. Maybe the LTA should have made more of an effort to poach Djokovic when the opportunity came up!

steven · Tennis legend

I'm not sure it would have meant very much had we had that kind of success due to Djokovic playing for us, since it would so obviously have been a flag of convenience. Not the same as Rusedski, who did have one British parent (and that's a perfectly normal reason to play for a country in any sport) or Laura who's lived here pretty much all her life.

Nole, like most people in that region, is so patriotic that it's hard to imagine him ever having been prepared to switch to GB, even for a lot of money, and by the time people started talking about it, he didn't need the money any more anyway.

LadyTigress · County player

I know it would've been a flag of convenience. Everyone would've been saying to each other "well, we haven't REALLY broken Fred Perry's record, cause Djokovic is really Serbian". Still. It would be a technical thing.

Yeah, I couldn't believe when I read that he'd been considering moving to us. The strong patriotism in that area and all. And yes, you're quite right, that is indeed why the plan petered out.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

well i guess it want going to be Odesnik, naughty boy.

seagull · Hall of fame

Any surprise given who his new coach is?

philwrig · Hall of fame

It seems to be easier to change your nationality to American than it is to become British.
You just have to look at the high profile names that changed their allegiance.

Navratilova, Seles , Huber and now Haas. I suspect I have missed out a few as well.

I was speaking to a relative at the weekend who has lived in America for the last forty years and she says that if you have a strong case to become a citizen i.e provide a decent contribution to their economy or in this case are a high profile sports person the process is pretty slick. Whereas in Britain the residency qualifications are quite strict and probably due to European law no doubt cannot be sidestepped as easily. As for Johanna the Times reported last year that she would qualify for British citizenship when she was 20 which is May next year.

LadyTigress · County player

Oh dear, Odesnik. *shakes head*

What about that Lithuanian guy who played for America? I remember steven mentioning him a lot in the run up to the tie.

-- Edited by LadyTigress on Friday 26th of March 2010 03:06:01 PM

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Brings Boggo closer to a Wimbly DA. I hope they ban Odesnik for life. HGH is not exactly on a par with marijuana or coke

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

not hugely surprised, Tommy has lived full time in Florida for years and his fiancee is American

although looking at his ATP profile with the American flag at the side feels REALLY weird

Akhenaten · Pro player

Haas hasn't played since February since he Americanized.
Also, I notice the American No.1 has had to withdraw from Madrid after coming down with his reoccurring bout of claycourtitus. Poor guy, every year it's the same. cry

indiana · Tennis legend

Maybe Haas is by now generally fit and healthy other than like so many Americans he too has now developed claycourtitus

-- Edited by indiana on Friday 14th of May 2010 10:01:04 AM

James · Satellite level

It seems like everyone's at it..

According to his ITF profile Argentine Andrea Collarini has decided to become an American citizen - probably an easy enough switch as he is listed as having been born in New York.

Got to say, if I was an Argentine tennis followerer I'd be pretty disappointed by this, Collarini had/is having a good junior career and seems to have made a solid, if unspectacular, transition to senior tennis. I'd be very interested to find out what he's getting out of the switch as I can't imagine the USTA rolling out the red carpet, Kazakh style, & he is afterall switching from one tennis giant to another, both with systems that appear to be impersonal.