British Junior Development System Better than French?

Ratty · County player

British Junior Development System Better than French?

Count Zero · Tennis legend

but hasn't it always been the problem that we have good young players, but we never manage to get them to kick onto the next level, i.e top 100.

Akhenaten · Pro player

Ratty wrote:

Should Roger Draper be up for a knighthood?

Yes.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

yeh the French are really good at producing late developers though...just look at someone like Simon for example or Llodra

James · Satellite level

...and Brit basher extraordinaire Robert (who broke into the top100 for the first time at 29!)

steven · Tennis legend

James wrote:

...and Brit basher extraordinaire Robert (who broke into the top100 for the first time at 29!)

Gicquel made it to the top 100 at 29 too, I think.. And the answer to the Count's question is ... yes.

Ratty · County player

Wow, we have the same number (9) as Spain, and would have beaten them if they hadn't had tied it at the finishing line by claiming both the 698th and 699th ranked players!

(Too time-consuming to type out all of those double-barrelled names, but just by way of a general query, when does a Spanish player drop the 2nd part? I remember Nadal-Pereira becoming just Nadal when he was about 16.)

I wouldn't exactly call Simon and Llodra late developers. Simon cracked the top 100 when he was 20, and Llodra when he was 21.

But anyway, what's all the defeatist talk, GB men's tennis is awesome!

And when you hear Roger Draper repeating this stat in Wimbledon week, I hope he's going to be sending me the royalties ...

-- Edited by Ratty on Wednesday 2nd of June 2010 11:32:44 AM

steven · Tennis legend

Ratty wrote:
Wow, we have the same number (9) as Spain, and would have beaten them if they hadn't had tied it at the finishing line by claiming both the 698th and 699th ranked players!

(Too time-consuming to type out all of those double-barrelled names, but just by way of a general query, when does a Spanish player drop the 2nd part? I remember Nadal-Pereira becoming just Nadal when he was about 16.)

I wouldn't exactly call Simon and Llodra late developers. Simon cracked the top 100 when he was 20, and Llodra when he was 21.

But anyway, what's all the defeatist talk, GB men's tennis is awesome!

And when you hear Roger Draper repeating this stat in Wimbledon week, I hope he's going to be sending me the royalties ...

The Spaniards tend to drop the matronymic surname sometime between when they break the top 200 and when they break the top 100, but I don't know why and it's a bit hit and miss - Pere Riba Madrid, who has just cracked the top 100, has dropped his matronymic on ATP (though not on ITF), but Daniel Gimeno-Traver, who's been the top 100 for over a year now, and GGL have kept theirs.

However, GGL has kept both names on ATP and ITF even though he's been in the top 100 for ages.

I wonder if the change happens when they stop spending most of their time on the Spanish Futures/Challengers circuit.

indiana · Tennis legend

Ratty wrote:

Wow, we have the same number (9) as Spain, and would have beaten them if they hadn't had tied it at the finishing line by claiming both the 698th and 699th ranked players!

........

And when you hear Roger Draper repeating this stat in Wimbledon week, I hope he's going to be sending me the royalties ...

So, shift the goalposts when comparing with the Spanish. Gawd, do you really want to be of use to Roger or not ?

But yes, he does need new stats after his famous number of Australian Open finalists one.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 2nd of June 2010 02:48:35 PM

LadyTigress · County player

When they decide that non-Spanish people can't remember their long names and drop one so they become more memorable? Just joking.

Speaking of name changing... I mentioned this on the Pick'em thread... Shortly after the start of RG, Olek has changed his official name on both ITF and ATP from "Oleksander Dolgopolov Junior" to "Alexandr Dolgopolov"... even though on ITF his father is named as "Aleksandr" so he's in fact changed it to CLOSER to his father's name rather... you'd think that he'd drop the "Jr" part with a more distinct name not a closer name! Any idea why? Maybe he also thinks that it's easier for Westerners to pronounce that way. I'm not really buying into the change though, I'm too used to the nickname I gave him of Olek. It's easier to distinguish him that way from the endless "Alex"s running about on Tour.