Week 42 - Futures F5 ($10K) - Caracas, Venezuela - Hard

SMC1809 · All-time great

Week 42 - Futures F5 ($10K) - Caracas, Venezuela - Hard

wolf · Tennis legend

No-one been bothering to check the results for Venezuela? ashamed

From last week:

Venezuela F4 Futures Venezuela
FU 11 Oct 2010 to 16 Oct 2010 Entry: Q Hard (O)
32 W Fernando LARREA-GONZALEZ (MEX) 6-2 6-1
16 L Gilles DE SOUSA (FRA) 1-6 1-6
Venezuela F4 Futures Qualifying Draw Venezuela
FU 09 Oct 2010 to 11 Oct 2010 Entry: DA Hard (O)
32 W Victor CABA (VEN) 5-7 6-2 7-6(2)
16 W Carlos DEVLETIAN (VEN) 6-0 6-2

Baxendine is 27 and has just picked up his first two ranking points from his 67th and 68th pro tournaments. Well done sir.

seagull · Hall of fame

Baxendine has been ranked before I'm sure

steven · Tennis legend

Thanks SMC1809 and wolf for finding these two events. On BOTB entry weekends, I tend to rely heavily on the forum to find any extra Brits (i.e. those outside the GB T25 but in a main draw) who need to be put on the GB T25 table that week, so I'm not surprised I missed F4 if nobody else spotted it, but I'm not sure why I didn't pick up on Baxendine being in qualifying for F5 - maybe the draw came out very late and I gave up checking for it, assuming it was very unlikely there would be a Brit there.

Baxendine hasn't been ranked before and he will become GB's 3rd oldest ranked player on Monday behind OEM's journo mate Nick Lester, who is 33, and Bloomers, who is a few months older than David.

I thought for a moment that Baxendine might be the oldest Brit to join the rankings for the first time, but I'm pretty sure Gregory Howe hadn't been ranked before he got the point in Tunisia when he was 35 - and even he might not be the oldest.

mikeyp · Junior player

steven wrote:

Thanks SMC1809 and wolf for finding these two events. On BOTB entry weekends, I tend to rely heavily on the forum to find any extra Brits (i.e. those outside the GB T25 but in a main draw) who need to be put on the GB T25 table that week, so I'm not surprised I missed F4 if nobody else spotted it, but I'm not sure why I didn't pick up on Baxendine being in qualifying for F5 - maybe the draw came out very late and I gave up checking for it, assuming it was very unlikely there would be a Brit there.

Baxendine hasn't been ranked before and he will become GB's 3rd oldest ranked player on Monday behind OEM's journo mate Nick Lester, who is 33, and Bloomers, who is a few months older than David.

I thought for a moment that Baxendine might be the oldest Brit to join the rankings for the first time, but I'm pretty sure Gregory Howe hadn't been ranked before he got the point in Tunisia when he was 35 - and even he might not be the oldest.

Actually that is a very interesting point, compare that to France say where players seem to play a lot longer, and not even necessarily at a higher level. Look at Stephane Robert cracked the top 100 for the first time at 30

So why is that? Do our players give up too young? Or is it easier to make a living being a pro in France? Dont you get paid more in the french league so you can continue being a pro? I find this interesting though? Maybe we just had a dirth of tennis players a while ago, but I cant help but think some quit too early. I mean Daniel Evans has partially been written off this year. The boy is 20

steven · Tennis legend

mikeyp wrote:
Actually that is a very interesting point, compare that to France say where players seem to play a lot longer, and not even necessarily at a higher level. Look at Stephane Robert cracked the top 100 for the first time at 30
So why is that? Do our players give up too young? Or is it easier to make a living being a pro in France? Dont you get paid more in the french league so you can continue being a pro? I find this interesting though? Maybe we just had a dirth of tennis players a while ago, but I cant help but think some quit too early. I mean Daniel Evans has partially been written off this year. The boy is 20

I'm not sure we can compare getting on the ranking list for the first time at 27 with getting into the top 100 for the first time at 30, but yes, I do think the LTA used to give up on people far too young and they have indirectly acknowledged that in the last year, albeit without having done much to rectify the situation yet. Maybe we'll see a subtle shift in approach once the funding decisions for next year get made at the end of the year.

It is also easier to make a living as a pro in France due to things like the French league. To the LTA's credit, they seem to have made an effort to improve British Tour this year in that respect, but obviously there's still no comparison.

It's difficult though - I mean, do we really want players overplaying in events with no ranking points available because they need the money, or would we rather they were able to put all their efforts into racking up ATP points? It's a tough balancing act!

mikeyp · Junior player

I'm not sure we can compare getting on the ranking list for the first time at 27 with getting into the top 100 for the first time at 30, but yes, I do think the LTA used to give up on people far too young and they have indirectly acknowledged that in the last year, albeit without having done much to rectify the situation yet. Maybe we'll see a subtle shift in approach once the funding decisions for next year get made at the end of the year.
It is also easier to make a living as a pro in France due to things like the French league. To the LTA's credit, they seem to have made an effort to improve British Tour this year in that respect, but obviously there's still no comparison.

It's difficult though - I mean, do we really want players overplaying in events with no ranking points available because they need the money, or would we rather they were able to put all their efforts into racking up ATP points? It's a tough balancing act!

Hi Steven, sorry you mis understood me slightly (i probably wasnt being very clear) I did not mean getting on the ranking list for the first time at 27. I meant our second oldest ranked player being 27 as opposed to other countries where players play a lot longer

I agree I think in the past people did give up too early. I do agree though I like the improvements to the British tour. Right now though there is no reason why you couldnt play a lot of the year in the UK

I think we have 18 futures
3 challengers
and 3 main events

mix that in with some British Tour events and you should be able to play 20 ranking tournaments in the UK plus some British Tour events for cash. Then however much you want to go overseas as well. Which I believe should be able to sustain being able to survive without too high travel costs

Shhh · Challenger level

To travel from London to Scotland for a futures....or vice versa....you could easily pay train fares well in excess of £100 (or similar in petrol). Hotels or B&B's can easily be £50+ per night. A first round defeat in a futures would only pay about £60 I think(?). Then there's training, kit etc etc

Cost per year must be high, quite possibly exceeding prize money and please consider a player is entitled to want to earn an income on top of this!

At 18-21, being a "professional tennis player" and travelling around to tournaments must be a bit like living the dream, envied by his peer group. By the time a player reaches his mid twenties, his contemporaries all moving on in life, the gloss must surely fade and it is no surprise that many call it a day.