Boys: Dunlop Orange Bowl, USA - Grade A (Week 49)

Osomec · Junior player

RE: Boys: Dunlop Orange Bowl, USA - Grade A (Week 49)

Osomec · Junior player

It's certainly true that Grade A tournaments are not all equal. The one in Mexico just after Christmas only has two of the current top forty boys on its entry list on the ITF junior site, though it will look better when the 1992 births are removed. Not really surprising when it starts two days after Christmas and runs over New Year, which is a ridiculous time to stage a tournament that is supposed to be at a global elite level. Oliver Golding is one of them.

DavidC · Tennis legend

wales1994 wrote:

Does this mean he gets a WC into either Indian Wells or Miami?

I don't think there is a formal agreement but 4 of the last 5 winners have ended up in Miami qualifying with wildcards or (in the case of Yuki Bhambri) the main draw. The one exception is last year's winner Gianni Mina, but he may have turned down a QWC preferring to play in Europe.

DavidC · Tennis legend

steven wrote:

My junior title lists only go back to the start of 2008, but there haven't been any GA singles wins in the last 3 years for GB boys or girls, unless you count slams as GAs for the girls.

For the boys, the best wins have been G1s for Dan Smethurst and Marcus Willis in 2008 and for James Marsalek in 2010.

I'm sure if there was an obvious one just before that, someone like David will know!

Dan Evans won a Grade 1 in 2007 (Paraguay) and there are plenty of other Grade 1s over the years, though I don't have a comprehensive list, but Grade As have been very thin on the ground. I'm not aware of any apart from Andy's Grand Slam since Martin Lee beat Arvind Parmar to win the Japan Grade A (forerunner of Osaka) in 1995

philwrig · Hall of fame

Belated congratulations to George for a top class week. Had a slightly disappointing year until now but this has rekindled my belief that George can become if not a top player certainly top 150 anyway. I wasn't overly impressed when I watched him in May, but hopefully now got his confidence back to where it needs to be.

Saying this I think the performance has to be taken in perspective.

1. Not the strongest renewal of this event I would suggest.
2. Hasn't been able to reproduce this level of performance outside of Key Biscayne.
3. 18 next month so the oldest of our top prospects.

Personally I would like him to play purely seniors after the Aussie open.

Link to a brief interview given I presume from the NTC today.
Not sure he will like to be reminded of this in 5 years time, also note the interviewers pointed question as to the huge help the LTA have provided him with.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=631176847128&oid=177543495592121&comments

-- Edited by DavidC on Monday 13th of December 2010 11:13:30 PM

andyjmr · Intermediate Club Player

Just read about this on the bbc site. i'm already looking forward 2 or 3 years, to an evening in front of the monitor watching the scoreboard ticking over as he plays out the final of his first big challenger tournament. well, you never know.

Osomec · Junior player

I don't see the benefit in the boys switching purely to seniors before they have to, when in all but the most exceptional cases they are not going to make the top hundred until they are 21+ in any case. That means three or more years flogging round the Futures/Challenger circuit taking a lot of beatings, and playing only slightly more than one match per tournament on average, and I fail to see how that can help anyone. Better to get some experience of playing strings of matches and maybe winning the odd tournament while they still can. They can still play a few Futures to see where they stand against older players, as George has done this year.

What I would really like to see happen is for a series of 20U or 21U events to be introduced for the boys. The girls that age don't need it. At the Grand Slams at least, played in the second week, with prize money and ranking points. Not only would this help the players, and perhaps separate the wheat from the chaff in such a way that more of the chaff would realise sooner that they need to find something else to do, but it would also help the sport, by putting a focus on the up and comers, and hopefully ending the current dissatisfaction with the lack of young stars, because fans would be able to see that exciting 18-21 were around and progressing, even if they haven't made it to the top yet.

But there is no chance of this happening, because in our mixed-up society differential treatment is only tolerated when it benefits women.

-- Edited by Osomec on Tuesday 14th of December 2010 01:55:30 AM

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

I see your argument, but I think its stupid to get a player used to pummeling his peers match after match and then suddenly, when the option to step down to juniors is totally gone, throwing them into the deep end against seniors which is an incredibly steep learning curve.

I think the girls get it right with exposing themselves to seniors as early as possible so that they can have a few cracks at matches with absolutely no expectation on themselves. This helps to settle their nerves when theyre a bit older and expected to start putting up at least a decent fight in seniors since they know they will have improved massively since their first few senior matches.

The question is: is the extra match practice the juniors recieve in junior events of genuine value when translating to the senior game? I think the fact that top juniors dont always emulate their success in seniors shows that this extra match practise needs to be taken with a pinch of salt!

Ill ignore your closing statement because that isnt an argument for here or now! :p

Osomec · Junior player

George isn't pummelling his peers match after match, he's only won one tournament this year. He can't be thrown into the deep end against the seniors in 2012 because he played 9 senior tournaments this year and will presumably play at least as many next year. I can't see any point in him playing more unless his results improve markedly.

The girls act differently because they are competitive at a younger age because they are physically mature earlier. But most of them never make it, just the same as most of the boys never make it. That is determined by the fact that there can only be X players in the top X, with X being whatever one deems to be the lowest ranking that constitutes success as a pro.

Whatever the top juniors did, most of them wouldn't make it, for many reasons, most fundamentally because the top seniors are drawn from a ten year plus cohort rather than a one or two year cohort.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Surprisingly Oli not entered for Aussie open juniors.
Both George and Liam will be seeded quite high in what appears to be quite a weak field.