Boys: Wimbledon Juniors 2011

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

RE: Boys: Wimbledon Juniors 2011

RJA · Hall of fame

I would say that another key thing to work on his defensive game, especially when pushed wide, which does not look great. From what I saw this week he won very few points once his opponent took control of the rally.

However I think the biggest thing for him is to keep playing aggressive. He never shied away from taking risks on big points, be it, deep second serves or going for winners when others would be content to rally. That attitude cost him dear yesterday but it was what got him to the final and it will serve him well in the future.

indiana · Tennis legend

Re how our guys are comparing with the top juniotrs in general, when discussing last night on TAW that it might have been a good thing presssurewise for Liam not to have won the title, John Lloyd was saying that a lot of the top juniors are just already concentrating on futures and not at Wimbledon, so success there could be a bit misleading.

Is that not basically bunkum ? Probably does apply to the girls, but I don't see it with the boys. As far as I am aware virtually all the top juniors were at Wimbledon. I can't really think of any that are just concentrating on getting up the seniors rankings and totally ignoring juniors, in particular the likes of of Winbledon.

I am aware that Bjorn Fratengelo, the French Open champion and JWR 2, was not at Wimbledon. He's played a few future tournaments but not set the world aloght at WR 1435. Jason Kubler, the former JWR 1 hasn't played much juniors but he also hasn't been that fit, and he was of course at Wimbledon, in the semis.

So unless I'm mistaken, what we had at Wimbledon ( and who's up there in the junior rankings ) is a pretty good indication of who the current top junior age players are ?

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Re how our guys are comparing with the top juniotrs in general, when discussing last night on TAW that it might have been a good thing presssurewise for Liam not to have won the title, John Lloyd was saying that a lot of the top juniors are just already concentrating on futures and not at Wimbledon, so success there could be a bit misleading.
Is that not basically bunkum ? Probably does apply to the girls, but I don't see it with the boys. As far as I am aware virtually all the top juniors were at Wimbledon. I can't really think of any that are just concentrating on getting up the seniors rankings and totally ignoring juniors, in particular the likes of of Winbledon.
I am aware that Bjorn Fratengelo, the French Open champion and JWR 2, was not at Wimbledon. He's played a few future tournaments but not set the world aloght at WR 1435. Jason Kubler, the former JWR 1 hasn't played much juniors but he also hasn't been that fit, and he was of course at Wimbledon, in the semis.
So unless I'm mistaken, what we had at Wimbledon ( and who's up there in the junior rankings ) is a pretty good indication of who the current top junior age players are ?

Yes, I think you're right about that, certainly for this year. In particular, isn't Liam still the highest placed 1994 player in the ATP rankings?

indiana · Tennis legend

steven wrote:

Yes, I think you're right about that, certainly for this year. In particular, isn't Liam still the highest placed 1994 player in the ATP rankings?

Don't ask me. I thought Count had developed steven to be all knowing wink Err, I'm pretty sure that is right.

RJA · Hall of fame

indiana wrote:
Re how our guys are comparing with the top juniotrs in general, when discussing last night on TAW that it might have been a good thing presssurewise for Liam not to have won the title, John Lloyd was saying that a lot of the top juniors are just already concentrating on futures and not at Wimbledon, so success there could be a bit misleading.
Is that not basically bunkum ? Probably does apply to the girls, but I don't see it with the boys. As far as I am aware virtually all the top juniors were at Wimbledon. I can't really think of any that are just concentrating on getting up the seniors rankings and totally ignoring juniors, in particular the likes of of Winbledon.
I am aware that Bjorn Fratengelo, the French Open champion and JWR 2, was not at Wimbledon. He's played a few future tournaments but not set the world aloght at WR 1435. Jason Kubler, the former JWR 1 hasn't played much juniors but he also hasn't been that fit, and he was of course at Wimbledon, in the semis.
So unless I'm mistaken, what we had at Wimbledon ( and who's up there in the junior rankings ) is a pretty good indication of who the current top junior age players are ?

John Lloyd is a complete idiot and the sooner the BBC fire him and his partner in idiocy, the egregious Andrew Castle, the better. Perhaps someone should ask our former Davis Cup captain to tell us how many 17 year olds have a higher ATP rank than Liam does.

You would think that after his complete and utter failure* as Davis Cup captain that a lengthy (preferably permenant) period of silence would have been the correct response. Yet instead we are subject to him being lauded as somekind of expert. Here he managed to take a perfectly good position, namely that Liam's performances at senior level are more important that the Wimbledon Juniors, and completely screw it up by making up rubbish about top players not being here and ignoring the fact that Liam is making good progress at senior level.

* I accept that the players must take some of the blame but I refuse to accept that so many bad performances had nothing to do with this fool. I really do feel sorry for the likes of Goodall and Evans who were under enough pressure without having to listen to Lloyd talking rubbish at every change of end.

End of rant blankstare

indiana · Tennis legend

Hey, you almost think as much of John Lloyd in general as I do smile

It's a weird world when the BBC effectively has at Wimbledon it's main commentator as Andrew Castle, chief summariser John Lloyd, and main interviewer Garry Richardson.

Do they ever do any feedback exercises on the audience's thoughts ?

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 3rd of July 2011 07:54:30 PM

RJA · Hall of fame

indiana wrote:
Hey, you almost think as much of John Lloyd in general as I do
It's a weird world when the BBC effectively has at Wimbledon it's main commentator as Andrew Castle, chief summariser John Lloyd, and main interviewer Garry Richardson.
Do they ever do any feedback exercises on the audience's thoughts ?

Presumably the problem is that 90% of the Wimbledon TV audiance are the two weeks a year variety of Tennis fan who don't know enough about the sport to realise what utter BS these morons keep coming out with.

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Hey, you almost think as much of John Lloyd in general as I do
It's a weird world when the BBC effectively has at Wimbledon it's main commentator as Andrew Castle, chief summariser John Lloyd, and main interviewer Garry Richardson.
Do they ever do any feedback exercises on the audience's thoughts ?

As RJA alludes to in the post after this (following on from his spot-on comments about JL), maybe the BBC think most of their audience need to be talked down to and patronised ... or at least that they won't notice the difference. If so, then whatever we say about 2- or 4-week fans, I think they're wrong.

Either that or they put them there to make Boris (whom I like, at least he doesn't take himself too seriously, even when he's trying to be serious!) and Tim look good wink

I'm not sure it's a case of 'even we could do better' - I'm sure most of us (well, speaking for myself!) would get tongue-tied and come out with stupid questions we'd kick ourselves for later. But there are much better people available ... and the BBC even have some of them already on their payroll - they usually give them the 'B' matches!

However, in my option, Andrew C is one of the best tennis commentators the BBC have got. (*)

(*) It's just a pity the one I'm talking about (Andrew Cotter) prefers golf!

DavidC · Tennis legend

While the majority of top juniors were here there were a few missing, including 3 of the top ATP ranked (Tiago Fernandes, who won the Australian Open last year, Carlos Boluda-Purkiss and Suk-Young Jeong).

RJA · Hall of fame

steven wrote:
However, in my option, Andrew C is one of the best tennis commentators the BBC have got. (*)
(*) It's just a pity the one I'm talking about (Andrew Cotter) prefers golf!

The one good thing is that Cotter is reputed to be held in high regard by the BBC so maybe he will one day replace Castle.

On a wider point I have said it before and I will say it again. Aspiring TV commentators should listen to Barry Davies (a more versatile commentator you will never find) and learn the very simple but very important lesson that sometimes the best thing you can do is to shut up. On TV you don't have to comment on everything, the viewer can see what is happening.

I know this is a boring point to bang on a about but it really is pathetic that the BBC, with all its resources, provides such pathetic coverage. I watch a lot of Tennis on Eurosport and their coverage is so much more enjoyable. After listening to Frew McMillan it is enfuriating to have to put up with listening to the likes of Lloyd.

RJA · Hall of fame

DavidC wrote:
While the majority of top juniors were here there were a few missing, including 3 of the top ATP ranked (Tiago Fernandes, who won the Australian Open last year, Carlos Boluda-Purkiss and Suk-Young Jeong).

This is pretty much par for the course though. A lot of Juniors miss at least one slam (if not more) in a year.

RJA · Hall of fame

How the bloody hell does Tim Henman have the audacity to say this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/14003754.stm

"I was actually at a tournament with him in Zurich in March where I was playing a seniors event and saw up close how good he is," Henman told BBC Sport.

"One of the things we are very bad at in this country is that we get too caught up in junior results, but I just look at him as a player and look at his game. He can really go places and that is what excites me.

"He is very good from the baseline, very athletic, moves very well and possesses the weapons to really hurt you. The world's top 100 is a long way off, but he has a chance and that is more than what you can say for a lot of our juniors."

I also see that the BBC in there usual display of incompetence used Liam's old ranking and not his new ranking.

-- Edited by RJA on Monday 4th of July 2011 10:11:00 AM

philwrig · Hall of fame

Well at least he got it more right this time.

indiana · Tennis legend

Oh, how perceptive of Tim, what a guy wink

Absolutely unbelievable for Tim to come out with this stuff after his previous comments eminating from the same tournament.

Tim, do us a favour, just shut up unless and until you've got anything particularly useful to contribute.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 4th of July 2011 11:13:03 AM