Boys & Girls: US Open 2011 - Grade A (Week 36)

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

RE: Boys & Girls: US Open 2011 - Grade A (Week 36)

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

He won? YEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin

(I was following on LS but when the rain came I went away to do some of the ironing I have been ignoring for the past fortnight!)

steven · Tennis legend

Ratty wrote:
steven wrote:
It would be great to see them start leapfrogging each others' achievements at senior level in the years to come and exactly the kind of setup that should keep them pushing each other on and trying to match/outdo each other in training and in every other way.
How does that work then? So George Morgan's main motive for hitting the big time in pro tennis is because he wants to outdo Oliver Golding?

Doh! Surely you realise that's not what I meant! disbelief They're obviously going to be focused on chasing world ranking places, not each other, but a bit of friendly rivalry is bound to help on the way up, e.g. I bet each of them will want to be the first to hit the top 500, top 250, top 100, etc, even if they don't admit it.

More to the point though is that they know they can each beat each other, so if one of them achieves something, the others are more likely to believe they can do it too. Isn't that partly how we ended up with 4 GB girls in the top 100 (if only fleetingly) and isn't that part of what the Spanish and French have going for them.

More to the point still, they're likely to know more about what each other is doing in training than they are to know about what non-GB players are doing, so there's a good chance they'll drag each other up in terms of doing the things that work and not wanting to be the one who doesn't put in enough work and gets left behind. Exactly the opposite, then, of what has appeared to happen in the not too distant past, where you sometimes got the impression (perhaps totally unfair, who knows) that it was seen as more cool to be getting away with as little as possible.

Finally, who'd have thought that if Liam went out before the QFs, we'd get three in the semis? If we get two or three of them moving up together, it is bound to stop all the focus and pressure falling on just one player, and that really would be a good thing. smile

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Kudos Oli!

Spectator · All-time great

Would add to Stephen's excellent points two others: (1) they've been quite varied (and often independent) in their coaching and training decisions, which means that there are all kinds of different perspectives feeding in and (2) it was noteworthy that Mr Golding, in his press conference, mentioned Vesely as being part of the group that inspire each other on. If in addition to being friendly with each other, they are part of a group of really top players that come up as a cohort, that could potentially be quite helpful.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

he/she

gjr · Club Coach

Great week for all the lads. Hope a couple or more can push on a make some kind of mark on the main tour.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

I was thinking Soderling was a good choice of player that he might model himself on, thought he'd say someone like Federer though

philwrig · Hall of fame

Wonderful achievement for Oli, and the signs are exceptionally encouraging for the future. Continuing on from what Steven said I can just imagine the motivation for example Liam got from seeing his 3 compatriots making the semis and ultimately Oli winning. Liam was the top dog post Wimby now he has to catch up and prove he is still the top dog, great inspiration which must surely see him starting to make further progression in the coming months.
I think the fact that they are all great mates is really positive as well. On the girls side there has been a bit of rivalry develop between Hev and Laura not on the scale of Anne and Bally but they are not quite as close as they were, and as a result that just puts a little bit of extra pressure on each of them. Whereas with this group of lads they are just so happy when any of them have success. I remember when Oli was playing at Queens earlier this year Liam was so pumped for his match and was hoping that he might just get an upset win.

RJA · Hall of fame

I was pretty obvious when I went to the Chiswick futures a few weeks back that these guys are pretty good friends off the court and that the pictures we see on Twitter aren't just for public consumption but genuinely reflect that they all get on.

Reeltime · Satellite level

Aye. Seen a couple of rather competitive football matches at Edinburgh this year between them

Ratty · County player

I'm so pleased that you all have such a sunny view of human nature. But i'd say that most groups and teams are likely to be riven with jealousies and spite, no matter how united they choose to appear in public.

I think it was Groucho Marx who said that nobody is really unhappy to see his friends fail. There's many a true word spoken in jest.

RJA · Hall of fame

Ratty wrote:
I'm so pleased that you all have such a sunny view of human nature. But i'd say that most groups and teams are likely to be riven with jealousies and spite, no matter how united they choose to appear in public.

I think it was Groucho Marx who said that nobody is really unhappy to see his friends fail. There's many a true word spoken in jest.

Of course there is going to be a bit of jealousy, if a part of Oli wasn't jealous at all the attention Liam got for his Wimbledon run then would be something wrong with him. This is all part of the healthy competition that people are talking about.

Maza1987 · Challenger level

Ratty wrote:
I'm so pleased that you all have such a sunny view of human nature. But i'd say that most groups and teams are likely to be riven with jealousies and spite, no matter how united they choose to appear in public.

I think it was Groucho Marx who said that nobody is really unhappy to see his friends fail. There's many a true word spoken in jest.

I dont care whether it's jealousy/envy or friendly rivalry. If it really does actually make them push harder to top one another, I don't mind mind.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Oli confirmed at 2, George 8, Liam 10 and Kyle 27 in the new rankings.

I do hope that Oli doesn't seriously consider playing another junior tournament to have a shot at the number 1 ranking. The 3 1993s who have been junior no. 1 (Tiago Fernandes and Jason Kubler last year plus Jiri Vesely this) did so by playing a normal schedule for that time in their junior career and have moved into the top 600 ATP (Kubler dropping just below because of injury). Artificially trying to join them as junior no. 1s would just be a distraction from the main task of closing the gap in ATP rankings to these 3 and the other top 1993s.