Boys & Girls: 2012 Tennis Europe Under 14 events

Ratty · County player

RE: Boys & Girls: 2012 Tennis Europe Under 14 events

Ratty · County player

indiana wrote:

I don't quite get what you mean by being stupid to post something interesting during a match, myself always feeling interesting is better than non interesting.
On young Carlos, I really did begin to try to read that long 2007 Daily Telegraph report that you copied, but it was difficult to read in that format, my eyes not being the best. I think I got the gist, that folk thought he was going to be a great future star, eh.

It was not well expressed. But this is what I meant. When that other troll Jason Rockall put up his Boggo-joke thread, the name rang a bell. So I looked for his previous posts, but had to search through about 30 pages of "Bloomers breaks for 6-5" stuff on the Newport tournament thread. It was boring, but you know, each to his own.

Yeah, that Telegraph extract was long and boring too. I should have cut out large chunks. But the Shermer quote - pure gold, what?

Anyway, to revert to the usual standard of this thread:

"WELL DONE MAIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

smile

Ratty · County player

djlovesyou wrote:
surely winning stuff at a young age is more of an indicator of future success than losing?

Well, nobody with any common sense would deny that.

But here's the thing: so what?

Kiddies' tennis is of little intrinsic interest to anyone apart from the players, their parents and their coaches. After all, you only get about 10 spectators at adult $25k tournaments, where the standard is almost as high as on the main tour. At most junior tournaments there are no spectators at all. (Actually I believe that Tarbes does draw some quite serious crowds, although they may be mainly local schoolchildren.)

The only possible interest in watching kiddies play tennis might be in being able to boast that you saw some future Federer when he was 14, and bullsh*t about how you could "see the potential even at that tender age, bla, bla".

But we're not at Tarbes, so we can't even do that. Let's say that Maia Lumsden defies the overwhelming odds against, and becomes a top 10 pro. What are we going to do then - boast about posting congratulations to her on a message board when she was 14?

I'm sorry to sound nihilistic, but it truly puzzles me.

-- Edited by Ratty on Saturday 28th of January 2012 07:08:19 AM

DavidC · Tennis legend

Maia seems to have the happy knack of improving as matches progress. Today she won 10 games in a row to set up a rematch with the Tornado. Gabriella plays later

QF

(15) Maia Lumsden (GBR) d. Raquel Pedraza (USA) 6-3 6-0
Zaineb El Houari (MAR) v Gabriella Taylor (GBR)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Gabby makes it 2 semifinalists smile

QF

(15) Maia Lumsden (GBR) d. Raquel Pedraza (USA) 6-3 6-0
Gabriella Taylor (GBR) d. Zaineb El Houari (MAR) 6-4 7-5

SF

(15) Maia Lumsden (GBR) v (4) Alicia Black (USA)
Gabriella Taylor (GBR) v (11/WC) Jaqueline Cristian (ROU)

Maia & Jazzi lost their doubles semi but Anastasia Mikheeva is through to the Consolation singles final

indiana · Tennis legend

Good stuff smile

I'd also noticed Anastasia was well beaten in her R1 here and wondered how she was getting on, not having heard about her for a while. It's good to see that she has made the Consolation final. Is that for all the R1 losers ?

djlovesyou · Strong Club Player

I personally didn't read the article. I kinda got the jist of what it would be about.

Although I fully understand that 'getting excited' over young players is a dangerous game as there is obviously no guarantee that there will be future senior success, surely winning stuff at a young age is more of an indicator of future success than losing?

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Great stuff from the girls.

I'd love to see an all british final

djlovesyou · Strong Club Player

You don't sound nihilistic. You just sound troubled.

But you clicked and posted on the thread, so if you're not interested in 'kiddies tennis' it seems that you're only interested in people who are interested in 'kiddies tennis'.

Is that more or less puzzling?

DavidC · Tennis legend

Gabriella's semi has just started with Maia to follow

http://www.lespetitsas.com/mondial/index.php?tmpl=match_direct.html&titleName=live

-- Edited by DavidC on Saturday 28th of January 2012 10:24:01 AM

DavidC · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Good stuff
I'd also noticed Anastasia was well beaten in her R1 here and wondered how she was getting on, not having heard about her for a while. It's good to see that she has made the Consolation final. Is that for all the R1 losers ?

Yes - some consolation events allow 2nd round losers in as well, but looking at the draw Les Petits As appears to be just for 1st round losers. However some of the 1st round losers opt out.

Anastasia was the second highest ranked 1999 acceptance here. Like her Maia was trounced by a strong player from the year above last year

Gabby 2*-1

Ratty · County player

DavidC wrote:
Mervatron wrote:

Laura is the only British girl to reach the final. Andy Murray and Liam Broady are recent rinalists, with Matt Smith the only British winner - sadly in that year it was the finalist (Mario Ancic) who went on to a (curtailed) ATP career.

Actually, although I am hesitant to admit to being an anorak, I'm fairly certain that Dan Cox also got to the final, in 2004. (Wikipedia says that Ignatik did, but I think that is wrong.)

Dan lost in the final to the Australian Andrew Thomas, who was dominant in the age group, and massively hyped as a budding superstar.

For example:

Ian Barclay, who guided Pat Cash to Grand Slam greatness in the 1980s, coached Andrew for several years. Barclay said: "I don't think I've ever seen anyone more talented than him."

You know what's coming next, don't you ...

... Thomas reached a career high ATP ranking of 785, and hasn't played a match since November 2010. Like Boluda, he never grew tall enough: his official height is 5'8" (I once saw him play at the US Open juniors, and would say that might be a bit optimistic.)

[I'm sorry to be so predictable.]

-- Edited by Ratty on Saturday 28th of January 2012 07:07:37 PM

DavidC · Tennis legend

SF

(15) Maia Lumsden (GBR) v (4) Alicia Black (USA) on court shortly
(11/WC) Jaqueline Cristian (ROU) d. Gabriella Taylor (GBR) 6-4 6-2

DavidC · Tennis legend

Unfortunately from a British perspective the Tornado resumes normal service

SF

(4) Alicia Black (USA) d. (15) Maia Lumsden (GBR) 6-1 6-1
(11/WC) Jaqueline Cristian (ROU) d. Gabriella Taylor (GBR) 6-4 6-2

DavidC · Tennis legend

Ratty wrote:
DavidC wrote:
Mervatron wrote:

Laura is the only British girl to reach the final. Andy Murray and Liam Broady are recent rinalists, with Matt Smith the only British winner - sadly in that year it was the finalist (Mario Ancic) who went on to a (curtailed) ATP career.

Actually, although I am hesitant to admit to being an anorak, I'm fairly certain that Dan Cox also got to the final, in 2004. (Wikipedia says that Ignatik did, but I think that is wrong.)
Dan lost in the final to the Australian Andrew Thomas, who was dominant in the age group, and massively hyped as a budding superstar.

The LTA's British Tennis magazine does confirm your version - do try and get the Wikipedia entry changed wink (they do record Dan's final in the entry for him)

Anastasia won the Consolation final