Week 12 - Israel F5 ($10,000) - Herzlia - Outdoor Hard

bartman2099 · Lower Club Player

RE: Week 12 - Israel F5 ($10,000) - Herzlia - Outdoor Hard

indiana · Tennis legend

The group dynamic is interesting, especially in a basically individual sport like tennis.

There did seem a feeling last year that many of our teens were very supportive of each other and indeed to an extent working off each other in a good rivalry sense. They were travelling to top junior tournaments and indeed some senior tournaments pretty much as group, and certainly latterly in the year as a group they were in turn accumulating some pretty decent ranking points. There seemed a good dynamic there from what you saw and heard and indeed good old twitter.

They have generally come out after the close season not firing as much as one would hope. Does anyone know if most of them would have trained and practiced together at the NTC over this period ? ( presumably not Liam ). Would they have very individual training or be grouped to an extent ?

I would hope they still see each other as rivals in the more positive sense, but maybe not being around each other as much as when they still played junior tournaments they are now much less one group against the world. I wonder if they do suddenly feel more alone at the moment and, especially if not getting great results, that's proving a bit difficult.

Great to hear how Fitzy has been so encouraging to Liam. I feel just slightly guilty about going on a bit in another thread about Liam's form of the last 8 months, though only with the wish to see it get better. Not that I imagine he's going to take any notice of, or notice at all, what I write here.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 22nd of March 2012 06:30:37 PM

bartman2099 · Lower Club Player

That's awesome! It's good to see the results starting to roll. Top 500 seems like a real possibility.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Another great result and another semi final for Fitzy. Well Done that man !!

Bob

thegingerlightbulb · Lower Club Player

I've never seen him play, so I wouldn't know what his strenghts are; however he seems to have one crucial asset, that many of our tennis players dont have, which is great mental strength. Keep up the good work

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

SF: Andrew Fitzpatrick WR 704 vs (5) Adrien Bossel (FRA) WR 425

Best of luck, Fitzy. I have my fingers firmly crossed for you.

Fitzy · Intermediate Club Player

thanks guys, good to know ive got the support behind me. My goal was to get into 500's this year so not sure if ive nearly done that yet but must be close.
Indeed i have over the past year developed my mentality on the tennis court. I think alot of british tennis players sometimes worry about external things when on the court like 5-4 30-40 miss a first serve and they think 'the guys watching are saying im going to hit a double fault i know it'. that sort of stuff goes on in players heads.

Where as most eastern europeans couldnt give a crap what anyone thinks about there technique, they just fight and run and win. Ive got alot mentally stronger in the big situations and changes my 3 set losses against good players into wins.
To make any damage to your ranking you need to consistently start making semi finals of futures.

Its nice to know you appreciate my efforts, i hope someone takes notice soon who can help me out as im doing my best to make myself un avoidable with regards to my form.
Ive had so many people say things to me and not back it up at all, so im very reserved when it comes to things like sponsorship now.

At the end of the day i just want to fulfil my potential, and if i cant get myself enough opportunities to do that then i guess thats on my head. It wont be through lack of trying though!

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Fitzy wrote:
I think alot of british tennis players sometimes worry about external things when on the court like 5-4 30-40 miss a first serve and they think 'the guys watching are saying im going to hit a double fault i know it'. that sort of stuff goes on in players heads.

Funny you should say that but i bet that goes on alot. this constant fear that every move is being judged puts a huge ammount of pressure on top of what is already a highly pressured situation.

Why are the other countires differnt? I'm not sure, possibly it's down to the ammount of power that the suits in the LTA wield here, and thats probably drummed into the players from such a young age; that they have to impress these guys, the desire to get funding or the fear of having it cut etc rather than just play your game, go for your shots etc.

Anyway congrats on your run Fitzy, good luck in the semi.

steven · Tennis legend

Fitzy wrote:
thanks guys, good to know ive got the support behind me. My goal was to get into 500's this year so not sure if ive nearly done that yet but must be close.
Indeed i have over the past year developed my mentality on the tennis court. I think alot of british tennis players sometimes worry about external things when on the court like 5-4 30-40 miss a first serve and they think 'the guys watching are saying im going to hit a double fault i know it'. that sort of stuff goes on in players heads.

Based on this week's rankings, you're still 2 points off the top 600, so a win tomorrow would be enough ... but even if it doesn't happen tomorrow, you've got 2 and a half months left with no points to come off, so as long you manage to stay healthy, it can't be long before you make it.

That second bit rings true ... it must be important (if difficult) not to care what people think, or to learn to use those thoughts in a positive ("I'll show them") way. We're guilty of the odd bit of gallows humour here too but the coaches (if it is them) certainly shouldn't be giving the impression they're thinking that. Still, we're on your side and want the best for all of you, and I'm sure most of those watching do too.

Btw, I've been noticing your tweets with Liam (it feels a bit too much like eavesdropping at times, but the way Twitter works, it's hard to avoid them when following both of you!) and it's brilliant how genuinely supportive of each other you seem to be.

Good luck tomorrow!

Fitzy · Intermediate Club Player

ah right ok good to know, im not point hunting really just want to get as much form as possible and win my first futures and go from there.
Twitter is very public i agree i dont mind it though, liam is a top player with heaps of quality. He gets down on himself really easily, i played dubs with him from tipton and he was struggling for some form. So when i saw he managed to get through a round of bath i knew it would have meant alot to him to pumped him up a little bit.

Thats exactly right, i know from when i was at queens i developed the yips with my serve because i felt everyones eyes on me, the players i was travelling with and my coach, laughing when i starting hitting 2 doubles faults a game. not really what u want. u want competitive nature but u dont want to want your fellow players to lose so you can benefit from it in some way. But yet thats the way alot of players cant help but think while training with the LTA.

Fitzy · Intermediate Club Player

*meant alot to him and i tried to pumped him up a little bit with a pat on the back

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Fitzy wrote:

Thats exactly right, i know from when i was at queens i developed the yips with my serve because i felt everyones eyes on me, the players i was travelling with and my coach, laughing when i starting hitting 2 doubles faults a game. not really what u want. u want competitive nature but u dont want to want your fellow players to lose so you can benefit from it in some way. But yet thats the way alot of players cant help but think while training with the LTA.

thats really not good, you do get this feeling that sometimes there is this hope that British players lose. it's almost like you want to other guy to fail so by assocaiton you look better.

i'm sure it's not orignally from the players themselves but is instilled by the coaches/management etc

I've heard the atmosphere at the NTC isn't good. it's not suprising several guys prefer to train elsewhere.

Sheddie · administrator

Yeah I remember speaking with one of Britain's top female players a few years ago and she told me that while the French players all really got behind each other, at British events you often felt the other GB girls were hoping for you to lose.

This was back in 2007 mind and things may have changed since then.

What have your experiences of the NTC been like Fitzy ?

KK · Club Coach

steven wrote:
Shhh wrote:
Fitzy Tweet.
"Just won 64 36 63. Getting some serious court time in israel. Pleased with how I'm finding a way to win no matter my standard"
Back to back semi's, you can't help but be impressed!
Especially since that's twice as many Futures singles semis as he had reached in his whole career up to the end of last year
Seems incredible that it was only about a year ago that Fitzy was playing well at times but just not winning matches - it's been a great transformation to follow and it'd be interesting know what different elements have gone into it.
Today's win should take Fitzy up to about WR 610 post-Miami (up nearly 100 from 704 now) and up from GB 21 to GB 16, ahead of all the GB teenagers.
Fitzy will also turn 23 in a couple of weeks' time ranked more than 100 places higher than my standard example of a late developer, Marc Gicquel (WR 731 on his 23rd birthday, eventual career high 37) and he still has 16 months to get into the top 500 at a younger age than Gicquel did.

How likely is it that the LTA will make an exception to their age related rules? It would be dreadful to let a possible 'Gicquel' player slip through the net because of an inflexible rule. They ought to take into consideration that they have not spent any money on him so far. There is rather less chance of money being wasted on him than there is the money they spend on a 15 yr old.

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 22nd of March 2012 12:48:29 PM

LordBrownof · Futures level

We know that Heather, Lucy, Fran and (I think at some point) both Katie's trained in Florida over Christmas. Not sure about anyone else. I think Liam was in Spain.