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kundalini


Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

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Mark Hilton's retirement and its implications
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Mark Hilton has officially retired and is looking to take up a coaching role. He is quoted as saying that he feels he has maximised his potential and while he always wanted to break into the top 100 that target no longer appears viable. He also mentioned his dislike of travelling.


In some ways it seems quite sad to retire at time when he was close to his career high ranking but unless you are prepared, and have the funds, to travel around the world, it is very difficult to be a top 200 player. Almost inevitably the weakest fields are for events far away that few players want to compete in.


Mark had already received 3 wildcards into Wimbledon (the limit) so he would have had to get through qualifying or win the british wildcard mini-tournament to get the $18k or so on offer to players who make it into the 1st round at Wimbledon.


In the end I guess Mark's lack of height prevented him from being a better player. This is the age of 6ft 10 Karlovic, players of 6ft 2 are merely average height, so Mark's 5ft 7 is a huge disadvantage when it comes to serving. There can't be many players of that height amongst the top 200 - only the Rochus brothers spring to mind.


It strikes me that there is so little money in the game at the lower levels of Futures, Satellites and even 25k Challengers that the brits need that Wimbledon cash just to keep them afloat while they try to climb the rankings.


Alan Mackin's attempts to qualify for main tour events may have been largely unsuccessful but from a financial perspective it actually worked. His collection of lucky loser spots earned him decent money - for instance US $ 3650 for Milan, US $ 3900 for Umag, US $ 4870 for Sopot and an incredible US $ 10000 for Basel. In contrast Alex Bogdanovic's Sunderland Challenger title gained him US $ 3600.


To keep going past the age of 25 it seems british players need to be firmly established on the Challenger tour, able to play events with decent paycheques such as the 100k events you get in the autumn, and to be able to qualify for grand slams from time to time. The idea of reaching the top 100 aged 28 is simply not practical for financial reasons - something the LTA might wish to think about with their stated target of 5 top 100 players by 2008.



 



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stevemcqueen


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I feel sorry for Mark, he is hugely talented, but still not talented enough.  A few more inches in height, things could have been different.  If the Rochus brothers were 6'2" one could imagine them being top ten player. Pictures of them standing next to Karlovic are bizarre, but just as funny is seeing them play mixed doubles with Kim Clijsters who is afull head taller.


Mark is being realistic, if he was going to make the top 150, he would have done it by now. I understand his dislike of crappy hotels and long flights as well.  I wish him every success for the future



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Josh


Challenger level

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What was his ranking when he retired and how old was he?

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kundalini


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Mark Hilton Stats:


Aged 24


Current Ranking 239


Career High Ranking 202 (achieved 2005)


ATP Record 1-4


Challengers  26-46 (best results finalist at Nottingham Grass Court Challenger this year, Hull Challenger 2000) of which 23-34 in the UK and 3-12 abroad.


Futures 5 titles + 6 finals



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Josh


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I think he was too young to retire.  If he's was coming close to a career high ranking then he should have carried on and tried to climbe well inside the top 200.  It's his decision though.

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kundalini


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I'm not sure about this but I suspect that pro players play in the hope of one day reaching the top 100, possibly the top 20. At some point many of them discover that they simply don't have whatever it takes to reach that level. In Mark's case it was probably a mixture of height and a love of the touring lifestyle that prevented him from reaching that goal.


He's figured out that he hates travelling, that his performances suffer and his results overseas are poor. If he gets a coaching job he will probably earn a lot more money than he would get from winning UK Futures and Challengers. Maybe if he qualified for Wimbledon and then won a 1st round match it might be different but the odds are very much against that happening.



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Josh


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I think for every players goal to be in the top 100 is unrealistic.  Obviously only 100 people can be there, out of the 1500 who have ranking points.  If everyone retired once they realised they wouldn't get into the top 100 then there would be no tennis.



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Sally


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I agree with you Josh. Things are so competitive nowadays that it`s getting harder to make it to the top of the game, especially with the power game most players have.

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Sheddie


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Regarding Hilton, he could have made a fairly comfortable living at around 200 if he'd decided to travel and play European challengers. Mark Hilton was definately limited by his size as too many players at challenger level were able to overpower him. He didn't have anything particularly special about his game to enable him to move up much further in the rankings.

I wish him good luck in his career as a coach but I'm not particularly sorry to see him retire as he was a player who's ambition didn't match his talent. What sort of an attitude is that - "he didn't want to travel." As a pro player that mindset is utterly bewildering - did this guy really want to succeed. Being a pro tennis player is all about travelling to far off locations, whatever the standard of the hotel, and grinding it out with the other hundreds of hopefuls. Only those who really, really want it, succeed.
When he did play in a challenger - Nottingham, he reached the final and maybe if he'd competed at that level regularly he could have increased his ranking further. However, by sticking to British futures and satellites he didn't give himself the chance.

I agree with you Josh to some extent, but only players who have the hunger to get to the top are the ones who actually succeed. If a player didn't aim for the top 100, he wouldn't have the right mindset. The problem for Mark Hilton is that the pay for futures and satellites is extremely poor - unless you get to the quarters or semis you make a loss on the tournament. In order to make a decent living he would have had to travel to challengers but he wasn't prepared to do that.


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Sally


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Was he LTA funded?If he wasn`t, that may have influenced his unwillingness to travel.

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Sheddie


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I don't think he was LTA funded, but in 2004 he reached rd2 at Wimbledon but instead of using that 18K to play in a few challengers, he went back on the GB futures tour. Also, in September he got a couple of thousand dollars for losing in rd1 of US Open qualies

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Sally


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Strange choices  Perhaps he felt more comfortable playing in Britain at Futures/Satellite level thinking he would win them and gain more points and prize money than he did, but as has been pointed out, he didn`t benefit from it.

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Drew


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Maybe he is being realistic.........he sounds like he would make a good coach........still to retire at 24 is kinda young !

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Sally


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You see a lot of the Brits play in Challengers abroad and go out in the first round so in that sense, perhaps he was being realistic. I`m agreed, 24 is young to retire but I`m sure he`s thought about it a lot before coming to the decision. How much can he expect to make as a coach?



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kundalini


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I would imagine 20-30K. (just a guess)


Where as Andy's earnings for next year will be at least £1million.


 



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