Isaac Stoute has reached the final here (his first since a G5 in the same country nearly 2 years ago), as Miriambee noted in another thread

Boys R1 (L64)

Eric Kipkoech (KEN) d. Edward Harwood (GBR) 2-6 6-4 6-2

Kevin Cheruiyot Langat (KEN) d. (WC) Riaan Lakhani (GBR) 6-3 6-1

(5) Isaac Stoute (GBR) bye

R2

(5) Isaac Stoute (GBR) d. Salim Msafiri (TAN) 6-0 6-0

R3

(5) Isaac Stoute (GBR) d. (11) Amadi Kagoma (BDI) 6-0 3-6 6-2

QF

(5) Isaac Stoute (GBR) d. (16) Francesco Migliano (ITA) 6-4 6-1

SF

(5) Isaac Stoute (GBR) d. (4) Ismael Changawa Ruwa Mzai (KEN) 6-4 7-6 (6)

F

(3) Joshua Luck (RSA) v (5) Isaac Stoute (GBR)

Girls R1 (L32)

Alice McGinty (GBR) Bye

Sonia Radia (KEN) d. Georgina Gosen (GBR) w/o

R2

(5) Habiba Lasheen (EGY) d. Alice McGinty (GBR) 6-0 6-2

indiana wrote:

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Good stuff.  I do hope Isaac is these days much more able just to concentrate on his tennis without some of the distractios of the past.

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korriban wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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Ah, I nearly didn't even say what I did, because I thought a newish member might say "what ?" and they did.

Maybe best I just refer you to the Aussie Open Juniors 2011 thread :  http://britishtennis.activeboard.com/t40614616/boys-2011-australian-open-juniors-grade-a-weeks-3-4/?page=1&sort=oldestFirst

David's opening post references an interesting facebook page ( I believe no longer there ) regarding issues between Isaac and the the LTA.  There are some comments about that facebook further down page 1 of the thread.

His father "BigBanger"  introduces himself to us on page 2 of the thread, you'll get the drift of what he thought the main issues were.

There is further discussion with him on pages 6 and 7 of the thread.

And finally posts on page 8 refer to some unfortunate happenings later on in the year.

Err...happy reading.

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 24th of November 2012 02:55:51 PM

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Thanks Indy. An interesting mornings reading whilst listening to the cricket. People with extreme views often have a need to indoctrinate their children and tend to cause extreme reactions in those around them, often based more on fear than mis-understanding. And often prejudice is wheeled out to justify unacceptable behaviour on one or both sides. At least the kid can play a bit - but which companies would sponsor him now? Which coaches would agree to work with him? Which tennis organisations would back him? Which media organisations would risk interviewing him? And tell me which opponent would come into a match against him without a degree of fear of being abused, accused or attacked in some way? I thought our number 1 female tennis player was black, and our number 1 U14 male tennis player was black, both supported by the LTA. A difficult and complex topic, but lets hope some common sense breaks out here for the sake of this boy's life (putting aside his tennis career) and future. Wishing him every success on the court.

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 Korriban thank you, you have summed up our dilemma most effectively.

Getting any sort of message out about this organisation is an exercise in futility, a fact which their legal team take pride in. The Leverson enquiry could learn from the LTAs control of the media. But who is going to stick their neck out to seriously criticize the LTA, when they can lose their press accreditation. May be they will learn from Jimmy Saville's exploits and expose these people instead of protecting them with their silence.

Indiana mentions the unfortunate happenings last year, and you empathise with Isaacs future opponents.  Korriban you have no reason to fear for Isaacs opponents they will be protected no matter what they do on or off the court. [removed - see (*) below]

As with most bullies, the LTAs actions are becoming more extreme the closer they are to being exposed. The LTA ensure that Isaac is alone at these events, he has been threatened and assaulted by adults and yet hes the one deemed to be the threat. Why is that? If my behaviour had been anything less than impeccable I would have had the book thrown at me years ago. Also if the allegations made here and previously were not true, the LTA would not have hesitated in bringing charges against me. Instead they have chosen to do everything they can to destroy Isaacs career. Even with this victimisation Isaac has always been one of the best English prospects in world tennis, so why no support?

With all this going on we had written off a very important year for a tennis player, but Isaac still managed to train mainly on his own. In between appeal trials being rescheduled and disciplinary hearings being rescheduled we managed to schlep to some tournaments. His results might give a clue to the immense pressure which he was under. Bleak as the outlook was for Isaac, he received support and encouragement from Andrew Jarrett (the Wimbledon referee). With two titles in three weeks the LTA are failing to keep him down.

With Isaacs second discrimination claim against the LTA being filed in the Central London County Court. 2013 takes on huge significance for ethnic minority tennis.

-- Edited by BigBanger on Sunday 23rd of December 2012 01:35:10 AM

Re. 2 posts above:

(*) = I have removed the remainder of this paragraph, since it starts with an unsubstantiated allegation of perjury and includes named individuals. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the dispute in question, it cannot be right to leave that in, especially if this and other matters may be about to come before the courts. For the avoidance of doubt, in the removed section the poster counters some of the speculation on the AO juniors thread about the reasons for a recent DQ, but I think that is clear enough from the rest of his post anyway.

Given that some speculation about that DQ was allowed on the junior AO thread, I have left the rest of BigBanger's post as it was for now, since while it also contains some general allegations, they clearly come across as one person's subjective view and do not specifically mention individuals.

However, as will be clear from this thread and my comments on the AO juniors thread, I think any moderator would be uncomfortable about allowing unsubstantiated allegations of any kind (on either side of the dispute) to be reported as if they were facts and I would ask people on both sides of the argument to please be careful about what they post here, particularly in a case like this where it appears that the dispute is likely to be the subject of court action between the family concerned and the LTA in the foreseeable future.

I do not think any of us would want to limit free speech or the frank exchange of views on here, but this is meant to be a fun forum for fans, so I would ask everyone to please not push things so far as to force moderators to make very difficult decisions about whether to take action. I don't think any of us are legal experts, and it would be very sad on a completely amateur forum like this if we had to be. If things do get out of hand, we are likely to have to err on the side of deleting posts and I don't think any of us want to have to go there.

Like many other people on here, I do not have any first-hand experience of this dispute so I have no idea of the precise rights and wrongs of the situation, but I wish the young player concerned well in his tennis career.