Ross Hutchins

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

RE: Ross Hutchins

Jan · Hall of fame

Yes - we'll miss him, but I wish him all the success and happiness in the world for the future.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

All the very best to a great guy.
Hopefully he will stay in actively in GB tennis somehow, you can always use people of his quality & qualities.
Best wishes Ross, and thank you for all the good times.

indiana · Tennis legend

Had been a bit of a strange year playingwise in that I thought the start of the year was very encouraging and he seemed with Colin to have picked up quicker than I had expected.

I make no apologies for being one of quite a number who didn't think that he should have been called up for the Italy Davis Cup tie, and there may have been an element of reintroducing him for the future. But the fact that that was a judgement call and the call up was far from ridiculous just on the current tennis grounds then said a lot for his early year progress.

But their doubles results did then at best flatline for quite a number of months and while I hoped that he would continue, and from afar thought he could still make it back to the top, there have been a few things that suggested this day was coming.

I wish Ross all the best for the future. One of the good guys and a talented guy, he should do well wherever his future takes him.

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

A lovely guy; the sort whose talents must not be lost to GB tennis.
I hope we will find him actively involved for many years to come.

Any idea if there's going to be an official send off tournament/event so we can go and say thank you?
I'm acutely agoraphobic, but would go, like I did for his Queens event, and Bally's.
I always find it ashamewhen our players retire and we don'tget to see them one last time.

Any way, rambling over, good luck Mr. Hutchins in what and wherever the future finds you.

wolf · Tennis legend

Seems a bizzare decision, so much he didn't achieve which he could have tried to do. His results this year have been fine, okay not as good as previously but good after a year out. But doing things like taking tournament directors posts and playing World Team Tennis got in the way. Plenty of time to do these things and more once you've maximised your first career.

Armchair · County player

Ross is 29 and for obvious reasons couldn't play for a while. He acquitted himself really well as a commentator and at Queens.

If it seems the right time to capitalise on those recent achievements, he should, good for him.

He comes across as such a nice bloke, obviously talented, capable and tough !

I wish him well in whatever he does and I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing him for years to come - even if not on court.

EddietheEagle · County player

Little room for sentiment in pro-tennis. Leon Smith should have given Hutchins the chop long ago and sought to foster a Fleming-Marray partnership for Davis Cup well before the Italy tie, let alone after the announcement of Hutchins as Queens tournament chief. The way he deployed Murray in that particular tie was plain stupid, showing either the effect of inexperience (not anticipating the Italians turning their home turf into a feverish, hostile cauldron on the third day) or possibly too, his own limitations as a captain in not making the hard selection choices.

indiana · Tennis legend

l always saw Ross ending up in the 4 man Davis Cup team as wooly thinking rather than sentiment. I think Leon does pragmatism before sentiment.

I think they were sure beforehand that Andy and Colin were going to be the doubles team and Ross was picked in the 5 man squad to reintegrate him for the future, but not to be in the final 4 man squad.

Andy's illness complicated things and they felt forced to name Ross in the team as cover. To my mind the mistake was having just two specialist doubles players out there when one was not really ready to play in such a tie.

Planning for having Ross coming back in the longer term seemed reasonable to me. Colin and Ross were back together, had started the year encouragingly well and the Fleming / Marray partnership, while doing OK, had certainly been less than a resounding success in its time together.

EddietheEagle · County player

Indiana, when you have a critical match to win - and I think we both agree the Italy tie was winnable - you do what it takes to win that match. The future takes care of itself and reintegration is the last thing a captain with smarts would have on his mind particularly when someone has already decided he's off to be a tournament director and is not by definition 100% committed.

It was known well beforehand that Murray would have to win his singles plus, again clearly, we had to win the doubles. Ward and Evans offered no better than hope value given the quality of the opposition. Murray was never realistically, going to win three matches in three days. That would have required a near miracle given his personal circumstances and his lack of a track record on clay. So the doubles was the crux and a plan should have been conceived long beforehand as Wellington did at Waterloo. He scouted the ground a year before that battle and Leon Smith should have adopted the same approach and tasked a pair well beforehand to win that match. What else does the bloke do for a living apart from Davis Cup? It's his main job and he's there to deliver.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

I thought Leon's main job was Head of Men's Tennis?

scottie1 · Futures level

I think Leon does well as Davis Cup captain there is limited talent apart from Andy Murray. Considering where GB were under the Lloyd regime I don't think we can complain We were never going to beat Italy on clay.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

The problem with your theory Eddie, is that it can never be tested. I am absolutely sure that if he had played Fleming/Marray in the doubles and they had lost, he would have got even more criticism for not playing Andy alongside Colin.

In my opinion, the only realistic chance we had of winning the tie was for Andy to play 3 rubbers (both singles and doubles). In the end that wasn't enough.

However, we didn't lose the tie because of bad decisions by the captain, we lost because Italy have got better players than us and more strength in depth.

Personally I think it was a remarkable effort to get that far in the tournament in the first place.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

The Optimist wrote:
I thought Leon's main job was Head of Men's Tennis?

What exactly does that mean now though ?

Outside of the Davis Cup, if all the players are relocated to other centres, with their own coaches and set-ups, what does Head of Men's Tennis do ? Go and visit and see how people are getting on ?

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Bob in Spain wrote:
The problem with your theory Eddie, is that it can never be tested. I am absolutely sure that if he had played Fleming/Marray in the doubles and they had lost, he would have got even more criticism for not playing Andy alongside Colin.

In my opinion, the only realistic chance we had of winning the tie was for Andy to play 3 rubbers (both singles and doubles). In the end that wasn't enough.

However, we didn't lose the tie because of bad decisions by the captain, we lost because Italy have got better players than us and more strength in depth.

Personally I think it was a remarkable effort to get that far in the tournament in the first place.

I agree.

Italy were better - Leon had already proved himself as an extremely competent captain by the victory in the US. He did what I think was the right decision re the doubles. We'll never know how it would have panned out otherwise. As, B in S (Brazil?) says, they may still have lost and then he'd have got it in the neck for not playing Andy.

Frankly, after all the fiascoes with John Lloyd, I though the last couple of years have been brilliant.

And a country with only one player in the top world 100 singles should not be winning the top team event anyway.