Spectator wrote:

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Interesting. The singles will be valuable but at a level which would be standard for a futures tournament. The doubles on the other hand are more exciting (yes, I know there are those for whom doubles and more exciting are mutually exclusive): one established challenger-level pairing, one potentially quite strong partnership (Skupski/Corrie) and one in which each party holds a GS doubles title (true, one's a junior, but still) ... not to mention the reunion of Pauffley and Willis ... and come to think of it the Farquharson/Burton pairing isn't doing badly on the GS doubles side either ...

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 Don't rule out the Wimbledon champion who is playing with JWH this week and is only seeded 2. Could be a cracking doubles tournament. I think the Skupski/Corrie partnership looks interesting.

korriban wrote:

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This is the fifth $10k of the year in GB. In the context of previous discussions on the tournament mix in GB, noticed that Australia is currently onto its 3rd or possibly 4th Challenger of the year. All of them have relatively weak fields, and are great opportunities for the likes of Saville, Krygios, Kokkinakis, Millman and others to build up quick points, or at least test themselves early in their careers. Combined with the batches of $15ks they have, again with weak Aussie dominated fields at this time of the year, it really does provide a huge benefit for developing talent to put their best foot forward quickly.

Of course, Australia's location and the timing of their Summer facilitate this strategy, making it hard for anyone not Australian to stay out there from Jan-March to take advantage of the tournaments. But if Italy can have nearly 20 Challengers, as well as large ATP tournaments through the year, why can't GB? Id love to be able to go and watch tennis outside June with decent fields, and I cant really anymore at home. 20 Challlengers maybe extreme, after all no other country goes anywhere near this. But the huge "hole" in GB's tournament profile, firstly in terms of level, secondly outside the month of June, seems to be very unhealthy for the progession of our young players, the promotion of the sport as an all year round game, and the opportunities for fans to enjoy the sport live.

-- Edited by korriban on Tuesday 26th of February 2013 07:52:13 AM

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 I might be mistaken, but wasn't some of the reasoning behind not having challengers was the lack of GB competitors that would qualify and compete in them.

At present, James Ward, Josh Goodall and Jamie Baker would probably fit into this category for a $25k

 If we could get three or four more by the end of the season with a ranking 280-300 or less then it could be justified.

Ed Corrie, Kyle Edmund, Oli Golding are obvious candidates. If 2 or 3 others such as Dan Evans, Dan Smethurst, Dan Cox could make that push then you never know we might see a load more challengers scheduled.

Dan Smethurst was 5-3 up in the tie-break then lost 3 points in a row and had to save a match point. Reinwein then saved a match point too.

7-7

8-7 Reinwein

9-7 Reinwein

A shame, but he did win 11 more points during the match.

Good win for Lewis burton in 3 sets

Yes, paulisi, Kyle Edmund's coach kind of defended the LTA in suggesting it was pointless putting on challengers just for players of other countries to rack up the points. But he was sure if and when there were more higher ranked Brits, there would be more challengers.

This was in discussion with Bob in Spain, and I'm not sure that it is official thinking.

But if so, I think it is wowfully shortsighted in not giving our players more chance to test themselves at home before they are general challenger level players and, yes, collect maybe some more points.

It also just helps give the impression to the casual observer that decent level tennis in this country is only played on grass in June / July. Strawberries and cream ? Champers anyone ?

Seems not enough thought as to tryng to engage outsiders more, maybe the parents of a young boy or girl who appears to have real sporting talent. Forget tennis, it's only played in the summer and full of snobs isn't it...probably expensive too.

But then we know from Sport England etc the LTA's deficiencies in expanding the game at grass roots level.

And the enigma that is Josh Goodall bows out in straight sets - draw is wide open for Ed Corrie now.