RJA. Thank you for the report. Gosh!

Its never easy to witness behaviour like that from professional sportsmen, but I think people are often more forgiving where the   person channels their bad behaviour in a way which turns their poor play around. Either way, I'm sorry to hear that Liam's form isn't perhaps where he hoped it would be. To be honest, the early season US clay tour from our young boys suggested that only Kyle showed real form, with Luke, Liam and James M all failing to make it out of qualies. Their form since then has really been more of the same......results rarely lie. What's going on?

I had hoped there was going to be a golden generation thing going on for GB mens tennis, with this group of boys plus George and Oli. I suspect many of us did. Perhaps it will happen still, but the jury still hasn't re-entered the room!

Nonetheless, still very pleased for Ed, and both Marcus and Dan are starting to show some consistency, which is very pleasing. Hopefully more of the same tomorrow.

Thank you very much for your report, RJA, disappointing as much of it was to read re Liam.

I think many folk feel the good 89 / 90 born generation, certainly in numbers, has not achieved as much as it should have and that some attitudes both on and off the court have had a part to play in that.

I have read quite a lot suggesting that the 93 to 95 group was rather more professional and focussed and the words from such as Greg Rusedski have been very positive ( although, to be fair, that is to be expected ).

From what I read here, someone needs to be having strong words ( be peculiar if they weren't ). One can accept not coming through quite as quickly as expected and dips in form. The behavior I read about here appears both tawdry and counterproductive and I consider unacveptable from a 19 yo with real tennis potential that quite a lot of money and folk's time has been invested in.

I have written not totally dissimilarly in the past about one particular member of that earlier tennis generation.

Get it sorted Liam, and soon, don't waste some of your time and others.

Some good results there for Pauffley/Willis in doubles and several players in singles. Thanks, RJA, for the reporting: very helpful to have first-hand accounts!

indiana wrote:

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I have read quite a lot suggesting that the 93 to 95 group was rather more professional and focussed and the words from such as Greg Rusedski have been very positive ( although, to be fair, that is to be expected ).

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I think in terms of off the court preparation and work ethic the 93 to 95 group all look fine (something that wasn't always true about previous groups) and I haven't heard anyone suggest that Liam has a problem in that regard. It's just his on court demeanor that is so utterly awful and I say this as someone who is very forgiving (within reason) of players bad behaviour on court. If players want to smash their racket, shout at themselves, pick a fight with the umpire (this one has its limits), etc then fine. But channel that anger into playing better rather than just getting down in the dumps. Oh and if you are going to berate yourself for playing bad shots lets see a positive reaction when you win a big point.

Best not to mention names as things like this can be taken out of context and can dog players for a long time.

PS: Josh, I see from the women's thread that you were there yesterday. Did you watch Liam's match? If so do you think that my assessment of his performance was unduly harsh?

-- Edited by RJA on Thursday 14th of March 2013 11:45:58 AM

Jaggy1876 wrote:

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Tom F who some experts here thought shouldn't beat petulant Broady one game away from the semi go Tom

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Nobody here said anything along those lines.

-- Edited by RJA on Thursday 14th of March 2013 12:06:56 PM

RJA my brother was there watching yesterday he said Liam had a real strop at end of match swearing throwing water bottles not very professional.

 

He did say that Marcus played well seems more focussed