Henman Article

SMC1809 · All-time great

RE: Henman Article

Count Zero · Tennis legend

heres a link to the Telegraph article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/daviscup/9975486/Britains-Dan-Evans-says-he-is-bad-at-his-job-after-Davis-Cup-defeat-to-Russias-Dmitry-Tursunov.html

the other concern is lets say he gets a Wimby WC and more likely that not goes out in the 1st Rd these quotes will be wheeled out to bash pretty much all involved, will the LTA be willing to take that? lets face it we know PR is very important for them.

RJA · Hall of fame

SMC1809 wrote:
RJA wrote:
Certainly agree with all of that in principle but I think the suggestion that Dan spends most of his time in night clubs and casinos is a bit unfair. I think his comments did, at least in part, refer to things that have happened in the past but probably do not really reflect where he is now. You can't just turn up at Davis Cup ties and play like he did if you haven't been putting the work in and I think it is pretty much universally acknowledged by those involved that Dan's attitude has improved a great deal over the last year or so. That isn't to say that things are perfect, far from it. His unambitious scheduling and his repeated failure to enter tournaments on time both point to a lack of professionalism and focus on making it to the top. Quite what goes on in Dan's head is a mystery, probably to him just as much as everyone else, but as I said earlier it isn't just a matter of "must work harder".
Again, more speculation from people with no knowledge of the actual situation. "repeated failure to enter tournaments on time both point to a lack of professionalism..."
If tennis fans can jump to conclusions and criticize a player, why are we so harsh on the press when they do the same?

Hang on a minute. I haven't jumped to any conclusions what so ever and I have repeatedly defended Dan against some of the unfair criticism he has received.

I said something points to a lack of professionalism and it does. I am not making a definitive statement of fact merely saying what something indicates We aren't just talking about this happening a couple of times, it has happened over and over again over a number of years. Now there may be good reasons in every single case but it is pretty hard to believe this is so.

steven · Tennis legend

My first thought was "Henman putting the boot in again" ... but then I listened to the interview. I'd say it's more than a bit embarrassing for the BBC to have a misleading headline just above a video that makes it obvious that they have sensationalised what Tim said!

Having said that, at least there do have the video there so we can make up our own minds.

SMC1809 · All-time great

These aren't my words. I'm just quoting directly from others.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Steven, BBC have been doing this a huge amount recently, especially in the football, but I'm sure all the sports receive i don't look at as many' articles

i remember one:

Wenger 'Walcott better than Bale'

As it turned out he said they were both excellent players and he was happy to have got one of them etc.

a safe rule of thumb is any headline quote that seems sensationalist probably is

PaulM · Tennis legend

Count Zero wrote:
Steven, BBC have been doing this a huge amount recently, especially in the football, but I'm sure all the sports receive i don't look at as many' articles

i remember one:

Wenger 'Walcott better than Bale'

As it turned out he said they were both excellent players and he was happy to have got one of them etc.

a safe rule of thumb is any headline quote that seems sensationalist probably is

Haha yes I saw that one! BBC seem to be altering the journalism style recently which is a bit of a shame but perhaps not a huge surprise in this day and age.

steven · Tennis legend

The worst thing about these stupid headlines is it's only going to make people even more reluctant to say anything remotely interesting.

briteny · Intermediate Club Player

Henman almost repeated Andy Murray statements dated long ago.

korriban · Challenger level

I do have a lot of time for Tim Henman.

He can't help his background - very wealthy middle class, tennis court in the garden, strong family history with tennis over many years, Reeds school, LTA connections, etc - and whilst all of these things will have given him a massive "unfair" advantage over other (possibly more talented) kids early in life, he competed successfully at the highest level of the sport over many years - a place where there's nowhere to hide and where nobody cares who your parents are how you were funded. In fact there's no arguing that he pushed his game and ranking to levels that were well beyond his natural ability through commitment, focus and I'm sure a lot of hard work.

Someone who over-achieves like this - someone with a fraction of Andy's talent - is well placed to comment on our mens' players attitude generally. He is right that it is embarassing that we don't have any men's players apart from Andy in the top 200. I think he knows that many of our players have talent and can produce excellent performances. But I think he perceives that very few have the willpower to do everything that it takes to succeed on and off the court 12 months a year for 10-15 years. So whilst he did talk about a crop of talented young men's players, he was careful enough and intelligent enough (Simon Long please take note) not to say that all them or indeed any of them would succeed. As an aside, a couple of years back he had a training session with the likes of Broady, Golding et al and was openly scathing about their attitude, fitness and commitment - perhaps too harsh, but if someone as articulate as Tim felt comfortable in being so direct about it in such a public way, then I suspect he must have been shocked at what he saw.

I think there is no question that average standards in the GB men's game have improved, and the LTA has undoubtedly played a big role in facilitating this. But I think what Tim is implying here is that the LTA cannot be responsible for the attitudes and behviours that turn a top 500 player into a top 200 player, a top 250 player into a top 100 player, and a top 100 player into a superstar. Or in Dan Evan's case, a top 100 player into a top 350 player! These come from within.

In my opinion, at this point the LTA should not commit itself to doing anything at all for Dan's career beyond the things that are "sunk costs" (use of existing facilities/coaches, WCs, etc), because it is entirely Dan's choice as to whether he wants to or is able to change his ways to maximise his potential. It's his problem, and his choice, not their's.

As to the BBC headline being misleading? Yes probably, but if it got more people to read the piece and watch the video, then I'm happy. People like us care about the standard of the top 25 Brits going up, but 99% of the country doesn't and we are kidding ourselves if we forget what this is all really about - finding British top 100 players who can compete and win things - and I don't mean Futures.

At least, whilst he comes across as dull and boring, Tim actually does put the cat among the pigeons and speak his mind!

korriban · Challenger level

Here's the article I mentioned from almost exactly 2 years ago where Tim Henman was very outspoken about various aspects of our talented young players attitudes, training, conditioning and intensity, whilst never denying their obvious talent - in fact he is very clear that they looked more talented than him at the same age. The boys were Golding, Broady and Sapwell.

A Czech boy was cited as showing exactly the attitudes and traits needed to succeed, whilst having no greater ability than the Brits, and I'm 99% certain it was Jiri Vesely. He is the same age as as Oli and will move into the top 200 for the first time next week. As an aside he reached the QF of the Turkey CH yesterday with one of the most blatant MTO stunts I have ever seen.....from a set up and on serve, he lost 5 games in a row to go 1 set all 0-3 final set, then called a MTO when clearly there was absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever. His opponent was clearly very annoyed, lost concentration, lost the next 5 games and ultimately the match. Disgraceful, but some of this is what Tim is talking about......winning is everything.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/8399666/Tim-Henman-fears-Britains-best-young-players-lack-hunger.html

By the way, Josh Sapwell has suffered a few injuries in the last 2 years, but he is around 200 in the junior rankings, playing ITF Grade 4s (this week I think), whilst his beaten opponent in the U14 Orange Bowl is world junior #4

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

I don't remember reading that article before but I do remember people talking about it. The most telling comments for me are in the last paragraph where the thoughts of Judy Murray and Djokovic are expressed. Clearly Tim is not alone in his appraisal of the situation and that adds a lot of credibility to his comments. Let's hope things have improved over the last couple of years.