RJA. Although I am being guilty of sweeping generalisations, I do agree with you that too many tweets from our GB players, men and women, do come across too often as inappropriate, ill-judged, unprofessional or immature - especially when sent in the middle of the night during tournaments. Of course the majority of players don't fall into this bracket, and I absolutely think its great that young people are having fun and are not tennis-obsessed - but I do think in some cases a poor attitude screams out from certain twitter accounts, and to some extent this seems to correlate with those players who have extremely variable results - good one week, inexplicably poor the next. 

If I were a potential opponent, I might get the distinct impression that with some of our men and women, its the "lads on tour" or "the lassies abroad".....how often do we hear about Playstation, Xbox, FIFA, players parties, all-you-can-eat buffets, forbidden foods, etc.....as well as about tennis, training, travel, etc........there have even been occasions when some players have attempted to talk about their training schedules and fitness programmes, and had some of the others take the p*ss out of them......    

Take a look at Borna Coric or Ed Corrie on twitter........fun yes, professional yes, one of the "lads".......perhaps not.   

indiana wrote:

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Fair enough, korriban, though whether there is any issue at all re the tweet is debatable.

Reading back, I am if anything even more taken aback by RJA's comments.

Here is Oliver Hudson's tweet again :

"I hope 2 people pull out of Edinburgh so I don't have to spend my weekend there #fingerscrossed"

At least RJA did say in response to my initial post that the tweet "could be considered a bit innocuous".

Too ruddy right it could be considered innocuous. But no, from it we can take it a "very poor attitude" and that it can give signs of this to potential opponents ( really ?? ), and suggesting further in his response that some might see a mindset that maybe contributed to that player losing in 6 qualifying events.

All because he didn't word a tweet ( which to me undoubtably could be about nothing more than wanting to avoid qualfying plus folk have no idea what else he maybe wanted to do these 2 days ) as perfectly and unambiguously as RJA would have liked.

I am not afraid to be critical myself ( and RJA might even be onto something here ), but here we have such little benefit of the doubt given to Oliver and then the character analysis flowing thereafter ?!

Quite incredible.

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Well I wasn't going to labour the point but I do feel that I have to respond to this and make a few comments


1. I have twice said that I might be being a bit harsh.

2. I thought that I have been pretty clear that I am not assuming anything and have merely said that the tweet indicates certain things.

3. Even if I accept that it was a perfectly innoccuous tweet, I don't accept that but respect that others could, I still think it shows a lack of professionalism. Potential opponents may have seen it and gained encouragement from it

4. As I have said, potential sponsors may have seen it and could be affected by it.

5. While I don't wish to create some kind of Spanish Inquisition this is hardly the first tweet from Oliver that doesn't exactly create the impression of being a model professional.

6. I have said more than once that the perception here might be worse than the reality.

7. We are not talking about a kid messing about on twitter, or at least we shouldn't be. We are talking about someone who has aspirations of being professional sportsmen. The moment you enter professional sporting events you have to accept some sort of scrutiny of what you do in public.

In retrospect I will concede that I have used a poor example to make a what I consider a valid point. However as I said earlier I do think the tweet in question is symptomatic of a broader problem in British tennis. For many, many years we have seen talented British youngsters underachieve and while Hudson might not be in the class of some of them I think he is a better player than his results and rankings suggest. The reasons for this underachievement, in the wider sense not just Oliver, are many but I am increasingly convinced that there is a considerable cultural problem within British Tennis and frankly I think that it needs to de dealt with. As has already been said, just look at the twitter feed and facebook page of Borna Coric, a boy of just 16 but who acts with considerable maturity and professionalism. Of course his success is largely based on his massive talent but would he be where he is without the mindset to make the make the most of his talents?

korriban wrote:

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RJA. Although I am being guilty of sweeping generalisations, I do agree with you that too many tweets from our GB players, men and women, do come across too often as inappropriate, ill-judged, unprofessional or immature - especially when sent in the middle of the night during tournaments. Of course the majority of players don't fall into this bracket, and I absolutely think its great that young people are having fun and are not tennis-obsessed - but I do think in some cases a poor attitude screams out from certain twitter accounts, and to some extent this seems to correlate with those players who have extremely variable results - good one week, inexplicably poor the next. 

If I were a potential opponent, I might get the distinct impression that with some of our men and women, its the "lads on tour" or "the lassies abroad".....how often do we hear about Playstation, Xbox, FIFA, players parties, all-you-can-eat buffets, forbidden foods, etc.....as well as about tennis, training, travel, etc........there have even been occasions when some players have attempted to talk about their training schedules and fitness programmes, and had some of the others take the p*ss out of them......    

Take a look at Borna Coric or Ed Corrie on twitter........fun yes, professional yes, one of the "lads".......perhaps not.   

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 Sweeping generalisations seems to be your speciality. Maybe Oliver just doesn't want to spend £46 per night to stay in Edinburgh?

indiana wrote:

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It does seem to me that a lot of words over a couple of posts have been generated off the back of a tweet from Oliver indicating no more than he'd rather get straight into the main draw rather than spend two days in Edinburgh qualifying.

Whatever one thinks of the general theories being expounded about the habits and attitudes of GB players ( and I wonder myself about some ) I think it's a pity they have been piggy backed on to that one tweet.

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Well I certainly agree that it is far from the worst out there and it could be considered a bit inocous but I thought the phrasing was very telling. It is perfectly normal for a player to want to make the main draw and not have to come through qualifying but to openly state that you don't want to spend the weekend in Edinburgh indicates a poor mindset. An urcharitable observor might conclude that such a mindset might have played a part in the player in question failing to come through 6 qualifying events in the past 3 months.

Actually, I dont feel at all strongly about the Oliver tweet. Im sure any player would prefer to avoid qualies given the opportunity, though they might have chosen their words more carefully. My point was more backing up RJA about the general tone and immaturity of some of our GB professionals, albeit a minority. Personally, I believe that elite players who receive (in some cases) considerable financial and professional support from the LTA, equipment providers, third party sponsors, coaching academies and other individuals have a duty to behave professionally and communicate professionally in any public situation.