Week 17 - Great Britain F9 ($10,000) - Bournemouth (Clay)

indiana · Tennis legend

RE: Week 17 - Great Britain F9 ($10,000) - Bournemouth (Clay)

steven · Tennis legend

Strikes me that the general point RJA was trying to make and that Korriban expanded on might well be true of some of the Brits (indeed, I'm sure all countries have their more professional and less professional players) and fair enough that they should make that point, but like indiana and SMC, I really didn't think that particular tweet was a clear example of a bad attitude.

Surely any player would want to make the cut instead of having to play qualifying - more chance of getting a ranking point, less of his probably very limited budget having to be wasted on accommodation (which might mean he can schedule an extra event in or buy new equipment or whatever) and all kinds of other possible reasons for preferring not to go up to Edinburgh early - it's not like he's saying he wouldn't go if he had to.

I'd be far more worried if he had said "hope I miss the cut so I have a good excuse to go there early, play a no-hoper in QR1 and enjoy the nightlife at the weekend" or words to that effect! LOL

korriban · Challenger level

Fitzy. Thanks very much for the report. Great to hear you are playing well, and good luck for the final few weeks on clay and especially for the grass court season ahead. May a stack of ranking points and prize money come your way.

Please don't read too much into our "handbags at dawn" discussion earlier. The vast majority of GB pro players seem to conduct themselves professionally in whatever they do, yourself very much included. I do recall you being on the receiving end of some fairly aggressive and rather immature twitter comments at precisely this time last year from a small number of GB players........it's really this sort of thing, the immaturity, that I find hard to rationalise sometimes.......and by the way I thought you handled it as well as you possibly could in the circumstances.

Good luck next week!

-- Edited by korriban on Friday 26th of April 2013 08:35:18 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

"Might be being a bit harsh", "perception here might be worse than the reality", but basically you repeat just about all the stuff I objected to, not just from yes a poor example, but an example that can clearly be seen as possibly totally innocuous by some of us.

"I am not assuming anything and have merely said that the tweet indicates certain things " - only if you want to read into it certain things. Myself and Steven have described how perfectly innocuous it can have been meant.

And it is not some abstract example to use towards formulating some theory, we are talking about an actual person, a young tennis player, who you choose to make insinuation upon insinuatian about, in a forum that we know is read by people in the game, and these are not really diluted by these phrases I have referred to in my first line.

Anyway, please no further tweets from Oliver to try to make some better case with the possibility they could be very debatable again.

I do have concerns too about how professional many of the British tennis players are, and the general concerns you and korriban have raised would resonate with many folk. But I remain extremely unhappy about pinpointing one tennis player, and the insinuations and assumptions made, such as the effect on opponents and sponsors, based on a quite ludicrous example.

Of course, by arguing about it, I have highlighted it even more, and would personally prefer this whole exchange from when the tweet was mentioned, had no place on this forum.

I doubt I can add any more, without repeating myself, so it is up to you and others what more you wish to say about any of iit.

RJA · Hall of fame

Ash had three chances to break back but couldn't take them.

Good job this is Coric's least favourite surface or he might do some real damage.

-- Edited by RJA on Friday 26th of April 2013 01:34:30 PM

Fitzy · Intermediate Club Player

Hi guys, on another more friendly note to what u are talking about, a little about yesterday.
Firstly there were so many breaks because the conditions were incredibly slow. The serve became almost irrelevant, it was more about how u could construct he point from the back and get you're running boots on.

The guy I played is good on the dirt. He knows his way around a clay court and if you're not on it he makes u run and run while he just sits in the middle of he court nudging you around.
He tried some things in the first set to waste time and fakes an injury at 4-4 after a line call he was not happy with.
It did nothing but waste time as I broke and held.

Standard of the match throughout was very high and it's one of the best clay court matches I've played without doubt.
I can't see him losing to be honest but then I might be wrong. Hopefully a Brit does take him out.
They will need to have a good set of lungs on them if they want to though!

So another week to build on.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Fitzy wrote:
Hi guys, on another more friendly note to what u are talking about, a little about yesterday.
Firstly there were so many breaks because the conditions were incredibly slow. The serve became almost irrelevant, it was more about how u could construct he point from the back and get you're running boots on.

The guy I played is good on the dirt. He knows his way around a clay court and if you're not on it he makes u run and run while he just sits in the middle of he court nudging you around.
He tried some things in the first set to waste time and fakes an injury at 4-4 after a line call he was not happy with.
It did nothing but waste time as I broke and held.

Standard of the match throughout was very high and it's one of the best clay court matches I've played without doubt.
I can't see him losing to be honest but then I might be wrong. Hopefully a Brit does take him out.
They will need to have a good set of lungs on them if they want to though!

So another week to build on.

Hi Fitz

Good to hear some background. Burzi's profile suggests that he is a bit of an old timer with a lot of clay court experience. For your first week on clay, it sounds like you have had a really solid week and the momentum of your season is beginning to build. I am confident that you will have "big" week in the not too distant future. Onward and upward.

steven · Tennis legend

Re. the discussion above - I don't believe there was any malicious intent on either side and I think there have been enough balancing points made that it would be overkill to delete the whole discussion. We have two Brits in the semis too, so it's likely to disappear back into the depths of the thread never to be seen again.

As for embarrassing ourselves, it wouldn't be first time we've done that and I'm sure it won't be the last.

----

Moving on ... thanks for the report, Fitzy. Good effort yesterday - it must be very frustrating to keep missing out on the bigger (i.e. SF & beyond) points but keep plugging away and they should come - you seem overdue to get a draw that opens up a bit!

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

My own feelings on some of the young tennis players attitudes are based around the fact a lot of them come from middle class backgrounds so spoiled brat syndrome comes through. Attitude of winning at all costs not always there either. Maybe if we had a more balanced demographic playing the game we would have more winners. I note the complaints about prize money but to be honest to some (not all) I don't think it really matters to them. The guys I feel sorry for ate the grafters who can't afford to play the game yet receive no backing because their face doesn't fit.

RJA · Hall of fame

I think Fitzy's comments re-enforce what I already thought, and that is that Dan will be in for a very tough match today. After coming back from a long injury lay off he probably isn't back to 100% fitness yet, and his comments after his last tournament in Doha indicate that he was really struggling by the end of it. Having played a 3 hour match yesterday the possibility of another lengthy match against an experienced clay court player probably won't fill him with joy and he doesn't really have the game to shorten the points on this kind of surface. Hopefully he can come through I fear it will take a titanic effort.

As always thanks to Fitzy for the updates and good luck in Edinburgh and Newcastle.

indiana · Tennis legend

Thanks for the report, Fitzy, and good to hear you were happy with how you played. Promising for future weeks.

All the best to our guys today, hoping we can get at least one Brit into the final.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Ashley is a break down in the first set.

Coric leads *3-2

RJA · Hall of fame

Coric gets a second break to take the set 6-3

RJA · Hall of fame

Rain delay early in the second set with Ash *0-1, 30-40

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Back under way in Bournemouth, but unfortunately, Ashley immediately loses the interrupted game and is now 0-2*

Must be really tough to come out and serve at 30-40 after a break.