philwrig wrote:

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I must be in the minority here but I thought the tweet was spot on, something needs to be done about the derisory prize money at this level.

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 I agree the prize money should go up, at least 20% to start with but, whats in it for those that host these events to increase it?  There's no gate money or much in the way of advertising.......how do they make money from staging them?   If the prize money went up, would it lead to a reduction in tournaments?

Why should we try to suggest that Oli did wrong by tweeting this, surely we are here to support our GB players, not try and criticise them when they are actually making a valid point.

As for tournaments being able to finance prize money increases, I would rather see the slams which seem to have money to burn actually create a fund which smaller tournaments could use to facilitate the increases.

thefollower wrote:

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RJA wrote:

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Yes, poor little Oli. The LTA are not only providing him everything he could ask for in his bid to become a top tennis pro but he also gets to travel the world, visiting some lovely places and staying in nice hotels without having to pay a penny for it. He really should reflect on how lucky he is rather than moaning that this week's pocket money isn't quite as much as he would like.

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 with respect RJA, this is no way to talk about a young guy who is sacrificing a lot. sure there are perks. and sure he gets things paid for when he travels but it is essentially his job and i dont think you would be too pleased if you got paid that much for a weeks work and then got spoken about like this for supporting an arguement that is very well known to be a big problem in tennis! 

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With respect the follower, if I was paid to travel around the world doing what I love I would do it without any further remuneration.

I don't doubt that Oli has made sacrifices but there are guys out there (Fitzy for one) who make incredible sacrifices to pursue their dream, who don't have access to a full time coach, who don't get their flights paid for and who when they travel abroad often sleep in someone's spare roam or on their couch instead of in a plush hotel. His his basic argument is sound, but he is not in a position to make it. He made 70 Euros this week, the vast majority of guys in his position not only made a lot less, it actually cost them money.

As I said in a later post I like Oli, but his tweet today was poor and I have no reservation in calling him out on it.

re Tweet from Oli.

The situation regarding prize money for Futures is something we discuss here many times and I think most here are in agreement that their is a massive imbalance between the prize money at the top and the lower levels.

I also have no doubt that if a group of us travelled around together, we would discuss it endlessly face-to-face over a pint (of orange and lemonade in my case) after a long day of watching or playing tennis. That is the way people of "our generation" would behave.

For those of the younger generation, Twitter is often their version of sitting around in a pub, a situation exacerbated by the fact that many of the players - and very relevant in this situation - spend extended periods of time isolated socially from their closest friends.

I am pretty sure that if a group of Oli's friends - Liam et al - had been playing in Italy with him, this situation wouldn't have arisen. He would have made the comment to his mates face-to-face and that would have been the end of it. But having nobody there to say it to, he did what youngsters do these and tweeted the first thing that came into his head.

Yes. Oli does receive many benefits from the LTA for which I am sure he is very grateful, but however many benefits you receive, it doesn't take away the social isolation that someone can feel when travelling the world alone. Oli simply uses twitter the way we may use a "get together in the pub" and I think this was probably a instant reaction to a situation and for his part, forgotten about, 5 seconds after it was tweeted.

Was it advisable to tweet in that way? I can understand how its perception can have offended some people, but personally, I see it as nothing more than a throw away comment and in my book, no big deal.

I'm not a huge fan of some of the things Oli says on twitter. As Steven rightly says he often speaks first, thinks later (one hopes, although I have my doubts sometimes). But as a British tennis fan, twitter does provide some flavour around the edges about someone's character, approach and life outside tennis. And also (with some) insights into the matches themselves.

My bigger issue are his performances which appear to have stagnated. His 2 Futures wins are over 12 months ago now, and with his US Open Juniors win, his full Team Aegon funding, and his personal 3 years sponsorship deal with Ricoh - there's been quite a lot of marketing "noise" around him as a player (certainly more than Kyle), which needs to start being backed up with some good performances. Of the top 5 juniors in 2011 (he was #3), all will be ranked well inside 400 except him when the 20/5 lists come out (he'll be back at ~580), with 2 inside 300 (including Vesely rapidly approaching the top 100). For what it's worth juniors #6 and #7 are also in the top 500 pros now, with Liam Broady the lowest ranked of #8-#10.

I could be a lot more sympathetic towards someone occasionally shooting themselves in the foot on twitter if they were performing well more regularly on the tennis court: he shouldn't be worrying (and certianly not commenting) about the prize money for a $10k Futures QF (he's very well funded) when the bigger picture for him is the longer term objective of being a top 100 player (where the pay is better), and the short term objective should be $10k tournament Wins and Finals (which I believe offer more money too).

As Indiana says, I think we all agree that Futures prize money is insufficient, but this is something that more senior players (both ranking, experience and age) are far better placed to comment on and lobby for.

Now on a separate note, Mr Golding has just tweeted to say he's off to Dusseldorf, which must mean he's in qualifying for the 250 Tournament there next week (whether via WC or direct entry). Now THAT should be interesting! Let's start seeing some of that potential turn into wins (err, and proper prize money).