Week 21 - Egypt F8 - ($10,000) - Sharm El Sheikh (clay)

paulisi · Tennis legend

Week 21 - Egypt F8 - ($10,000) - Sharm El Sheikh (clay)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Does anyone know what Joshua WH has been doing for the past few weeks ? Studies ? Injuries ? Just training ?

I saw this guy once as a junior,a couple of years back, and thought he was great. Haven't seen him since but would really like to. He seemed to be the sort of athlete who would really 'grow into himself' and then come good.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

He was at the Rome ATP practising with Freddie Nielsen and soaking up experience

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

What an excellent idea. Brilliant. That lad will go far . . . . . (hopefully).

Thank you johnnylad

paulisi · Tennis legend

Q2 Scott Clayton(q8)WR1936 v Lynn Max Kempton(GER)UNR

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

L32: (4) Andrew Fitzpatrick WR 610 v Matias Sborowitz (CHI) WR 872
L32: Josh Ward Hibbert WR 863 v (Q) Bernd Kossler (AUT) UNR
L32: (Q) Scott Clayton WR 1947 v Marco Crugnola (ITA) WR 714
L32: Liam Broady WR 926 v (WC) Besir Durguti (MKD) UNR
L32: Toby Martin WR 1054 v (LL) Artem Oganesyan (RUS) WR 1482

Fitzy and JWH down to play tomorrow. The others will play on Weds.

-- Edited by Bob in Spain on Monday 20th of May 2013 02:15:01 PM

Edited in up to date rankings for the opponents (oddly, the Brits' rankings were up to date but their opponents' rankings were not) and Oganesyan's nationality (I know it can be "Chile" in Russia, but ... wink )

-- Edited by steven on Monday 20th of May 2013 02:42:16 PM

OK. So you caught me being lazy !! Copy and paste helps to maintain the format but if you forget to change something (CHI for RUS) you end up looking silly. I am now going to write out 100 times - "I must be more diligent in future".

-- Edited by Bob in Spain on Tuesday 21st of May 2013 10:13:24 AM

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Thanks very much for that , Bob in Spain. Very interesting.

Personally, I think it's an excellent idea.

I've heard (in interviews and first-hand) several Futures players say that, when they went to Challenger and ATP tournaments, they were absolutely gobsmacked, blown away, by the level. Not of the tennis as such, but the level of the professionalism.
They didn;t mean that they, or the others, had been 'unprofessional' on the Futures circuit. But simply that the step up in seriousness, application, approach etc. etc., by the players, the coaches, the staff, everybody, was amazing.
This is what players need to see. It sets an example, raises the bar. Many (most) top 500 players have the tennis level to play top 200, or better, but they need to learn the 'métier',as the French keep saying, i.e. they need to learn the 'trade' of playing top professional tennis, how it is actually done on a day-to-day basis.

This is one reason, IMHO, why the LTA is wrong not to have more Challengers in the UK - it's not about who wins the points this year, it's about making it easy for British players to see and experience that level of competition and learn what it entails.

Thanks again for the link.

I have been following Soto Tennis for a while now, mainly because a) Fitzy has signed up with them and b) they are based in Spain. I find their approach to be excellent in that the don't just focus on the tennis. I read just as many tweets about diet and mental attitude as I do about technique and results. I know that Fitzy speaks very highly of them.

For me, taking JWH to Rome and having him "mingle" with the big name players and sample the atmosphere is an excellent example of the "complete" approach that they take and very beneficial.

There will always be things in a tennis career that happen unexpectedly but all you can do is prepare people for as many eventualities and aspects of the game as possible. Or as they say at Soto - control the controllables.

Edit

And maybe I should add, given recent discussions on the forum relating to the LTA, Soto also seem to take a young players academic education very seriously as well. http://www.sototennis.com/page/460/Education

-- Edited by Bob in Spain on Monday 20th of May 2013 03:13:30 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Scott's won the first set 6-2

LHarvey89 · Social player

RJA wrote:
FQR: (q8) Scott Clayton WR 1947 beat Lynn Max Kempton (GER) UNR : 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(2)

Took a brief look at the score when in-play and Kempen had two match points at *5-6 15-40 in the third. I then had to go out, so well done to Clayton for digging deep, especially as it was one of those games with plenty of breaks (and Clayton had already served for the match twice).

-- Edited by LHarvey89 on Monday 20th of May 2013 06:14:24 PM

Miriambee · Futures level

4-2 up in the second!

RJA · Hall of fame

Scott lost the second set 7-5 after having served for the match.

RJA · Hall of fame

FQR: (q8) Scott Clayton WR 1947 beat Lynn Max Kempton (GER) UNR : 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(2)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Does anyone know what Joshua WH has been doing for the past few weeks ? Studies ? Injuries ? Just training ?

I saw this guy once as a junior,a couple of years back, and thought he was great. Haven't seen him since but would really like to. He seemed to be the sort of athlete who would really 'grow into himself' and then come good.

Further to Johnnylads response, thought you might like to read this.

If you follow @sototennis on twitter, you may already have seen it. It will give you more of an insight into where JWH has been and why.

http://www.sototennis.com/page/407/Directors-Blog

Ratty · County player

Pardon my cynicism, but I fail to see how wandering around the players' canteen, and hitting with Freddie Nielsen, makes one a better tennis player.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Spectator wrote:
I don't believe that staying in school until 18 means that a tennis player's chance of success becomes "nonexistent." Janko Tipsarevic (top 10) not only finished high school, but has a university degree. Milos Raonic (16) and Sam Querrey (20) finished high school; John Isner (21) finished university, as did Kevin Anderson (25). There may have been others in the top 25 who finished schooling ... I didn't check everyone. But I think that the existence of 6 within that grouping makes the point.

And Youzhny has a Masters degree, maybe even his Phd by now.

Mario Ancic has a law degree. The Bryan brothers graduated high school (i.e. 18), as did Blake, and Niemenen, and Mardy Fish, I believe. There are 20 Frenchmen in the top 200 and I know that the majority (not Tsonga) have their Bac. The German site claims that nearly all their players have their Abitur (or the other 18 year-old qualification) - Kohlschreiber is mentioned as the sole exception because he quit JUST before - but he did do the whole course.

And it has become far more common. It's compulsory at many academies and nothing to do with spouting Shakespeare but to do with showing application and rigour in all aspects of life.

McEnroe claims that the physicality of the tour is so hard now that young men actually have a better chance of making it if they do not enter the tour at 18 but go to college and do college tennis and then move on to professional tennis at 21. He would completely disagree that "staying at school runs the risk that "miniscule" - sic- becomes "non-existent", quite the reverse - he makes the point that the demographics of the sport have changed dramatically, which actually favours staying in education, at least until 18.

I think some kids will do it differently than others but as I've watched Rufin and Garcia, for instance, advance, both about 100 in the world, both still young, both rising well in the ranks, and both with good exam results in their pocket (and they are the rule, not the exception), I'm sure that it's perfectly compatible.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Monday 20th of May 2013 09:01:50 PM