What Fitzy did next ...

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Sloane Stephens talks about ... Fitzy

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
[...] I couldn't help noticing that the caption on the 2nd pic says "Stephens is happy to have the Scot on the other side of the net" - is Fitzy actually Scottish, I wonder, or is that just an error?

It's probably just an error. I thought Fitzy was born in Birmingham or somewhere round there.

huntley93 · Strong Club Player

any chance of someone uploading the article to here?

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

huntley93 wrote:
any chance of someone uploading the article to here?

Not really. It would obviously be easy enough to do, but I think Steven or I would be in big trouble with Times Newspapers if one of its employees suddenly noticed that one of us had made available free to people on this board something for which everybody else has to shell out hard cash. Sorry! hmm

philwrig · Hall of fame

Last year I paid a £1 and I ended up with a full years subscription, doubt that'll still be the case now.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

philwrig wrote:
Last year I paid a £1 and I ended up with a full years subscription, doubt that'll still be the case now.

Well, I just paid a £1 and got the paper version for one day ! Phil, I wish I had your 'money karma'

daisy · County player

Stircrazy wrote:
steven wrote:
[...] I couldn't help noticing that the caption on the 2nd pic says "Stephens is happy to have the Scot on the other side of the net" - is Fitzy actually Scottish, I wonder, or is that just an error?
It's probably just an error. I thought Fitzy was born in Birmingham or somewhere round there.

Fitzy hails from the Solihull area ... but just look where he is now!!!

smile

Very pleased for him that the latest development in his tennis career seems to be working well.

NickMcCarvel Nick McCarvel 10m

Andrew Fitzpatrick, #Sloane's regular hitting partner, is acting as coach today. With Stephens on changeover #nho13 pic.twitter.com/KV5NO1JcEs

chavkev · Intermediate Club Player

Getting paid to travel the world with a beautiful woman must be tough :o)

bartman2099 · Lower Club Player

Guys, anybody knows how Fitzy got the gig? I know he hit with Sloane at wimbledon but any more details would be appreciated!
Good to see that he's getting such a great opportunity!

Spectator · All-time great

Went to look for the piece quoted and found quite an extensive piece entirely about Mr Fitzpatrick: straightsets.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/british-player-finds-a-home-as-stephenss-hitting-partner/

Actually, in what they are calling "The Qualifying Chronicles" (would that some UK newspapers went this route ... respect for qualifiers?!) there are some very fine pieces all around. There's a movingly honest one by Irina Falconi on what it is like to play qualies for the first time: http://straightsets.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/qualifying-chronicles-the-costs-of-competing/?ref=tennis

-- Edited by Spectator on Saturday 24th of August 2013 07:17:15 AM

Shhh · Challenger level

An extract from a New York Times piece about Federer;

I watched Federer out on the practice courts hitting with a 24-year-old British player named Andrew Fitzpatrick, who was ranked 570th in the world and had earned a total of $33,982 in his career, about $2,000 less than what first-round losers at Wimbledon received this year. (Fitzpatrick told me that he supplemented his income by doing some modeling; in a bid to attract a sponsor, he also put himself up for sale on eBay.) While Federer was obviously the superior player, Fitzpatrick struck the ball beautifully and seemed to have no trouble giving Federer a workout. That a player as talented as Fitzpatrick wasnt among the Top 500 underscored Annacones point about the depth of the mens game.

Ratty · County player

You could say exactly the same about any men's sport.

Usually the only way that even the most knowledgeable of spectators can detect the difference between the ability of the top performers and the also-rans is by looking at the rankings.

wolf · Tennis legend

And the writer of the above article was the owner of this website!

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Spectator wrote:
Went to look for the piece quoted and found quite an extensive piece entirely about Mr Fitzpatrick: straightsets.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/british-player-finds-a-home-as-stephenss-hitting-partner/
Actually, in what they are calling "The Qualifying Chronicles" (would that some UK newspapers went this route ... respect for qualifiers?!) there are some very fine pieces all around. There's a movingly honest one by Irina Falconi on what it is like to play qualies for the first time: http://straightsets.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/qualifying-chronicles-the-costs-of-competing/?ref=tennis

-- Edited by Spectator on Saturday 24th of August 2013 07:17:15 AM

This sounds as though it is going to be a much longer term arrangement. Off to Asia as well with Sloane.

Doubt we will see him back on court too soon but happy that he seems to be enjoying life at the moment.

RJA · Hall of fame

Fitzy is currently on the entry list for the Roehampton futures, the week after the US Open so he could probably squeeze that tournament in before heading off to Asia.

Given so many of his comments over the last few years it seems pretty clear that his financial situation has weighed heavily on his mind and that has most likely been to the detriment of his tennis. Maybe 6 months, a year, perhaps a bit longer, working with Sloane to build up some money would allow him to eventually have another crack at his own playing career but this time without so much pressure.