It is probably the greatest legacy of the Roger Draper LTA years, the various AEGON deals.

But to my mind, with these secured there has been FAR too much sitting back by the LTA. I find a numb minding lack of spirit to seek and promote interest in tennis tournaments in the UK at all levels. This can't be the case, but it's almost as if the LTA aren't bothered.

The more I see and read from abroad about well promoted, often very well attended ITFs, futures and team competitions, the more pitiful the efforts look in this country.

It is high time the LTA, with their new leadership, was showing a lead, which others more locally might follow. Yes, one wants local initiatives, but one wants leadership too.

Instead tournaments, with many relatively good quality players, continue to be played throughout the country with local people rarely being aware of their existence

Effectively with french club league takes out whole weekend , where as nation Aegon 1/2 day if South East based . Seen players frequently return from french league exhausted then tough if straight into a pro tournament on the Monday Particularly when majority of Brits focusing on playing in GB futures saving time & energy . 

why build up the french club league when we have a thriving national Aegon club league at home queens this year nominated the bryan brothers , around 40% -50% of top 25 players were involved josh Goodall , milts , Bloomers , j Malik , Toby Martin , shortie , Norrie , skinner , Chris Lewis , Sean Thornley and many others graced the finals even though we had 4 ATP players in finals we were seeded no3 . We managed to get out Jamie delgado but sadly not in the finals because of heavy schedule with Gilles mueller but be great for finals next year .

Matt short was a great captain and had a memorable battle with josh Goodall in the finals last year and great doubles pairing o

 Aegon are a very generous sponsor to GB team tennis be great if could get greater promotion of matches by LTA 

-- Edited by A1 tennis academy on Saturday 27th of September 2014 12:10:48 PM

Coup Droit wrote:

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sherbert wrote:

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Last year, Neil was paid 1000 euros per French league match and his flights were paid for. This equated to just over £4000 for 5 weekends. I know he would much rather play NCL but a big percentage of the money is based on the team winning. Unfortunately, the main reason for the top GB players to play French league/NCL is to fund playing futures, so they have to go where the money is guaranteed.

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That seems an excellent deal, Sherbert. Well done

Has he renegotiated the same for this coming year ?

Mind you, Neil earned it - as I remember, he won practically all his club matches . . .

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 Yea, the same deal has been discussed this year - however have been talking to Gary in recent days and would much prefer it if Neil could play NCL instead. The travelling takes a lot out of players for French league, but the money is good.  However, don't like to let people down - so will see what happens in the coming weeks.

 

Neil always plays well for clubs - seems to perform better as part of a team... Hopefully next year he can start to perform for himself a bit better too! 

 

completely agree that it's a shame how little tennis is watched in this country. Needs a lot of work to be done by the LTA for that to change though - and I'm not sure I see that happening any time soon

RJA wrote:

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Coup Droit wrote:

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A1 tennis academy wrote:

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Did offer an opportunity  to jonny but did not want to commit to our Aegon team a common problem . 

Middle class pro players rarely understand the concept of you scrub my back I scrub yours ! which always baffles me . I guess have worked my living since I was 13 and from a working class background I understand that theres no such thing as a free lunch . 

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 Cutting to the chase, if you're offering £25k (the figure you previously mentioned for Marcus) to someone and the only condition is that they play 6 matches (+ finals if necessary), I think that's very reasonable/generous.

I can quite understand that Marcus may well need to 'move on' and be master of his own destiny now, but I would certainly never give money on Pledge Sports, for instance, to a young, lowly ranked player who'd turned it down. A lot of players would give their eye teeth for that . . . 

Everything comes with conditions; even the very top funded players at the NTC (or wherever they are now) have to toe the line to a certain extent and if they don't, they're suddenly on their own and that's a whole different kettle of fish (see Oli).

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I understand your point here but committing to playing 6 Aegon matches can be a pretty big deal. It might not seem like a huge amount of time but it clearly has an impact of a player's flexibility when it comes to sorting out their schedule.

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 This is very true. It basically means that a player can't plan a trip away anywhere during those weeks. So they have to hope there are tournaments in this country - but because lots of players can't travel during those weeks, these are often a lot stronger.

Coup Droit wrote:

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I understand that committing for six weeks is a big deal.

But so is receiving £25k

Obviously, the ideal (from the players' point of view) would be to have £25k without the commitment.

But, as A1 says, that's not life.

Anyway, each player is obviously free to make his own choice (assuming he's received the offer).

But, from a career point of view, I would think that it would be good to give it a go for a year, at least. The funding could make a big difference and the non-travel time (due to Aegon matches) would mean re-jigging the calendar but it may well work out just fine, or certainly better than expected.

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 Completely agree, if that money is being offered then it is more than worth it! The pressure of money is such a big part of tennis, to have that lifted must make a huge difference - which I think has been evident with Marcus's success recently. I can only dream of Neil getting an offer like that. 

 

I just meant that it does take time out of schedule which is why a lot of players choose not to do it and go to France instead. 

 

 

Coup Droit wrote:

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One really small question (following on from the promoting tennis aspect of this thread):

what happens at a prize giving for a British Tour event, or a GB ITF 10 or 15K event?

I've never been to one (prefer to go to earlier rounds).

Is there drinks and nibbles ? tea and cake ? raffle? Speeches ? Are there prize givings for the doubles and the singles at the same time (even if the doubles was done the day before) ?

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 Only been to a couple of BT ones.  Fairly low key presentation by the umpires table, but not many people present to make much more of it!!

Have not been to any pro event presentations abroad but quite a few junior ones.  They're always a bit of an event: always speeches, usually few local dignitaries in the photo call, occasionally drinks and nibbles etc

-- Edited by The Optimist on Sunday 28th of September 2014 10:01:03 AM

Thanks - all backs up the same point really.

Yes, all the prize-givings abroad (for money tournaments, juniors, ITF etc.) will 'be an event'.

Firstly, if you go along mid-week, there will be a sign saying 'Saturday morning is Finals morning. Prize-giving at 12. Everyone welcome !!!' or something like that. It'll be in the local paper.

There will ALWAYS be drinks and nibbles (very nice, in some cases, basic but acceptable in others). Definitely speeches from club president, sports guy from the local council, sponsor or whatever. And lots of prizes - down to semis, every category, the umpire, whoever they can find. (This will be a LARGE number in a money tournament). And often a raffle i.e. everyone gets a free ticket and there's a draw. I think it's important to try and value these events. But, then, if you haven't pushed the tournament in the first place, I guess there's no point pushing the prize-giving . . . :(