Given the history, and even having had the "pleasure" of hearing directly from Isaac's father on this forum, I already have thoughts re the likely substance to this claim.

indiana wrote:

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Given the history, and even having had the "pleasure" of hearing directly from Isaac's father on this forum, I already have thoughts re the likely substance to this claim.

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From an uninformed point of view, I seem to remember that my thoughts on the issue coincided very much with yours when we talked about it last time on this forum.

 

However, just to reiterate, I have chatted for some time to isaac's mother who was charming and polite and reasonable. And have watched Isaac play on a couple of occasions, and both time he was one of the most respectful, fairplay players I've ever seen (and both times he lost - always a lot harder to be a 'nice' person when you're losing). However, I've never spoken to Mr. Stoute senior. . . . .

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10745438/Teenage-tennis-ace-sues-LTA-for-race-discrimination.html

 

James Egan writes 'Stoute is ranked 81 places below Andy Murray in the senior British standings'.   I know he is not a specialist sports reporter, but you would have thought someone who with a sought-after job on a major national newspaper would do a modicum of research on an topic he writes about!

I have very little.  Whenever there is anything I know anything about they always get it wrong.  I suppose I was thinking how odd it is that with so many young people wanting to be  journalists and so few succeeding, it is extraordinary that those who do are quite so bad!

KK wrote:

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10745438/Teenage-tennis-ace-sues-LTA-for-race-discrimination.html

 

James Egan writes 'Stoute is ranked 81 places below Andy Murray in the senior British standings'.   I know he is not a specialist sports reporter, but you would have thought someone who with a sought-after job on a major national newspaper would do a modicum of research on an topic he writes about!

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To be fair to the reporter, that stat is actually correct, if selective in that they're not the rankings that matter (to us, at least) - Isaac is 82nd in the LTA's own Open senior rankings - see https://www2.lta.org.uk/Search/PlayerSearch/Details/?Id=1-3QY-5180

As other people have said, the idea of racism at the LTA doesn't seem to fit with the range of players coming through. In the end, lots of parents end up aggrieved with funding decisions - no doubt partly because the LTA don't always get it right and partly (perhaps mainly) because some parents have an inflated view of their own kids' talents. It must be easy to jump to wild conclusions as to why your child hasn't got the funding you think they deserve, with racism being all too easy an accusation to throw, not to mention being the one most likely to ensure that the grievance ends up in court and in the media.

That said, I don't know any of the facts behind this case and, for all I know, maybe there is some validity to the claim. However, it must be quite unusual to have only heard one side of the story (i.e. MrS's comments on here in the past) and to end up pretty convinced as a result that, in this case at least, the side whose story you haven't heard is more likely to be in the right! 

As I've said before, whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, Isaac is the one I feel most sorry for - all this aggro can't be helping him with his tennis career.

 

-- Edited by steven on Sunday 6th of April 2014 08:12:35 PM

As steven says, if Isaac is the 82nd best ranked GB player according to domestic LTA rankings, well, that's fine and dandy but it's really not saying much.

I have no idea about the merits of the case - there may well be certain grains of truth to certain parts. And if there are, these should be dealt with. But it's difficult to see institutionalised racism, given the range of players coming through.

However, A1's comments on the other thread are quite apt. I've also seen Isaac play several times and, much as he's a very enjoyable player to watch and seemingly a very nice young man, I was not overly impressed by his tennis, certainly not for a professional career going forward.

In fact, I was told that he was a very good student and, assuming this wasn't just propaganda, I thought he was an ideal candidate for the US college route - needs time to grow and fill out and simply does not have the game to take out on the ITF tour at this time. A1 might be a little pessimistic (predicting 1000-2000); I could see a little higher as five years or so can make a big difference. But I wouldn't be pouring LTA funding into the lad from what I saw.