Future of GB men's tennis

Spaced · Lower Club Player

Future of GB men's tennis

paulisi · Tennis legend

RE: Future of GB mens tennis

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Hi Spaced. Nice to see you post. For what it's worth, I'm largely in line with paulisi.

Dan evans and James could be be in the top 100 in three months time - a couple of good tournaments/lucky draws/things coming together - they're both close (Dan has a little more potential longterm but there's quite a few 'ifs' still)
Kyle is a money bet for top 100 but not this year, or next one or two in my opinion.
Agree that Luke has more potential than Liam - have thought that all along. Way too early though to be talking top 100. Getting near the top 300 would be a good goal in the next 12 months or so.
Oli - similar - top 250 in the reasonably near future. More later.
Dan S is obviously having the time of his life at the moment. Difficult to say. No one predicted anything like this 12 months back and he's got a fair bit of experience and weapons so why not . . . .
If uninjured, I expect Dan will make the top 200 this year (maybe 180 or so), by autumn, before falling out again towards the end of the year when he gets a large number of points to defend. He has hardly any points of note coming off in the next few months - he's ideally placed to break into the top 200, a real rankings chance to make a difference.
Dan C is a little the same. I predicted him to finish the year down, maybe even back at 300 level, but expected him to get near the 200 mark on the way because he too had little to defend during these months.
Again, though, if you look at what people were saying this time last year, no one had Dan C up here, or Dave Rice, or Dan S - it's certainly shows that things can turn round pretty quickly and surprise people.
Agree with paulisi that Harry is an interesting prospect but a little bit 'rough diamond', time will tell. Tom F is great but 'fragile'.
I'm a big Josh WH fan as everyone knows but he has been singularly unimpressive so far this year - however, he'll be up there pushing the 100 at some point, in my opinion.

Anyway, I agree with your point - the 'second tier' GB men have had a great start to the year - 7 inside the top 300 when it was only 4 at the start of the year. Three of the top 10 at CHs, and 4 others very close. The 'third tier' haven't really made the gains one might have hoped for (it's a lot easier to go up 100 places if you're ranked 1000 so we'd hope they'd be far more). But, overall. pretty good . . . :)

indiana · Tennis legend

Pretty much agree.

It's the best looking collective "second tier" we have had in a long time.

The top 10 are collectively doing pretty well, with most having genuine hopes of the top 250 at the very least within the next year or two. Some much higher as has been indicated - eg. Kyle, Oli, Evo, Dan S. James is also an older, not to be forgotten, often frustrating talent, who might ( and certainly quite often looks capable to ) go quite a bit higher than he has yet done.

Interesting re Liam and Luke. I have for some time also thought that Luke had perhaps the better longterm prospects, although I seem to recall Luke being put down in the past as really lacking weapons, and certainly Liam being talked up. There does seem to be a mood change. I would though put Kyle and Oli's longterm prospects higher than both of them. And clearly again, Evo and Dan S excite, and it is to me very unclear where they could ultimately get to.

I ageee about the "third tier" players moving through the rankings and say threatening the top 500. Rather quiet on that front so far this year, actually surprisingly so. Hopefully we will see a pick-up there.

Longer term, the situation in the GB junior boys does look rather worrying. It looks like two or three years of relative famine, which is very disappointing. One must hope that there are some late developers in these ranks, which is always very possible.

The positive does remain re the great progress by quite a number, and I really do hope the fact that most of these are making real steps at early to mid twenties is noted by the LTA ( and again makes the junior situation worrying but very clearly not beyond recall ).

spud · Challenger qualifying

RE: Future of GB men's tennis

EddietheEagle · County player

None of the current crop of so-called top tier British contenders will make the ATP 100 apart from possibly Kyle Edmund. The latter evidently has the work ethic and his present ranking is on track but a lot can happen between an ATP ranking of 300 and breaking into the top 100.

indiana · Tennis legend

So called "second tier" :)

EddietheEagle · County player

Here's another interesting article from the Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/10781137/Britains-young-tennis-players-are-too-soft-and-lazy-to-make-it-to-the-top-says-the-new-chief-of-the-LTA.html

He needs to have a go at both Rusedski and Henman. The latter in particular is a lazy git who ought to pull his finger out instead of swanning around the All England or brushing up his golf.
Henman got massive help in his time from Stefan Edberg. He ought to be nearly as active on the court now with GB youngsters as when he was on the ATP tour.

-- Edited by EddietheEagle on Tuesday 22nd of April 2014 08:04:31 PM

spud · Challenger qualifying

EddietheEagle wrote:
He needs to have a go at both Rusedski and Henman. The latter in particular is a lazy git who ought to pull his finger out instead of swanning around the All England or brushing up his golf.
Henman got massive help in his time from Stefan Edberg. He ought to be nearly as active on the court now with GB youngsters as when he was on the ATP tour.

-- Edited by EddietheEagle on Tuesday 22nd of April 2014 08:04:31 PM

I don't think you can call Henman lazy...

The majority of players don't go back into coaching and not surprisingly. If I'd have hit tennis balls for 4 hours a day, 5/6 days a week from aged 8 until I was 33 I think its quite possible I may never want to go back near a tennis ball!!

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

EddietheEagle wrote:
Here's another interesting article from the Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/10781137/Britains-young-tennis-players-are-too-soft-and-lazy-to-make-it-to-the-top-says-the-new-chief-of-the-LTA.html

He needs to have a go at both Rusedski and Henman. The latter in particular is a lazy git who ought to pull his finger out instead of swanning around the All England or brushing up his golf.
Henman got massive help in his time from Stefan Edberg. He ought to be nearly as active on the court now with GB youngsters as when he was on the ATP tour.

-- Edited by EddietheEagle on Tuesday 22nd of April 2014 08:04:31 PM

Leaving Henman out of it - if somebody doesn't like the idea of coaching they would likely make a rotten coach - what do you mean by "have a go" at Rusedski? He has been heavily involved with young British players for years and is now to coach Kyle Edmund, as the article says.

paulisi · Tennis legend

I'd be more interested in which tier 3 players can move into tier 2. I would class tier 3 as any player with a ranking and tier 2 as 300-500 ranking.

These are my suggestions based on what i've seen:

Neil P,Josh M and Bambo are a given as they are close

Marzi - i'm not convinced he will improve that much
George C - definite potential, just doesn't seem to put it all together regularly
JWH - deffo
Norrie - deffo, but going to Uni so may have to wait a while
Burton - seems to be focusing on doubles, results don't suggest he will break through in singles
Rob C - talented player, will climb up the rankings
Jack C - potential, but never fit
Toby - deffo -one of the bankers for top 500
Jathan and Harry - both have the games to climb the rankings
Scott Clayton - nice solid game, underranked, but not sure will move to top 500 yet
Myles Orton - nice player when fit, should climb the rankings, but not sure will make top 500

Not sure on any of the rest have the potential bar the college players and juniors - Evan Hoyt may be the other player to follow.

TMH · Futures qualifying

EddietheEagle is surely a troll.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

For the new 'tier 2', as per paulisi's definition, which seems about right, I would add:

Joe Salisbury - really hoping he'll give pro tennis a go - he seems to be doing very well at college level, is now a senior (last year) and has really impressed when giving the ITF events a go;

theamerican.org/news/2014/4/8/Tennis_0408143326.aspx

nice recent article

Wonder about Danny M . . .

Evan Hoyt impressed me when I say him play last year - would definitely put him as future 500 guy (though he seemed a bit 'young' when playing, But, then, he is . . . so no surprise . . )

Rob C and George C could well but have to be prepared to do the hard graft - not sure they are . . .

There are a couple of youngsters who I see certainly as top 500 but without knowing their plans it's not very helpful . . .

EddietheEagle · County player

Henman more so than Rusedski perhaps but both have made outspoken comments about failings in British tennis but done little themselves after making millions from the game. I'm aware Rusedski had some minor talent-spotting role with the LTA but as the LTA head himself infers, he (and Henman) could be doing a lot more to bring our up and coming prospects onto the ATP tour. Rusedski has now 'crossed the line' in taking on major responsibility for bringing on Edmund and that is certainly good news. It ought to have been happening years ago with others. I doubt Henman would have become the player he was if it wasn't for the time Edberg extended him when Tim was an up and coming player. His current role in tennis appears to be glad-handing ATP players on behalf of the Wimbledon committee during the tournament. That's not giving anything back.

One of the things we lack yet Spain and France demonstrate in abundance is continuity and support extended from one generation to the next. Those two ex-players in my view could have been contributing a lot more. That criticism may be a little unfair as far as Rusedski is concerned but it certainly applies to Henman.

EddietheEagle · County player

TMH wrote:
EddietheEagle is surely a troll.

Rather than make a rude personal comment, why not spell out exactly what you object to?