Aljaz Bedene

paulisi · Tennis legend

RE: Aljaz Bedene

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Ben W wrote:
It appears that this 108 ranked Slovakian will switch his allegiance to Britain!

Actually, Ben, he's a Slovene! wink And I'm quite happy to throw my hat in the ring being formed by those who welcome his planned switch. Jetski's change of allegiance may have been greeted with some scepticism, but that was years ago & nobody seems to have kicked up a similar fuss when Jo Konta & Cam Norrie followed suit. Brydan Klein is a different matter, however...

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
I do wonder on what basis the BBC chooses to report that it is believed that Andy will have the "ultimate say" re Aljaz's Davis Cup participation.

Yes. As always, the wording is very clever. "It is believed that ......." Believed by whom ? Russell Fuller ? His editor ?

As for the move itself, I have no problem with it whatsoever. People took their time to warm to Greg when he first swapped his nationality, but I doubt anyone could question his commitment to or impact on British tennis.

Wakey · Junior player

Jaffa wrote:
Evo has tweeted saying that it isn't quite right. Doesn't surprise me in the slightest...

I personally think we should welcome the lad with open arms. The lad clearly loves it here and is a good player... why shouldn't we get behind him?

Personally think Evo has a point. In Greg's case and others such Konta they hadn't represented another country in the top level national team event so its somewhat different.

I Don't have a probelm with him choosing to be British and being considered British when it comes to funding and Wildcards BUT when it comes to Davis cup I can'to help feel he should be ineligable having represented another country. Its like Athletics where its not uncommon to see an African medal at a major championship for their country of birth and then the next major suddenly they are winning a medal for some other nation. Football has a better policy where once you play a senior competitive match your locked into that nation.

At the very least there should be a significant ban on playing davis/fed cup if you have played for another nation previously to make country hopping harder, something in the Region of 2-5 years after having switch granted

TMH · Futures qualifying

Just checked the rankings and didn't actually realise he's the current Slovenian #1.

Wasn't long ago they had him, Kavcic and Zemlja all flying. Now all three are floating in the 100s with the up and coming Rola about to become the new #1.

For what it's worth he's only played Davis Cup twice - both dead rubbers, one in 2011 and one in 2012.

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Do people recall talk of meetings with the Djokos? I'm not sure how serious they were, but I think they did happen. For a while Dustin Brown was stateless, there was speculation that he was going to apply for British citizenship. He'd have been a great addition to the country! . In the end he joined the Germans where he seemed to have stronger links. Milos Raonic is maybe more Croatioan than Canadian, and then there was mad Jelena Dokic (& her mad dad!). And Laura, Jo, Bally (God rest her soul). There must be loads of others as well

I think such questions are going to become more complex with time and I don't think there is a "right" answer. It will surely become more common to have parents from different countries, to grow up in a different country form one's birth. And aren't we all going to be European soon, (apart from maybe Scotland?) What'll become of the DC then?

philwrig · Hall of fame

He's not getting much love from a number of GB players.

PaulM · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:
He's not getting much love from a number of GB players.

Most of them are still miffed about him taking part in county cup I think.

Some of the stuff I'm reading is all a bit pathetic though, about as close to "johnny foreigner coming over here, taking our wimbledon wildcards and davis cup spots" as you can get. Others have already deleted their tweets (Oli and Dan for example) which is twice as pathetic.

I do think it's fair to contrast the situation with Jo though, who seemed to decide quite early on settling here she wanted to represent Britain and cut all ties with Tennis Australia very quickly. If this is something Aljaz has been thinking about he really should have taken himself completely out of the Slovenian set-up a little bit earlier than he did, but I don't think it should prohibit him changing now.

-- Edited by PaulM on Friday 9th of May 2014 01:58:21 PM

TMH · Futures qualifying

philwrig wrote:
He's not getting much love from a number of GB players.

Which ones, out of interest? I know Evo's one.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I'm not going to quote anyone directly obviously but let's just say there is more to it than meets the eye.

Maza1987 · Challenger level

I supported Greg just as much as Tim.
I will support this lad, too, if he wants to represent GB.

A1 tennis academy · Satellite level

We live in a multi culture society and are the richer for it and bit of competition nevernedid any harm and it could be just what the doctor ordered !

gattolibero · Social player

I think Evans and Ward should worry for their places in Davis Cup and much more for their fundings from LTA. I read that this boy (Bendene) broke up with the Slovenian Federation, the LTA is probably much more attractive (funding + wildcard for Wimbledon, think that if you loose at Wimbledon's first round this year you earn 27.000 GBP!!!), moreover you have a splendid tennis facility in London (the Roehampton structure).

-- Edited by gattolibero on Saturday 10th of May 2014 05:59:45 PM

huntley93 · Strong Club Player

every other sport does it, look at the english rugby team for starters so why not tennis

-- Edited by huntley93 on Friday 9th of May 2014 03:03:56 PM

steven · Tennis legend

I'm intrigued by Phil's last post ...

I can see why there are mixed views on this, in the sense that if people can just switch countries on a whim, does the country you play for mean anything and can you feel much allegiance (in the sporting sense, I mean - I'm not keen on nationalism in most other senses!) to a country you have little connection with?

I certainly don't like the way switches are made far too easy in athletics, for example. That doesn't mean I have anything against the athletes who do switch when the rules say they can - it's the rules that seem a bit flawed.

This switch is a bit different in character to the other tennis players who have switched to the UK. Greg, Cam and even Brydan had one British parent, so I think that gave them a very strong connection to the UK even if they weren't brought up here, while JoKo has been living here since her early teens (possibly even before that) and had to wait many years to get British citizenship, foregoing potential support and WCs from the Aussies in the meantime, which said a lot about her commitment to playing for GB. Then again, if the UK citizenship rules hadn't made JoKo wait until she was 18 before she could apply and she had appeared to switch more suddenly, would we have held that against her? When you think about it that way, it wouldn't really make much sense to do so.

Only Aljaz himself is likely to know the real reasons why he is switching and hence how genuine they are, though the fact that he hasn't played for Slovenia in DC for a couple of years (the DC rule says you have to wait 3 years before playing for a different country) during which he has been one of their top players probably suggests that he has been intending to switch for a while, which seems like a good sign.

Of course, if Aljaz switching spurs Evo on to try to get ahead of him in the rankings so that he can be GB no. 2 again, that would be a nice little bonus

Then again, if Kyle progresses at the kind of rate we are hoping he will, he may make that DC no. 2 spot his own before long anyway.

Do people think I should be adding him to the GB top 25 table immediately (in the right place but without a GB ranking for now, as I did with JoKo when she was waiting) or shall we wait for a more concrete announcement, which sounds like it may come around Wimbledon time?