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Post Info TOPIC: Week 25 - ATP World Tour 250 - Eastbourne, UK (Grass)
Spectator


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Week 25 - ATP World Tour 250 - Eastbourne, UK (Grass)
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While I'm not privy to any inside information - and don't have the time to pick up much of the general information that others will have seen - my general impression is that of all the UK players, Mr Ward would be one of the last whom one would accuse of a sense of entitlement. Unless I am mistaken, he didn't come through the LTA; his father worked to send him to Spain, and he has somewhere, I think, expressed an awareness of just how much that took and his obligation to "make good". If anything, I often feel that the LTA has done an own goal by not offering him more support, especially relative to other players.

In terms of WCs, if I were a UK tournament director, I'd certainly give him one. Yes, you might get a stinker of a day. But you might not; his results in UK tournaments include some decent ones: QFs at Eastbourne, SFs at Queens, 2nd round at Wimbledon, etc. My recollection was that the incident you mentioned happened in 2010, when I think an injury time-out had resulted in his having a slightly lower ranking than usual precisely at the Wimbledon cut-off point - which was not taken into consideration when the WC decisions were made. He did express disappointment. But his comment about why he played Eastbourne - as per a Google-found article in The Guardian - was a very logical one: "Yes it's disappointing. They offered me a wild card into the qualifying which is great. But I picked this tournament because of the chance of playing good players in a top 250 event and get some good ranking points, which I've got and will get my ranking up for the rest of the year." (He beat Lopez and Schuttler). Given the relative dearth of points on offer for men's qualies, that doesn't read to me like a refusal to play because of a sense of entitlement and pique, but rather like good old common sense ... which paid off.



-- Edited by Spectator on Thursday 19th of June 2014 05:25:59 AM

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gattolibero


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IMHO I just think that LTA helped Mr. Ward at the wrong time. They haven't helped him in the right period, when he was young, (16-22 years old), I think that it could be really helpful LTA at managing better the beginning of his career. Whereas they are helping him a lot now at 27 years old and in recent years. I guess that it is too late. He plays good at Davis Cup times (really a different player) and quite bad in many challengers and "minor" events. I think he just set the wrong mindset through the years, and now it's late to change it. I wish him all the best, but I am not optimistic in him getting inside TOP100.

I am surprised that Italy has 4 men in TOP100 and goes even better with the female tennis players (5 in top 100: Pennetta, Schiavone, Errani, Vinci and Giorgi), whereas Britain has only Andy Murray inside top 100. It seems to me that LTA helps much more their players than our FIT, moreover Britain has Wimbledon and other very good tournaments, all good opportunities for its players that Italy doesn't have. You should have more top players than us!



-- Edited by gattolibero on Thursday 19th of June 2014 07:00:30 PM



-- Edited by gattolibero on Thursday 19th of June 2014 07:01:28 PM

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BeefyDeedz


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gattolibero wrote:

You should have more top players than us!

 And that is the problem that everybody here is trying to conjure a solution to!



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Coup Droit


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gattolibero wrote:

IMHO I just think that LTA helped Mr. Ward at the wrong time. They haven't helped him in the right period, when he was young, (16-22 years old), I think that it could be really helpful LTA at managing better the beginning of his career. Whereas they are helping him a lot now at 27 years old and in recent years. I guess that it is too late. He plays good at Davis Cup times (really a different player) and quite bad in many challengers and "minor" events. I think he just set the wrong mindset through the years, and now it's late to change it. I wish him all the best, but I am not optimistic in him getting inside TOP100.

I am surprised that Italy has 4 men in TOP100 and goes even better with the female tennis players (5 in top 100: Pennetta, Schiavone, Errani, Vinci and Giorgi), whereas Britain has only Andy Murray inside top 100. It seems to me that LTA helps much more their players than our FIT, moreover Britain has Wimbledon and other very good tournaments, all good opportunities for its players that Italy doesn't have. You should have more top players than us!



-- Edited by gattolibero on Thursday 19th of June 2014 07:00:30 PM



-- Edited by gattolibero on Thursday 19th of June 2014 07:01:28 PM

 

Very fair point, a very fair point . . . cry

Of course, you could say that might apply to football too i.e. it's not just our tennis players that 'under'-perform . . .

NB Does gatto libero mean 'free cat' ? I'm just guessing . . . my Italian is VERY limited. Is there a hidden significance ? (Or would you rather not say?).



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gattolibero


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Coup Droit wrote:
NB Does gatto libero mean 'free cat' ? I'm just guessing . . . my Italian is VERY limited. Is there a hidden significance ? (Or would you rather not say?).

 Yes, it means "free cat" and there is no hidden significance smile



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Spectator


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Gatto libero, do you know something about the extent of the LTA's help for Mr Ward? I wasn't aware that they were helping him a lot in recent years - and (despite the timing) would be glad to learn that they have been, if they have. I don't count giving him WCs - they need GB players in the mix, and he's one of the few who could receive them and have a hope of doing well.

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indiana


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Actually, as quite often discussed, the LTA have a history of giving loads of "help" to groups of players in that 16 to 22 agegroup ( and younger ) and then not giving it thereafter to players showing good signs, but still some way from absolutely broken through yet.

There has if anything been too much ageism to earlier years, and some older players who could almost certainly benefit from "help", while often clearly on the rise, are barely considered if they don't fit the LTA's matrices.

I am certainly not really aware of any great "help" James has been getting in recent years as against the younger contingent.

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gattolibero


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Spectator wrote:

Gatto libero, do you know something about the extent of the LTA's help for Mr Ward? I wasn't aware that they were helping him a lot in recent years - and (despite the timing) would be glad to learn that they have been, if they have. I don't count giving him WCs - they need GB players in the mix, and he's one of the few who could receive them and have a hope of doing well.

 He is funded for being part of the Davis Cup team. I was considering a form of financial help also giving him the WC to all British events despite the poor results.



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