Week 26 - Wimbledon men's main draw

Ratty · County player

RE: Week 26 - Wimbledon men's main draw

steven · Tennis legend

You probably have a point there, but no doubt they have talked to him privately and they're now just trying to make it clear to the media who are trying to stir things up that there are no hard feelings - that seems fair enough to me.

edit: "now" not "not" (a typo which changed the meaning considerably as well as not really making sense!)

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 26th of June 2014 11:42:21 AM

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

I haven't read read or listened to Hoferlin's resignation speech yet. I wasn't going to bother posting my opinion of Dan's efforts against Kuznetsov because everyone watched it. I thought the standard of tennis was very high (I missed the 1st set though, saw everything else). If Dan could take anything like that level of tennis into the humdrum world of challengers and get to the semis instead of going out to weak players in R1 or R2 he'd quickly break into the top 100. Dan's best is easily good enough to justify entry into ATP events. His worst performances are Futures level and at the moment there is nothing in the middle. His schedluing this year has been idiotic and Hoferlin should shoulder at least some responsibility for this.

Now AK has gone and beaten the no. 7 seed I don't think critcism of Dan is justified at this moment in time. Dan needs to continue to work hard and to contemplate the tournamets he enters more carefully. He should never play again on clay again unless he gets direct entry into RG. Some players blow hot and cold, not everybody can be constant, but when the overwhelming objective is to break into the top 100 you have to choose the tournaments entered more sensibly.

Are there any Brits going to Rhode Island this year?

Spectator · All-time great

steven wrote:
I thought someone had said this already (perhaps they have and I'm just being blind or it was on another thread!) but having now had a chance to listen to the audio version of the interview, it is a lot more nuanced - the Belgian media are trying to be the British media and pick out the most critical bits. That doesn't mean the written summary is way off, but Julien does talk about some good things too.
- Edited by steven on Wednesday 25th of June 2014 06:54:14 PM

Someone had: it was I, in the other thread where CD introduced the link. For the record (since the negative things are posted in many places), the positives included talking about good times with players, colleagues, and bosses (the written summary makes it just "une belle aventure"); the interview clarifies that he is coming home because he is tired of being on the road so much and wants to be in Belgium more; there's more nuance in general; and there are some very positive comments about the GB women: he notes that we have "two excellent women players who could hope to be top 10 some day" and two others (Ms Konta and perhaps in the future Ms Broady?) who are in the top 100. And I would definitely agree that Andy Murray brings us a lot of joy!

-- Edited by Spectator on Thursday 26th of June 2014 02:48:30 AM

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

The Telegraph have also picked up on the interview: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/10926795/Wimbledon-2014-Dan-Evans-coach-Julien-Hoferlin-accuses-Britons-of-being-too-spoilt.html

It is a good interview and certainly worth a listen. He speaks warmly of his colleagues buy feels that he (as well as British Tennis) has underachieved in his 6 years here. He can't really explain why we have so few top players when we have good juniors and excellent resources.

He is frank about Dan's lack of appetite for work, but this is hardly news. He feels that Dan has the potential to be top 60. Who did Julien work with before Dan? " A player who lost his head after he missed a couple of shots"

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

stevemcqueen wrote:

The Telegraph have also picked up on the interview: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/10926795/Wimbledon-2014-Dan-Evans-coach-Julien-Hoferlin-accuses-Britons-of-being-too-spoilt.html
It is a good interview and certainly worth a listen. He speaks warmly of his colleagues buy feels that he (as well as British Tennis) has underachieved in his 6 years here. He can't really explain why we have so few top players when we have good juniors and excellent resources.
He is frank about Dan's lack of appetite for work, but this is hardly news. He feels that Dan has the potential to be top 60. Who did Julien work with before Dan? " A player who lost his head after he missed a couple of shots"

As steven pointed out on the previous page, that's probably Oli.

And I don't think it's too negative of a comment i.e. it's not positive (obviously!) but it's said about a youngish player who has a lot of potential and it might possibly do him good to hear it out in the open.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Spectator wrote:
steven wrote:
I thought someone had said this already (perhaps they have and I'm just being blind or it was on another thread!) but having now had a chance to listen to the audio version of the interview, it is a lot more nuanced - the Belgian media are trying to be the British media and pick out the most critical bits. That doesn't mean the written summary is way off, but Julien does talk about some good things too.
- Edited by steven on Wednesday 25th of June 2014 06:54:14 PM
Someone had: it was I, in the other thread where CD introduced the link. For the record (since the negative things are posted in many places), the positives included talking about good times with players, colleagues, and bosses (the written summary makes it just "une belle aventure"); the interview clarifies that he is coming home because he is tired of being on the road so much and wants to be in Belgium more; there's more nuance in general; and there are some very positive comments about the GB women: he notes that we have "two excellent women players who could hope to be top 10 some day" and two others (Ms Konta and perhaps in the future Ms Broady?) who are in the top 100. And I would definitely agree that Andy Murray brings us a lot of joy!

-- Edited by Spectator on Thursday 26th of June 2014 02:48:30 AM

I don't think Julien can be refering to Broady as the other top 100 prospect. She's never at the NTC and Julien had relatively little to do with women's tennis (up till now) so I guess he's barely ever seen Naomi play.

My guess is he's talking about Tara who he'll know quite well and who, from a tennis coach's point of view, certainly has the game to be top 100.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Can I just say thank you to everyone who has given a summary of the full interview on here. My french is not good enough to have picked up the nuances. I have read the BBC article and whilst I do always add a liberal amount of salt to every helping I was left with a negative impression about Julien leaving a role and choosing to bad mouth his employer - I have now been completely disabused of that notion and it seems, instead, that he is taking the opportunity to tell it like it is - not all bad but still with more room for improvement than there should be.

steven · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
stevemcqueen wrote:

The Telegraph have also picked up on the interview: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/10926795/Wimbledon-2014-Dan-Evans-coach-Julien-Hoferlin-accuses-Britons-of-being-too-spoilt.html
It is a good interview and certainly worth a listen. He speaks warmly of his colleagues buy feels that he (as well as British Tennis) has underachieved in his 6 years here. He can't really explain why we have so few top players when we have good juniors and excellent resources.
He is frank about Dan's lack of appetite for work, but this is hardly news. He feels that Dan has the potential to be top 60. Who did Julien work with before Dan? " A player who lost his head after he missed a couple of shots"

As steven pointed out on the previous page, that's probably Oli.
And I don't think it's too negative of a comment i.e. it's not positive (obviously!) but it's said about a youngish player who has a lot of potential and it might possibly do him good to hear it out in the open.

Yes, I'm certain he meant Oli - not least because he talks about him going "dingue" (crazy) in the audio and he often used to call him "Goldingue" (a perfect franglais-sounding nickname really) in tweets, as I was reminded when he used it again in reply to a friendly tweet from Oli last night.

steven · Tennis legend

Talking of people whose first language is French - Gasquet & Monfils (who had been seeded to meet in an all-French clash in R3) indulged in a new sport today - synchronised GEM-ming. Gaël lost to Vesely in 5 and Richou did even 'better', going down 10-8 in the 5th to Kyrgios, who saved 9 (I think) match points!

steven · Tennis legend

Too easy for the likes of us, but you might enjoy it anyway - "Tennis player or cheese" in the Telegraph

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/10924682/Test-your-wits-tennis-player-or-cheese.html

indiana · Tennis legend

Tsonga prevents a rather unfortunate French hattrick by beating Querrey 14-12 in the fifth.

The young guns match between Vesely & Kyrgios should be interesting, with the likely prize for the winner being a L16 clash with Nadal ( plays Kuekushkin in R3 ).

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Does anyone know why Berdych was moved from court 1 to 3?

indiana · Tennis legend

I don't know the precise relevant times, but I assume that the Berdych vs Cilic match was moved to the "graveyard" to give it a more realistic chance of completion today, with the Dimitrov vs Dolgopolov match on Court One extending into a 5th set.