Week 5 - Challenger (€42,500) - The Scottish Championships, Glasgow (indoor hard)

emma · Strong Club Player

RE: Week 5 - Challenger (€42,500) - The Scottish Championships, Glasgow (indoor hard)

emma · Strong Club Player

well done to all the Brits playing this week and hopefully encouraging for them as well.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Again for the record:

SF: Sergei Bubka & Aleksandr Nevdovyesov (UKR/UZB) CR 440 (276+164) vs (WC) Luke Bambridge & Joe Salisbury CR 678 (294+384) by 3-6 7-5 [10-7] cry

Another disappointing result & one I didn't expect, as they were leading by 6-3 3-0 (can't remember which pair was due to serve next) when I left the office to head for Covent Garden. Nevertheless. a rewarding week for the boys. Tip-of-the-hat emoticon

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Saturday 7th of February 2015 11:05:31 AM

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Stircrazy wrote:
Again for the record:
SF: Sergei Bubka & Aleksandr Nevdovyesov (UKR/UZB) CR 440 (276+164) vs (WC) Luke Bambridge & Joe Salisbury CR 678 (294+384) by 6-3 7-5 [10-7]
Another disappointing result & one I didn't expect, as they were leading by 6-3 3-0 (can't remember which pair was due to serve next) when I left the office to head for Covent Garden. Nevertheless. a rewarding week for the boys.

Surely this score is incorrect somewhere....if they won both sets there wouldn't have been a tie-break?

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

emmas wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Great to hear some cheers form the stands.

And great to have something to cheer about !

Dan up two breaks now. 4*-1.

(mind you, the Kazakh lost the first set before and came back strongly to win in three . .. )

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Friday 6th of February 2015 11:28:18 AM

haven't been able to watch the last couple of days but it would have been such a good idea to get the local schools involved and packed the place with school kids. Think I read somewhere there were some there today but a bit of a missed opportunity earlier in the week and I'm sure all the kids would have liked an afternoon off school to cheer the Brits on and who knows it could even have inspired some to take up tennis themselves.

Didn't go to this event but have been to the 10k it replaced on several occasions. Generally think the organisers do a pretty good promotion job. Raised seating looking over a line of 4 courts and viewing of the other 4 from a raised walkway with plenty of chairs around so you can settle and watch. Lots of school kids come and go all week. They seem to watch for about 30mins and then go and take part in some sporting activity elsewhere in the centre. Scottish events are guaranteed some Scottish players in the WC allocation and matches with these players always seem to attract a good local crowd. Quite a few members of the public come and watch for an hour or 2, some having come to the centre specifically and others just having a look after using the centre for another purpose. Much busier and buzzer than most non-grass UK events.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

The Optimist wrote:
Stircrazy wrote:
Again for the record:
SF: Sergei Bubka & Aleksandr Nevdovyesov (UKR/UZB) CR 440 (276+164) vs (WC) Luke Bambridge & Joe Salisbury CR 678 (294+384) by 6-3 7-5 [10-7]
Another disappointing result & one I didn't expect, as they were leading by 6-3 3-0 (can't remember which pair was due to serve next) when I left the office to head for Covent Garden. Nevertheless. a rewarding week for the boys.
Surely this score is incorrect somewhere....if they won both sets there wouldn't have been a tie-break?

It was & now duly corrected! Wishful thinking on my part, I suppose - & it was getting quite late when I posted.

goldenboy · Club Coach

Just a thought- looking at the total points collected by british players in Glasgow (50 I think) versus the week before with essentially the same crop of players in Sunderland (42 I think) and similarly in sheffield, much as though I would love to see more challengers in the uk, I can kind of see why maybe there aren't- very little extra gain for 5 times the cost.

Granted, prize money would have been much higher and there was the opportunity for many more points (dan should have really made the semis, which would have changed things a bit), plus players could be bettering themselves by competing at a higher level, however ultimately there was marginal extra gain in the tennis "currency" ie points.

anyway just a thought really!

emma · Strong Club Player

The Optimist wrote:
emmas wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Great to hear some cheers form the stands.

And great to have something to cheer about !

Dan up two breaks now. 4*-1.

(mind you, the Kazakh lost the first set before and came back strongly to win in three . .. )

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Friday 6th of February 2015 11:28:18 AM

haven't been able to watch the last couple of days but it would have been such a good idea to get the local schools involved and packed the place with school kids. Think I read somewhere there were some there today but a bit of a missed opportunity earlier in the week and I'm sure all the kids would have liked an afternoon off school to cheer the Brits on and who knows it could even have inspired some to take up tennis themselves.
Didn't go to this event but have been to the 10k it replaced on several occasions. Generally think the organisers do a pretty good promotion job. Raised seating looking over a line of 4 courts and viewing of the other 4 from a raised walkway with plenty of chairs around so you can settle and watch. Lots of school kids come and go all week. They seem to watch for about 30mins and then go and take part in some sporting activity elsewhere in the centre. Scottish events are guaranteed some Scottish players in the WC allocation and matches with these players always seem to attract a good local crowd. Quite a few members of the public come and watch for an hour or 2, some having come to the centre specifically and others just having a look after using the centre for another purpose. Much busier and buzzer than most non-grass UK events.

what I saw on the first couple of days when it was on live feed were a lot of empty seats and not very much vocal support which considering the Brits were playing seemed a shame but its good to hear they do do all these things so thanks for mentioning it Optimist.

also if I hadn't been busy this week, I may have gone up there myself as its only an hour by plane. Out of curiosity I tried to find out more about the event on the internet. All I came up with were results and betting odds. There was no website that I was aware of, no details of where it was being held, times, cost or anything like that. I think that is quite poor and doesn't encourage anyone like me who doesn't have the knowledge that perhaps most people on this board have. So unfortunately I'm still none the wiser but I will still continue watching - on the internet.

indiana · Tennis legend

I think many of these other gains cumulatively way rather more heavily with me than the total GB ranking points gathered. And obviously one or two players going very deep would markedly change that comparison.

Clearly, we can't financially have lots of GB challengers, but I think there was and is a big case for more GB hard court challengers.

A1 tennis academy · Satellite level

Why can't we have lots of challengers we have one of the wealthiest tennis associations in the world

they have just cut player & Aegon team funding saving over £150,000 that's the prize money for 5 new challengers

A1 tennis academy · Satellite level

I don't know what happened to the Brits in the doubles this week I was expecting GB finalists

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

A1 tennis academy wrote:
Why can't we have lots of challengers we have one of the wealthiest tennis associations in the world
they have just cut player & Aegon team funding saving over £150,000 that's the prize money for 5 new challengers

Good point.

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Remember. LTA has lost funding from sport England too

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Mervatron wrote:
Remember. LTA has lost funding from sport England too

Yes. And why? Because, despite Andy's two amazing home-soil wins, numbers keep dropping and the LTA have failed to meet their targets.