Just been having a look at the ITF calendar to see where the girls might play over the next few months ( Trying to avoid writing an essay)
Well I noticed that in the 1st five months on 2015 there are 3 pro events in the UK. 1 10k and 2 25k's. What a joke. I see the womens clay court events have vanished completely now. The mid march 10k's are gone.
I remember when we used to start the year with 2 10k's and then 2 25k's.
How do expect our players to make i in the pro game if there aren't enough events to get ranking points?
There used to be a very good tournament on clay in Bournemouth that I visited twice. Unusually it was within 60 miles of where I live, the only other one being Bath. Bournemouth had a very nice club house which used to serve very evil cakes (definitely NOT for aspiring tennis players).
Is some money possibly being saved to use for the extended grass season bigger tournaments ( as I read a suggestion ) or what is this big reduction in GB men's futures and women's 10K to 25K about ?
The aspiring GB men and women, ranked lower than say 400, especially if older than 21, seem to be having life made more and more difficult from various angles.
Is some money possibly being saved to use for the extended grass season bigger tournaments ( as I read a suggestion ) or what is this big reduction in GB men's futures and women's 10K to 25K about ?
The aspiring GB men and women, ranked lower than say 400, especially if older than 21, seem to be having life made more and more difficult from various angles.
It would, sadly, not be surprising if the LTA went for an inflated grass-court season, although I fear that this short-sightedness could punish many lower-ranked Brits.
And I thought the new idea was that the youngsters must now play a lot more adult matches. So how can they do that given that:
(a) now they're aren't the standard 10ks going on in the UK;
(b) now Aegon team tennis has been slashed; and
(c) now there's a large cut in British Tour events?
So WHERE are the adult matches supposed to magically appear from?
Two quick views of the number of ITF events for Women held in GBR in Jan-Mar in each of the last 10 years
There's all sorts of arbitrary bias affecting this, such as:
The day on which the end of March falls - an event often occurs in the first week of April; in some years this begin in the last few days of March.
Whether a club holds back-to-back events in successive weeks - Bath & Sunderland used to, quite regularly, sometimes a $10K followed by a $25K. That doesn't seem to be the case of late, they just hold the one.
Which doesn't even begin to look at whether these events are being moved to elsewhere in the calendar, for a number of possible reasons.
There used to be a very good tournament on clay in Bournemouth that I visited twice. Unusually it was within 60 miles of where I live, the only other one being Bath. Bournemouth had a very nice club house which used to serve very evil cakes (definitely NOT for aspiring tennis players).
I used to go to the Edinburgh tournament every year but to be honest the standard was declining every year
The fields were awful because why would any player want to play two green clay 10ks? Its no good for anyone around RG qualies because its too low an event and a different surface (the two play nothing alike), and any European clay court loving 10k player would prefer the red stuff on the continent. Plus the brits aroubd 300-500 had no interest in green clay as it serves no purpose really in terms of development or their wider scheduling and were usually elsewhere on hardcourts or playing the high grade Japanese events.
Those events became worthless the moment they were downgraded. And so every year the field got worse - it didn't make sense for anyone's schedule (by that i mean the touring pros from all over the world not british very low or unranked players) to play unless you just wanted to try and pick up some cheap points
Shame as the Edinburgh centre court is lovely.
-- Edited by PaulM on Saturday 21st of February 2015 08:34:43 PM
as the lta policies have not yet been set in stone, hopefully they are listening to suggestions/thoughts coming from other sources. a successful organisation will always take into account what other people think before deciding on their final stance.
I still believe everyone ought to be able to have support to reach their full potential - Tennis is for everyone.
edit: I hope Steven is ok, haven't seen him on the board for a few days :(
There used to be a very good tournament on clay in Bournemouth that I visited twice. Unusually it was within 60 miles of where I live, the only other one being Bath. Bournemouth had a very nice club house which used to serve very evil cakes (definitely NOT for aspiring tennis players).
I used to go to the Edinburgh tournament every year but to be honest the standard was declining every year
The Bournemouth tournament was good. In 2011 all eight seeds were from abroad and it included Katy Dunne in only her 2nd pro event (she nearly removed the 6th seed), Katie Boulter, Jade Windley, Fran Stephenson, Danieka Borthwick, Sam Murray etc.
In 2012 five of the seeds were from abroad, with Naomi Broady top seed and included Harriet Dart, Jazzamay Drew, Danielle Konotoptseva.
In its final year, 2013 six of the seeds were from abroad, with Jade Windley top seed and it included Anna Smith and Eden Silva.
Just seen on the LTA website. There are 3 50K's in a row in June Eastbourne, Surbiton and Ilkey.
I understand the first event, but really, 3 50k's in a row, with 3 WTA events on top?
The same as last year, just one more because they have extended the grass court season by one week, they could have downgraded 2 of them to a 25k I suppose.
