The archived section of the ATP site containing videos of all the livestream matches of which quite a number seem to be of Liam's match won't load for whatever reason :((
Great result, although I thought Liam's game was looking well honed in yesterday's doubles. Congratulations to anyone who managed to beat the frustrations of t'internet and see a stroke being played. I share phillwrig's frustrations and continue to loose in every attempt at seeing Liam win this one!
But the only player of that calibre we've produced is Kyle in the last few years.
Yes we've had Liam and Ollie but i don't think their talent was ever to Kyle's potential.
Luke is then a step behind them.
Yes there are differences in level of talent but all of the 4 you mention had good junior careers, as did George Morgan, and with the exception of Kyle they have all struggled with the transition to one degree or another.
But how good were their junior careers really? Taking Luke as an example a CH of 22 sounds good but it is not as impressive when you look deeper. He did much better at doubles than singles, partnering the likes of Liam, Josh W-H, Kyle and Borna Coric and doubles formed a fair part of that ranking. The junior ranking system is very much geared to the high grade events. It is perfectly possible to be highly ranked winning a round or 2 in a lot of top events, only going deeper in the odd one here or there or by doing well in dubs. This profile matches Luke's junior career and indeed the careers of many of our top juniors. Luke was also physically very developed at a young age and strength as much as skill will have contributed to his wins, a factor which becomes less of an advantage as opponents mature.
Historically, the LTA has flown those juniors it funds around the world to every top grade event chasing junior points for as long as the kids are eligible to play. It is an expensive travel schedule which few other juniors worldwide have followed, but has generated plenty of good headlines for the LTA and justified the amount they have spent on these kids. In contrast, many other nationalities follow a broader schedule; some junior ITFs, some futures, local money tournaments and thus are lower ranked than their UK counterparts.
I would suggest that the problems our top juniors have transitioning is because they, in some cases, are not as 'top' as we and they think they are in global terms, simply having a falsely high junior ranking.
Liam plays his 2nd round match tonight at 5.30 local which I think is 10:30 our time. He faces Mitchell Krueger (wr301). I don't know much about Krueger, though he lives in Florida and will be very at home on the HarTru. Can Liam back up yesterday's excellent performance? Hope so!
The match is on the stadium court, so there should not be a problem with the stream.
The archived section of the ATP site containing videos of all the livestream matches of which quite a number seem to be of Liam's match won't load for whatever reason :((
The archived section of the ATP site containing videos of all the livestream matches of which quite a number seem to be of Liam's match won't load for whatever reason :((
There were live stream problems throughout the match and nobody was able to connect. One or two seem to have seen some of the match on BET365 but the ATP live stream simply didn't work at all.
The commentator, Mike C has tweeted that they are aware of the problem and working to solve it, but the problem is not at their end. Live streams to the other courts were working fine. It was just Liam's court that didn't work.
Optimist I agree with almost everything you have to say and I am very wary of players that are very physically mature as juniors with little potential for further physical maturation into adulthood. They should transition to seniors earlier, the physical advantage is nullified and they have to work on technique, game craft etc...
Luke is physically well equipped for the senior game, he looks durable (I haven't scrutinised his injury record). A rank of 22 given there are a decade worth of juniors at least in the top flight puts you in the world top 300, at your best, if making a direct extrapolation.
At least a third won't progress for a variety of other reasons, tennis owes me a certain lifestyle etc...and Luke appears to be well up for the challenge I would still be very hopeful that with patience and financial commitment he should be between 75-150 at 25-26, is that worth the LTAs investment?
My feeling is a definite yes, we need a critical mass of players at that level to make tennis relevant to the UK sporting public, who generally perceive players outside the top 32 as rubbish! And they are soo wrong.