TheTraveller2 wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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Coup Droit wrote:

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I'm afraid that as soon as I read that yesterday 'former player Jeremy Bates, the LTAs head coach of womens tennis .. was on-site watching the match', I thought, bad luck girls - that's an omen of doom if ever there was one.

And when it said Ali spent most of the match in tears, I thought, yes, well anybody would be with sourpuss Jeremy sitting looking on.....

So good luck to them in the third set, and good luck to them vis-a-vis paulisi's permutations - would be lovely if they could still make it through, despite . . . .

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"Developing" Ali that losing can hurt ?!

Maybe integating her, but not putting so much on her shoulders, and yes again select and play to win the tournament might really be the best idea.

But hey no, rest Katy with her much bigger time experience, throw in Ali and it looks like she has felt very responsible.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 30th of September 2015 04:25:37 PM

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But if you are going to give Ali the opportunity to play singles in the group stage it was probably going to be in the #2 spot vs. Japan based on rankings (which is really the only measure to go by, if still unreliable).  So I am still okay with the decision. 

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The more surprising thing to me was Ali playing doubles as well and Katie sitting that out, at 1 all.

I am guessing you can wait to finalise your doubles pairing until after the two singles matches in which case at that stage in all known circumstances ( and clearly much is not known ) it then seemed to make sense that Katie and Jodie play the deciding doubles.  

paulisi wrote:

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Very harsh on Jeremy Bates.

Lucie Ahl is captain this week. I believe Judy Murray is around as well.

Jeremy will have some spare time on his hand with Katie Boulter injured for most of the year. Is he coaching anyone else in the interim?

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Yes, it is harsh on Jeremy Bates. And I generally give people the benefit of the doubt. But, in my view, it is quite justified.

Based on having seen him in a coaching/watching role at least three times recently (and as a direct coach a few time in years gone by) I have never seen such a negative person who is not suited, again in my view, to be a coach of youngsters, or even women. (He might possibly be a good coach/leader for seniors tennis).

I don't think Judy is over in Spain, by the way - her tweets seem to suggest she's in Glasgow.

Which is another mistake by the LTA.

PS Even me, with my cynical view, would hope that head of British women's tennis means more than simply being the sit-at-home-coach-of-Katie-Boulter-while-she-recovers?

So let's get this right, we bring along players to help develop them and play them perhaps before they're quite ready in preference to players who now are most certainly ready, but we leave on the sidelines.

Never mind, they probably played more the previous year before they were quite ready.

Got it

Coup Droit wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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So let's get this right, we bring along players to help develop them and play them perhaps before they're quite ready in preference to players who now are most certainly ready, but we leave on the sidelines.

Never mind, they probably played the previous year before they were quite ready.

Got it

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 30th of September 2015 08:36:05 PM

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And don't forget the budget - which is SUCH a blinkin' big deal at the moment, we're told - but it's fine to blow it on flying them all, plus captain and head of women's tennis (!) out there and putting them up but results aren't the target, it's just general 'development'....

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We are assuming selections made were for development - which may not be true.  No one from the LTA has said so.

Jodie and Katie didn't win today either.  Perhaps the plan was to play Ali in dubs today again with Jodie if she hadn't got injured.

So may be this was the best available team in the first place (in terms of results), and the match selections were based on historic performances in singles and ability in doubles.  Katie's dubs results are pretty average, and Jodie and Ali have played together before. 

And by the way, they were very close to winning both matches based on those selections, which would have meant this thread / conversation would never have been started.

Oakland, be a good chap and less of the ongoing patronising. I understand you, I have some different opinions, which I usually take the trouble to explain.

As I did with my err supposed lack of insight in preferring that Kyle had made the US Open main draw than further "developed" in qualifying since as I argued in my opinion he'd moved on from particularly benefiting from Slam qualification matches - even without then missing making the main draw all together as he did. Where we are now re the Davis Cup Final, a US Open main draw match ( or two ) for Kyle might have been useful big match experience ( though I still would have preferred that he had been ranked high enough to have avoided qualifying even without that factor ).