Just 6 men's futures in 2016? ..........Frightening!

I sincerely hope these are just the ones that have been approved so far and that more will be added at a later date. Otherwise they are dropping the number of men's events by almost 50% (from 11 to 6) and there is not a single 15k on the calendar. Ridiculous.

Two years ago when we were all bemoaning the lack of challengers, the LTA excuse was that there were insufficient Brits at that level to justify staging them. The 15k is a vital stepping stone from 10k to Challenger and if this last week in Tipton has proved anything, it is that we have a lot of players who are very competitive around this level. Where oh where is the logic and consistency in strategy.

It is no wonder to me that so many of our players are now basing themselves abroad. Maybe I'll set up my own permanent residential training base in Spain aimed specifically at those transitioning from junior to senior (18-23 range) where players can play 29*10k and 5*15k without leaving the country.

On second thoughts that would never work would it. I mean, how many players have Spain got in the Top 100 ?  Oh yeah - 14 #SarcasmOff.

As "typos" go though, had to laugh at the Oct 10k in Loughborough. Is "Wens" the new term for a mixed Men's and Women's event ?

The women's side looks a lot more sensible.

Paying 50k for the the 25-er that's coming up this week, with only one British player in the main draw as of right, is just plain daft.

But the men's side is ridiculous.

As said above, the men's 15ks in particular have been a major success this year. The British players have, by and large, mopped up the points, beating the foreigners, and performed above their normal level. A real bang-for-your-buck in terms of money paid out and direct benefit to GB players. (And ties in with the philosophy of rewarding those who actually play and win, not just those 'thought' to be good by the powers that be). So why would you cancel them all?

Surely this seriously can't be anything like the final list ?!

In the very week Tipton to no great surprise shows the real value in a number of ways of a home 15K, and with in general a bit more optimism lately of lower ranked players pushing on, this emerges.

Take away funding ( and bonus performance rewards ), take away tournaments ( aside from super duper grass season - hmm ), take away the NTC as was ( for good or bad, but would have had more chance with the right people and philosophies ), in essence take away much assistance in developing British pro tennis players, which the LTA seem to be increasingly divorcing themselves from.

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 7th of November 2015 02:10:37 PM

indiana wrote:

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Take away funding ( and bonus performance rewards ), take away tournaments ( aside from super duper grass season - hmm ), take away the NTC as was ( for good or bad, but would have had more chance with the right people and philosophies ), in essence take away much assistance in developing British pro tennis players, which the LTA seem to be increasingly divorcing themselves from.

 Amongst all else is missing the number of Grass challengers has been reduced (nothing at Nottingham) as well as futures afterwards.  We don't know if this list is final (I guess someone could email the LTA and simply ask!) but I would assume the challengers events really have been cut in the sense they wouldn't annouce some but not others.

Looks more of the "utterly ridiculous extremes" Naomi Cavaday was writing about with different regimes.

Maybe over 20 futures was rather more than need be, but most certainly not that more than need be that this lot have to cut to this huge apparent extent. There's probably a pretty sensible number somewhere in between.

They taketh with one hand and taketh with the other.

This is the sort of thing I meant in another thread disagreeing that a new regime couldn't very much effect players in 12 to 18 months or whatever.

Oh to be a fly on the wall to hear some of the reasoning.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 9th of November 2015 04:31:19 PM