National Championships?

JonH · All-time great

National Championships?

Shhh · Challenger level

I have often thought they should do it in the Grass season with the winner getting a Wimbledon Wild Card. I doubt they'd listen to me though

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

Last year we held a new British National Championships. You qualified by mutually arranging round robin matches in your local area, in rating bands, i.e. 8.1-10.2, 6.1-7.2 etc. The winners then all came up to Glasgow for the National Finals. So it offered something for all standards. We had sponsorship from a local pub chain, so could offer travel expenses and prize money, we had about 200 entries and the LTA helped by emailing directly to some potentially interested players.
This year the LTA refused to help us in terms of marketing, and also without a sponsor, we only achieved around 100 entries and therefore could not afford to run our finals day, so just ran the qualifiers for prize money but no national finals, real shame, because I loved the idea.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Given the current focus of the LTA is on grass roots participation, shame on them for not supporting an event with 200 entries and presumably many more matches for the everyday competitive player.

Regarding a National Championship of the type which used to be held at Telford and shown on the Beeb, I cannot imagine wiith the length of the current tour and the stresses involved that any player would want to extend their season for an event which carries no international relevance. I guess the nearest we have now is the British Tour Masters which takes place at Loughborough starting Thursday this week.

Edit: Typos and timing of The Masters

-- Edited by The Optimist on Wednesday 7th of December 2016 06:47:53 AM

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

Money or ranking points are the two carrots you can offer. With no ranking points then you have to offer money. The LTA, while reducing the Aegon Team Tennis prize money from £100k to £25k, suggested you should compete for "prestige". That doesn't wash with many players, especially if you are introducing a new event, because there is no tradition or prestige behind it initially.

JonH · All-time great

The Optimist wrote:
Given the current focus of the LTA is on grass roots participation, shame on them for not supporting an event with 200 entries and presumably many more matches for the everyday competitive player.
Regarding a National Championship of the type which used to be held at Telford and shown on the Beeb, I cannot image with the length of the current tour and the stresses involved that any player would want to extend their season for an event which carries no international relevance. I guess the nearest we have now is the British Tour Masters which takes place at Loughborough next week.

Thanks the Optimist and Born2Win - I agree with the comments and clearly money talks. The Spanish clearly manage to hold something (I cant find much info apart from the weblink I posted so no idea how deep the field is or the prizemoney) so it would be interesting to see how well it is supported as the Spanish players clearly have the same issues to consider as our guys?

EddietheEagle · County player

Born2WinTennis wrote:
The LTA, while reducing the Aegon Team Tennis prize money from £100k to £25k, suggested you should compete for "prestige".

It seems to be beyond the wit of the LTA that it falls to them, not you, to create and build tournament prestige. Holding finals at the All England club would have been one obvious way but of course, the LTA in their wisdom sold off the crown jewels. It's pretty breathtaking the way they shirk their responsibilities in making comments of that kind.

The LTA has contrived a situation where playing tennis in this country now has become a largely meaningless pursuit.

JonH · All-time great

Just thought I would add something to this, not sure if anyone interested!

It seems the German Nationals get under way today, with Michael Berrer as top seed and also using it as his farewell event

www.tennis-tourtalk.com/16477/berrer-ends-career-at-germanys-national-tennis-championships

The Spanish nationals also gets under way today in Mallorca sponsored by Mapfre, an insurance company I think.

www.tennis-tourtalk.com/16357/nadal-to-play-doubles-at-national-spanish-tennis-championships

Last years event was won by Stephen Diez and Tita Torro. Tommy Robredo was top seed last year, no idea what the draw is this year as very little information.

Looks like the French closed down their Masters event I mentioned above a few years back and as far as I can see that is basically the main action that seems to take place around Nationals.

In Australia the AO Wid Card play offs started last night however, a good month ahead of the AO itself. I must admit doing similar in GB so that the recipients a) are able to plan their schedule better and b) dont have to compromise between playing in any of the grass events pre Wimbledon wouldnt be a bad thing.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I agree framing it around the GB Wimbledon qualifying wildcard play off is the obvious solution. I don't understand the rationale of playing it behind closed doors etc.... for the last two winners Evo and Marcus it really kick started something special ...

It would require a bit of thought in terms of potentially impacting players in the draws of other tournaments. What I would like to see is a national tournament where the winner entered the wildcard play off.

A bit like the way in which the FA Cup joins up the football leagues pyramid, indeed it is in the first couple of rounds that the magic really happens.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

JonH:

Yes. The French nationals take place in July/August and are taken VERY seriously.

But they only cover all the divisions down to second series (which goes to about ATP 500, very roughly).

The FFT tried to have a Masters nationals event for the very top players - and no one really cared about it. I went to see it once and it was quite well done, but the players weren't really committed.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

And I think that is what you would have to do here, a national championship for those seeking to earn a living from the game linked with a qualifiers wildcard play off place I am sure there would be plenty of high quality entrants.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

An article relating how the 16yo winner of the Australian National Junior Championships also wins a wildcard into the Aussie Open MD, becoming the first player born this century to take part. The runner up got a place in the WC playoff for a Q place in the Open. Quite a prize!

http://www.tennis.com.au/news/2016/12/10/aiava-books-australian-open-berth

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

Strange that the U18 boys champion only won a qualifying place when the U18 girls champion won a main draw place.

JonH · All-time great

The mens singles in the AO Wild card Play Offs is down to the last 4, with the top ranked player left ranked at 231. It seems they use best of 5 sets throughout this event (good!) and Sam Groth played a 5 set 4 hour opener before losing in a similar 5 set near 4 hour quarterfinal.

JonH · All-time great

JonH wrote:
Just thought I would add something to this, not sure if anyone interested!

It seems the German Nationals get under way today, with Michael Berrer as top seed and also using it as his farewell event

www.tennis-tourtalk.com/16477/berrer-ends-career-at-germanys-national-tennis-championships

The Spanish nationals also gets under way today in Mallorca sponsored by Mapfre, an insurance company I think.

www.tennis-tourtalk.com/16357/nadal-to-play-doubles-at-national-spanish-tennis-championships

Last years event was won by Stephen Diez and Tita Torro. Tommy Robredo was top seed last year, no idea what the draw is this year as very little information.

Looks like the French closed down their Masters event I mentioned above a few years back and as far as I can see that is basically the main action that seems to take place around Nationals.

In Australia the AO Wid Card play offs started last night however, a good month ahead of the AO itself. I must admit doing similar in GB so that the recipients a) are able to plan their schedule better and b) dont have to compromise between playing in any of the grass events pre Wimbledon wouldnt be a bad thing.

Nadal managed to win the doubles in Spain http://www.tennis-tourtalk.com/16607/nadal-wins-first-national-title-and-adds-moya-to-his-coaching-team

Ramos and Arruabarrena the singles http://www.tennis-tourtalk.com/16605/top-seeds-claim-spains-national-singles-titles

And Berrer ended his career as German Champion http://www.tennis-tourtalk.com/16634/berrer-ends-career-with-national-title