Every year when Bergamo comes around I think of the great (est) tennis writer Richard Evans, who wrote that brilliant book about John Mac in his hey day. He wrote another book open Open Tennis, the first twenty years and I have a memory (which I cant substantiate) that back in the early days of Open tennis (maybe around 1969) a tournament was held in Bergamo (quite possibly a WCT event) where Evans put a whole paragraph across to what was possibly at the time the best tournament ever. All the top pros and ex amateurs played and it was an event full of top quality tennis and close results on a fast indoor court. Can anyone else remember that book or description??
Liam needs to really take a look at himself (phil collins style). Recently he has wasted time in challenger Qs when he really is not that level. He is a steady futures player, whose rankings does not lie. He may have once been 150, but is nowhere near that now. He needs to prove himself on the futures tour instead of trying to make these huge leaps in challengers, very poor scheduling.
Liam needs to really take a look at himself (phil collins style). Recently he has wasted time in challenger Qs when he really is not that level. He is a steady futures player, whose rankings does not lie. He may have once been 150, but is nowhere near that now. He needs to prove himself on the futures tour instead of trying to make these huge leaps in challengers, very poor scheduling.
I have to agree. I could understand if the futures events were all an expensive plane ride away but we actually had a string of domestic futures events where Liam could have got wins, confidence and most importantly points to give himself a shot of moving forward. If he is unable to defend his points from the Asian challengers last year he is likely to drop a lot further in the rankings and his chances of getting in as a direct entry to those events this year has to now be in doubt with him having added no points in the last few weeks. Liam is a favorite of mine and I would love to see him do well but I just find his approach to his career head scratching at times.
Liam needs to really take a look at himself (phil collins style). Recently he has wasted time in challenger Qs when he really is not that level. He is a steady futures player, whose rankings does not lie. He may have once been 150, but is nowhere near that now. He needs to prove himself on the futures tour instead of trying to make these huge leaps in challengers, very poor scheduling.
I have to agree. I could understand if the futures events were all an expensive plane ride away but we actually had a string of domestic futures events where Liam could have got wins, confidence and most importantly points to give himself a shot of moving forward. If he is unable to defend his points from the Asian challengers last year he is likely to drop a lot further in the rankings and his chances of getting in as a direct entry to those events this year has to now be in doubt with him having added no points in the last few weeks. Liam is a favorite of mine and I would love to see him do well but I just find his approach to his career head scratching at times.
Good man, the vast majority of people on this forum are in denial and cannot handle hard truths. Just like the movie A few good men, they want the truth, but cannot handle the truth. Of course in this recent run, if Liam had been making 2nd rounds and QF of challengers, that we would not be having this conversation, but even that said his scheduling is mad. If he was 300 in the world and in good form on an upward slope I could understand this recent scheduling, like I could imagine Norrie doing it , but Broady has hardly been on that upward slope.
-- Edited by Vandenburg on Monday 20th of February 2017 04:57:15 PM
Vandenburg, the vast majority of people here I am sure are quite happy to agree with you when they err agree with you, as I also just have in the Davis Cup thread.
Quite a lot of the time many / most simply disagree with you.
When he had his good run a while back in US Challengers, he gave an interview saying that although it took him quite a while to get results playing challengers, his standard of tennis steadily improved whilst playing them; whereas when he was regularly doing well in futures, his standard of tennis remained stagnant or went backwards. Maybe this is colouring his schedule?
Whilst I can see the logic in improving his skills by playing tougher opposition it has to be as part of a plan to move him in the right direction rankings wise. Coming into this season he was on the fringe of MD entry for most challenger events, starting his season with a couple of months on the futures circuit might not improve his game much but it would make him match fit and presumably he would add points and climb the rankings a little. With the improved ranking then he could play a few weeks on the challenger circuit where by virtue of being in the MD he only needs 1 win to be in the points rather than the repetition of 0 points for losing in qualifying.
This is a critical point in his career, he has 11 points to defend in the next few weeks but after that he has 48 points to defend in April and 33 in May. If he does not start adding anything soon then from his current total of 150 he could end up at the end of May with a grand total of 58 points which would leave him around 560 in the world and facing an incredible slog to get his career back on track. Solid accumulation right now which would guarantee entry to those Asian challengers where he scored all those points last year would allow him to hold his position and he could maybe take risks in the second half of the year when he has next to nothing to defend. Gambling on qualifiers where nothing is guaranteed right now is just an incredible risk when easier options were available.
I agree with a lot of what has been said here. I would love to see Liam get his game back to where it was a couple of years ago and I know he is working hard to achiveve that. With regard to Futures, again there is some logic to that approach. Liam did in fact play Turkey F1 & F2 at the start of the year and made a final and a semi. Maybe a few more might not be a bad thing. Winning is a habit and so a few good weeks where he is still competing at the weekend might be what the doctor ordered.
I think a few well timed tweets to Mr. Broady to let him know that Bob is watching and retaining his top 500 status is mandatory might work wonders for his motivation.
