Week 23 - Challenger (€127,000) - Aegon Surbiton Trophy, Great Britain - grass

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Week 22 - Aegon Surbiton Trophy, Great Britain (Grass) - E127K

seagull · Hall of fame

How did Jaziri get in. He was not even on entry list?

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Had a good day at Surbiton and the parking was easy, thank you. I'm not an expert technically on tennis so no great insights from me unfortunately. I stayed on centre court, arriving after the start of Jonny Gray's second set. I was impressed with the fight he showed and it was a shame he had the one poor game I saw at 4-4 making it easy for BB to serve it out. Needs to work on his smashes. Marcus didn't serve well in set 1 and was also constantly hitting the top of the net. Kudla was winning most of his games easily with excellent serving, Marcus even complimenting him aloud. Fortunately he improved as Kudla's serve weakened. He won some flukey points in set 2 when Kudla hit easy shots out and with his back to Kudla, commented 'what is happening?' Great serving in set 3 until he served for the match when his game deserted him again. thankfully Kudla helped out by playing poorly in the next game. I stayed for Katie's match (see the other thread) by which time the other Brits had finished their matches. Decided not to stay for the final rounds as it would have meant quite a late drive back but strolled round and saw Tara, Naomi and Katy D practising. Nice facilities and food, easy to view courts. Will definitely try and go next year.

thejester · Satellite level

I'm gutted at that draw for James. I'd have backed Evo strongly in just about any of the match-ups, and with James I imagine there is a lot of rust to shake off. I don't give him much chance against Dan in this match.

Very tough for our other two WCs too, but you never know, hopefully home advantage on the grass will even the odds.

Priesty · Challenger level

Bob in Spain wrote:
And then there were none. Get the feeling Marcus ran out of steam. From a set and 3-3 in the 2nd, he only won one more game. 6 tough sets in a day is not easy for anyone.

Especially someone who has played a pretty limited amount of tennis in recent months.

Good luck for the main draw everyone.

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

Just seen the results pretty depressing all round it seems. Again we waste too much time and money on grass court tennis in this country. We need a year round calendar with clay and hard court ITFs and challengers. Our Brits are going to be whipping boys and girls over the next month and it does nothing for them or our game in general. Barely a win or 2 in about 20odd matches isn't a surprise I guess.

Etienne · Club Coach

I wonder if it's the case that young players are getting a more rounded tennis education, so that we don't have as many players who are likely to play much better on grass (either through style of game, or greater experience on grass) than on other surfaces. So our players don't drop so much during the clay season, or climb as much during the grass.

Mark1968 · Intermediate Club Player

Jaggy1876 wrote:
Just seen the results pretty depressing all round it seems. Again we waste too much time and money on grass court tennis in this country. We need a year round calendar with clay and hard court ITFs and challengers. Our Brits are going to be whipping boys and girls over the next month and it does nothing for them or our game in general. Barely a win or 2 in about 20odd matches isn't a surprise I guess.

A complete lack of understanding from you here Jaggy, yes we need more events on mud and HC but we don't have enough events on grass and are not spending enough money or having enough grass events - that's the problem!

Ask yourself this. If all those who lost yesterday had entered qualifying for this weeks clay court challenger do you think they would have qualified? Liam maybe but not any of the others.

They were routed yesterday not because of the surface, or having to play two matches in one day, as did the winning players, but because as usual they were / are not good enough.

JonH · All-time great

The thing is, barely none of our guys play grass court tennis at all anymore and certainly arent bought up on it. The Aussies probably play more than ours but at the moment no players around the world play much on grass. The ones who have done well, for example, in these challengers the past two years are Dudi Sela of Israel, Lu of Taipei, etc, not sure there are many grass courts in either of those two countries.

The point is that it is tradition and a diversion, the guys who can adapt and innovate thrive, maybe some get lucky. But usually over the period by the end of Wimbledon, we see the cream rise to the top - all the Big 4 are recent winners of Wimbledon.

As someone said, our guys dont focus on grass at all, they barely play the stuff and certainly no more than players from other countries , these days. The point really probably is, as Mark1968 says, they just arent good enough. But we always hope someone will use this period to break through and make a name for themselves.

Long may the grass continue IMO, I love it

Mark1968 · Intermediate Club Player

JonH wrote:
The thing is, barely none of our guys play grass court tennis at all anymore and certainly arent bought up on it. The Aussies probably play more than ours but at the moment no players around the world play much on grass. The ones who have done well, for example, in these challengers the past two years are Dudi Sela of Israel, Lu of Taipei, etc, not sure there are many grass courts in either of those two countries.

The point is that it is tradition and a diversion, the guys who can adapt and innovate thrive, maybe some get lucky. But usually over the period by the end of Wimbledon, we see the cream rise to the top - all the Big 4 are recent winners of Wimbledon.

As someone said, our guys dont focus on grass at all, they barely play the stuff and certainly no more than players from other countries , these days. The point really probably is, as Mark1968 says, they just arent good enough. But we always hope someone will use this period to break through and make a name for themselves.

Long may the grass continue IMO, I love it

I love the grass court season too, probably the best surface to watch tennis being played on especially after the torture of the mud court season.

I'm clearly not the only one who come this time of year hopes that someone will break through which is why yesterday was so disappointing. Still plenty of time to go but I feel BMT is scraping the bottom of the barrel at the moment. Let's hope I'm wrong in a few weeks time.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

I think JonH that you've summed up the grass season pretty well. I too love it and all its traditions. But I think Jaggy has a point in that focussing the majority of our competition resources into high profile grass events is unhelpful to British players. I can't see us ever having much of a clay season but I think a more balanced menu of levels across hard courts in particular would be perhaps a better use of funds.

Griff · Improver

Is the final of this likely to sell out or would it be easy enough to get tickets on the day ?

Only a 30 minute drive from me so tempted to go if Mr Evans progresses

JonH · All-time great

The Optimist wrote:
I think JonH that you've summed up the grass season pretty well. I too love it and all its traditions. But I think Jaggy has a point in that focussing the majority of our competition resources into high profile grass events is unhelpful to British players. I can't see us ever having much of a clay season but I think a more balanced menu of levels across hard courts in particular would be perhaps a better use of funds.

For me it is interesting to see if the $150k Challenger prizemoney is actually worth it - will they get better fields, or at least fields that justify the prizemoney. If they are $100k events, for example, that leaves $50k x 3 on the mens side and probably similar on the ladies that could be used to perhaps run three $50k challenger events later in the year on hardcourts - or 6 $25k Futures events, or 10 $15k futures events. Which is I think agreeing with you, perhaps the resources could be used more wisely and efficiently??!

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, one might look at it as look at us and our big events, while others may increasingly wonder what's left for them.

christ · Futures level

(British) Grass court events in general, and Wimbledon in particular, appear to me to be about maintaining the history of the game rather than about British player development.

... and I for one agree that is the way it should be.

Tradition is important, and if all these bally foreigners are more interested in new-fangled things like hard courts (and in winning!), then it remains up to us to do right by the sport and continue to lose (wo)manfully on the right surface.