Isabelle Wallace

PockyTastic · Futures level

RE: Isabelle Wallace

philwrig · Hall of fame

This is said without any knowledge of Isabelle's individual situation, but given the family moved back to Scotland, irrespective of whether the LTA contributed to her funding, the natural choice would probably have been to represent GB anyway. So this change is baffling, can't imagine Tennis Australia have delved deep into their pockets, but maybe they have. Good luck to her anyway even if the latest development makes little sense.

skibbarriz · Strong Club Player

Well this all means she is not off to US college so at least we have another person to follow. And one who makes for an interesting story.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Wish her well, and I know it's a hard life trying to make it as a pro, but nationality-hopping is hardly an endearing trait ....

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 17th of November 2015 08:50:46 AM

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Sounds like a sell out to me. Our for the most money. Can't see her making much of a career. She'll probably have some decent results but never break the top 200.

Strongbow · All-time great

Without knowing the exact details it is pointless to speculate - Izzy got through R1 at Castellon 6-3 6-1.

That's showbiz smile

-- Edited by Strongbow on Tuesday 17th of November 2015 11:09:29 PM

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Difficult to hold it against the girl knowing that it is more her parents who will be facing the financial pressures of supporting her career and may, in all likelihood, have had the final say in her nationality and/or negotiated the terms of the trade.

That said, I would certainly support a 'one switch only' type rule that would limit players from trading nationality only once in their career. I think one's nationality is far too valuable to act as a mere bargaining tool for playing tennis federations off against eachother in the battle for accruing sponsorship or funding. I think on the whole the Brits who have traded over to GB (Konta, Bedene etc.) and been embraced by British tennis fans are those who have openly spoken of a love of Great Britain and their want to represent it, rather than the more superficial (though admittedly crucial) practicalities such as funding.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Tennis Australia have a pretty poor record of effectively buying players Ajla Tomljanovic being the obvious most recent one, her coach being the only link she had to the country, and he is not with her anymore.

I may be old school, but I like to think representing a country is more about a genuine love and feeling of being from that country, rather than which one gives me the best financial deal.

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

If you're not particularly bothered about which country you represent, then it makes sense to get the best deal. She has made it pretty clear that this is the case, to me at least, so good luck to her.

TheTraveller2 · Lower Club Player

The reality is that unless you are playing at a level where you have a chance of representing your country in Fed Cup / Davis Cup / Olympics, it's largely irrelevant for a tennis player what flag shows up against their name. The only other potential upside is if you pick a country which has a grand slam (where you might get a wildcard), but again, it requires you to be playing at a level which I doubt Miss Wallace will get to (or may be she will.....). Other than that, it is all about cash.

-- Edited by TheTraveller2 on Wednesday 18th of November 2015 08:15:31 PM

steven · Tennis legend

murray_2k9 wrote:
Difficult to hold it against the girl knowing that it is more her parents who will be facing the financial pressures of supporting her career and may, in all likelihood, have had the final say in her nationality and/or negotiated the terms of the trade.

That said, I would certainly support a 'one switch only' type rule that would limit players from trading nationality only once in their career. I think one's nationality is far too valuable to act as a mere bargaining tool for playing tennis federations off against eachother in the battle for accruing sponsorship or funding. I think on the whole the Brits who have traded over to GB (Konta, Bedene etc.) and been embraced by British tennis fans are those who have openly spoken of a love of Great Britain and their want to represent it, rather than the more superficial (though admittedly crucial) practicalities such as funding.

I agree, it's entirely understandable that players (and their families) will seek the best available options at any given time, but switching then switching back does leave a bit of a bad taste in the mouth (I'm not trying to imply anything bad about Izzy by saying this - you can hardly blame her for playing by the rules as they stand) and a rule limiting the number of nationality switches to one, but (as I believe should have been the case with the DC/FedCup rule) ignoring anything that happened before the rule was announced, so that players knew the consequences of the decision when they made it.

Strongbow · All-time great

Sad to see her go and like most I have mixed feelings about it. Maybe it will work out for her as she certainly has some talent. As for the LTA funding cut she can always look at JK's experience

"The improvement has come since the Lawn Tennis Association cut her funding last year, prompting Konta to relocate her training base to northern Spain under the guidance of coaches Esteban Carril and Jose-Manuel Garcia."

Funny old world wink

Spectator · All-time great

I know nothing whatsoever about Ms Wallace, her family, and their circumstances - so this is a general comment. I think it's difficult for juniors: we tend to assume that people are acting primarily on the basis of what's good for tennis ... but family situations are often complex, and it may well be in some cases (cf Ms Swan*) that people move frequently because of a combination of factors including jobs, or family circumstances, or - in some countries - because of conflict or a deteriorating economic situation. And if you're a junior, how do you handle that? One would hope people would stick with countries of citizenship ... but then again, juniors might well have dual citizenship. And one of their parents might be a citizen of yet another country. So I'd be a bit flexible with U-18s.

With adults, I'd agree with the one change rule - though again, I'd make an exception for cases of forced migration (eg say you were Syrian, left Syria, played for Libya and then had to leave Libya because the situation was too difficult. Not that I think that this is a frequent occurrence ... but it's the kind of thing that could happen, and I'd be in favour of built-in flexibility)

*I recognise that Ms Swan is in some ways a bad example to note here, as she has moved but stayed GB. But she's a bit exceptional: she's a potentially top player from a country that is willing to support her no matter where she is. I would doubt that there are many such. If she were a top-500, rather than a top-10 player, I would guess that GB would be quite happy, were she to have taken dual citizenship while in the US, to have her play under the US flag ... and then, if she and her family returned to the UK, to revert to being GB.

-- Edited by Spectator on Thursday 19th of November 2015 07:27:14 AM

greatunclebulgaria · Lower Club Player

entitled much?

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/34861255

indiana · Tennis legend

greatunclebulgaria wrote:
entitled much?

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/34861255

The switch again of allegiance is clearly a big and in many ways, as folk have indicated, a controversial move or at least one that sits very uneasy with many folk. And yes a certain amount of 'entitlement' comes across.

But as they also indicate, I am sure there will be many nods of understanding about the issues re lack of communication generally and help of other sorts ( rather than just funding ) for these out of the loop.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 19th of November 2015 09:18:07 PM