British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

paulisi · Tennis legend

GB ITF tournaments

RedSquirrel · Satellite level

The LTA are strengthening the feed up WCs to GB ITF events in 2020.

For men there is a plethora of WCs available for British winners and runners up of British Tour Premier, Tier 1 and 2 events to the February swing . The winner of Bath will get MD or Q WCs to all 3 ITF tournaments in Feb, the RU 2 WCs and the SF 1 Q WC. In addition their are WCs available from Progress Tour events and the highest ranked GB junior on 3 Feb gets 2 WCs and a QWC to the 3 tournaments in Feb. The 2nd highest GB junior gets a MD and Q WC.

Details here https://www.lta.org.uk/globalassets/competitions/adult-competition/british-tour/2019/lta-british-tour-mens-feed-up-to-gb-pro-series-february-2020.pdf

For the women selected Tier 1 events as well as Premier events will offer WCs to ITF events. Q WCs will be available available from Progress Tour events. The winner of North Oxford will get a QWC to Manchester or Ilkley.

Details here https://www.lta.org.uk/globalassets/competitions/adult-competition/british-tour/2019/womens-wild-cards-from-lta-british-tour-events-to-gb-pro-series-events-2020.pdf

Madadman · Grand Slam Champion

I wonder what 2021 will bring for British tennis international events. Will we see anything before the summer grass swing?

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Bump.

There's obviously more important things going on, and I'm not even sure if we would be able to put events on at the moment, but has anyone heard of anything on the horizon?

Just seeing a number of W15/25 events start to emerge in France, Germany, Spain, then Italy with a W25 just before Christmas etc. it would be really handy for some of our players, especially if we got more Ali C vs Eva S type of draws. Plus it would probably mean more chance of Emma R playing a tour match again rather than sticking to the GB exhos.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Ace Ventura wrote:
Bump.

There's obviously more important things going on, and I'm not even sure if we would be able to put events on at the moment, but has anyone heard of anything on the horizon?

Just seeing a number of W15/25 events start to emerge in France, Germany, Spain, then Italy with a W25 just before Christmas etc. it would be really handy for some of our players, especially if we got more Ali C vs Eva S type of draws. Plus it would probably mean more chance of Emma R playing a tour match again rather than sticking to the GB exhos.

Long podcast here with Soto Tennis talking to Leon Smith.

The number of ITF tournaments in the UK is one of the many topics of discussion. Leon basically saying that they would love to put on more tournaments, but trying to get clubs involved is very difficult. A 25k tournament costs 60k to run. So if they put on just 2 for the men and 2 for the women, that is 1/4 million pounds. They desperately want clubs to come in and part fund tournaments but there are almost no takers.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/control-the-controllables/id1511047964?i=1000494239094

wolf · Tennis legend

I'm guessing our players outside of the eite group can't even train right now? Tennis clubs have been closed for a month now and I can't see them hosting 60 odd players at the NTC?

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Bob in Spain wrote:
Ace Ventura wrote:
Bump.

There's obviously more important things going on, and I'm not even sure if we would be able to put events on at the moment, but has anyone heard of anything on the horizon?

Just seeing a number of W15/25 events start to emerge in France, Germany, Spain, then Italy with a W25 just before Christmas etc. it would be really handy for some of our players, especially if we got more Ali C vs Eva S type of draws. Plus it would probably mean more chance of Emma R playing a tour match again rather than sticking to the GB exhos.
Long podcast here with Soto Tennis talking to Leon Smith.
The number of ITF tournaments in the UK is one of the many topics of discussion. Leon basically saying that they would love to put on more tournaments, but trying to get clubs involved is very difficult. A 25k tournament costs 60k to run. So if they put on just 2 for the men and 2 for the women, that is 1/4 million pounds. They desperately want clubs to come in and part fund tournaments but there are almost no takers.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/control-the-controllables/id1511047964?i=1000494239094

Cheers Bob, just skimmed through this the past 30 mins or so, didn't realise this part in question was pretty much at the very end biggrin . Interesting though, and I might give some other / future episodes more of a listen. Thought I heard a local accent, and didn't realise that Dan was originally from only about 20 miles from me.

I'm not necessarily wanting more home events (although that would be great), one or two would do, haha. Glasgow qualifying would have actually started tomorrow a year ago, but must be to do with some of the reasons wolf mentioned. Mind, it does make you think with some of these countries putting on W/M15s pretty much every other week, they must have some serious individual backers if it's costing that much to put them on.

emmsie69 · Top national player

The places putting on events week in and week out are resorts so they benefit from hotel room occupancy during low season. There probably isn't much money in it for them but it keeps them open and their staff in work so rather than lose money over the winter, they manage to either break even or mitigate their losses.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

So 20 mens and womens, 40 total , would cost 2.5m to run. An event like Queens has prizemoney and event costs of that alone.

2.5m isnt a lot. Not really. Where does the lta place it bets? I still think that would be money well spent to get Brits playing and competing in a cost effective manner.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

emmsie69 wrote:
The places putting on events week in and week out are resorts so they benefit from hotel room occupancy during low season. There probably isn't much money in it for them but it keeps them open and their staff in work so rather than lose money over the winter, they manage to either break even or mitigate their losses.

There was an interesting anecdote in a podcast by Marcus Willis recently. He had been playing in Sharm (I think) and the tournament had a deal with the hotel for the players. However, Marcus found a cheaper deal for the same hotel online and booked directly, but then got into trouble with the tournament officials for doing so.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
So 20 mens and womens, 40 total , would cost 2.5m to run. An event like Queens has prizemoney and event costs of that alone.

2.5m isnt a lot. Not really. Where does the lta place it bets? I still think that would be money well spent to get Brits playing and competing in a cost effective manner.

I have said all along, that if the LTA see increasing participation at grass roots level as its top priority, turning futures tournaments into a traveling circus of "tennis festival weeks", including free entry for school kids with try out sessions, clinics for PE teachers on how to introduce tennis into schools etc, they could kill two birds with one stone. No doubt too that they could attract local sponsorship to recoup some of the costs as well.

the addict · Tennis legend

Presumably a 15k tournament would be a bit cheaper to run - maybe 40k or less. And I'm assuming that some of those would be joint mens/womens events, so less overheads.
10x15k and 10x25k would be a good mix of tournaments, and provide that essential stepping stone onto the tour that is so hard for the players at the moment.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
Presumably a 15k tournament would be a bit cheaper to run - maybe 40k or less. And I'm assuming that some of those would be joint mens/womens events, so less overheads.
10x15k and 10x25k would be a good mix of tournaments, and provide that essential stepping stone onto the tour that is so hard for the players at the moment.

Indeed. I think we all agree. The lta just dont seem to see it that way. In fact, I have no idea what Scott Lloyds grand strategic plan actually is? Is there a vision ?

Madadman · Grand Slam Champion

the addict wrote:
Presumably a 15k tournament would be a bit cheaper to run - maybe 40k or less. And I'm assuming that some of those would be joint mens/womens events, so less overheads.
10x15k and 10x25k would be a good mix of tournaments, and provide that essential stepping stone onto the tour that is so hard for the players at the moment.

Would a 15k tournament really cost that much less to run than a 25k tournament. Surely apart the difference in prize money about £7.5k the associated costs will be much the same?

Madadman · Grand Slam Champion

JonH comes home wrote:
the addict wrote:
Presumably a 15k tournament would be a bit cheaper to run - maybe 40k or less. And I'm assuming that some of those would be joint mens/womens events, so less overheads.
10x15k and 10x25k would be a good mix of tournaments, and provide that essential stepping stone onto the tour that is so hard for the players at the moment.
Indeed. I think we all agree. The lta just dont seem to see it that way. In fact, I have no idea what Scott Lloyds grand strategic plan actually is? Is there a vision ?

I guess there is another possible route to go other than putting on ITF tournament. Encourage more events like the UK Pro tour. You wont get itf points but you can restrict the entry to UK players and then those players can then invest the money they win into travelling to ITF tournament.