Jan Choinski

steven · Tennis legend

Jan Choinski

christ · Futures qualifying

That adds a bit of spice to the prediction contest!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Welcome, Jan !

And excellent sleuthing by steven, as always

flamingowings · All-time great

Jan seems to have a fairly active instagram account: www.instagram.com/janekalpha/

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Anyone know much about him? British parent?

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

twitter.com/BenRothenberg/status/508320305828601857

British mother according to this. A surprise I must say, but good luck to the lad. You'd imagine he'd have a very good shot at a Wimbledon MD wildcard if he is in a similar ranking in June.

the addict · Tennis legend

Could be one to watch. 22 years old, WR 270, 6'5 tall, likes clay and hard courts.
Let's see how he progresses before the clay court season. Certainly a spanner in the works as far as preditions go !

JonH · All-time great

Stuart Fraser tweets on it today, mum from Southampton apparently

JonH · All-time great

According to this site he's due to start season at some us Challenger events in Orlando and columbus.

https://coric.top/en/entrylist/atp

Mark1968 · Intermediate Club Player

Never in favour of anyone changing their allegiance regardless of their parentage. Like Brendan Klein and Aljaz Bedene it's a back door attempt to get a Wimby WC and the huge cash payment that goes with it and maybe a DC place at some point. He'll no doubt change back when he's taken what he wants a bit like Ajax. None of this should be allowed to happen, I know most within the game do not like it either.

You'll no doubt be screaming insults now, but I don't care, anyone who things he's done this for any other reasons than those above is just fooling themselves.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Mark1968 wrote:
Never in favour of anyone changing their allegiance regardless of their parentage. Like Brendan Klein and Aljaz Bedene it's a back door attempt to get a Wimby WC and the huge cash payment that goes with it and maybe a DC place at some point. He'll no doubt change back when he's taken what he wants a bit like Ajax. None of this should be allowed to happen, I know most within the game do not like it either.

You'll no doubt be screaming insults now, but I don't care, anyone who things he's done this for any other reasons than those above is just fooling themselves.

No screaming insults. smile

But surely

(a) there can obviously be personal circumstances that mean a person basically now identifies more with one country than another. And that can change. I say this having seen it as a parent of kids with claims to two countries, as well as just stating the obvious. In fact, what you do as a teenager and where you are in your twenties can be very different.

(b) even assuming he IS angling for a better deal, don't we all try and get on in our jobs? Don't we move companies because the new job will offer more money, better prospects etc. etc etc ? That's all he's doing (if that IS the reason) , just changing jobs and getting a new 'employer', like anyone else (the nationality thing is irrelevant because he may well have had dual nationality before anyway, what is changing here is the federation he wishes to play for).

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Mark1968 wrote:
Never in favour of anyone changing their allegiance regardless of their parentage. Like Brendan Klein and Aljaz Bedene it's a back door attempt to get a Wimby WC and the huge cash payment that goes with it and maybe a DC place at some point. He'll no doubt change back when he's taken what he wants a bit like Ajax. None of this should be allowed to happen, I know most within the game do not like it either.

You'll no doubt be screaming insults now, but I don't care, anyone who things he's done this for any other reasons than those above is just fooling themselves.

Shame that, considering 2 of our 5 current top 100 players have switched allegiances in recent years and one of those didn't even have a British parent.

I'd be shocked if this wasn't simply for career progression, but at the same time he's probably spent large parts of his childhood in Southampton visiting relative's and will at least have some connection. It's a similar situation to Greg Rusedski, switching to the country where his mother is from at age 21/22 and few will deny Greg that switching alliagences had a positive impact on tennis in this country.

I'm not saying he'll be half as successful as Greg, but if he can use the likely inevitable Wimbledon WC and other perks to his advantage and push towards the top 100 whilst representing the flag with pride, then it can only be a good thing as it's not as if we are currently inundated with top talent.

Good luck to him and it'll be interesting to see how far he goes and if nothing else, it's a surprise talking point for most of us on here and I'd personally welcome more situations like this.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Monday 24th of December 2018 12:41:33 PM

Mark1968 · Intermediate Club Player

I certainly understand your points CD but I maintain that most players most the time do it for the reasons I have stated.

I think turning your back on the country of your birth / nurture and possibly even the tennis body that has supported you is a dreadful thing for anyone to do, a massive snub if ever there was one!

Nationality is far from irrelevant and is hugely important to the German people as as I know through first hand experience and
as for the dual passport thing, most people identify with where they have been raised. I know two English people that have duel passports because their mother / parents are American / Albanian. Neither feel any affinity to these countries at all and consider themselves to be British. This move will not go down to well in Germany.

Happy Christmas to all.

Mark1968 · Intermediate Club Player

Ace Ventura wrote:
Mark1968 wrote:
Never in favour of anyone changing their allegiance regardless of their parentage. Like Brendan Klein and Aljaz Bedene it's a back door attempt to get a Wimby WC and the huge cash payment that goes with it and maybe a DC place at some point. He'll no doubt change back when he's taken what he wants a bit like Ajax. None of this should be allowed to happen, I know most within the game do not like it either.

You'll no doubt be screaming insults now, but I don't care, anyone who things he's done this for any other reasons than those above is just fooling themselves.

Shame that, considering 2 of our 5 current top 100 players have switched allegiances in recent years and one of those didn't even have a British parent.
I'd be shocked if this wasn't simply for career progression, but at the same time he's probably spent large parts of his childhood in Southampton visiting relative's and will at least have some connection. It's a similar situation to Greg Rusedski, switching to the country where his mother is from at age 21/22 and few will deny Greg that switching alliagences had a positive impact on tennis in this country.
I'm not saying he'll be half as successful as Greg, but if he can use the likely inevitable Wimbledon WC and other perks to his advantage and push towards the top 100 whilst representing the flag with pride, then it can only be a good thing as it's not as if we are currently inundated with top talent.
Good luck to him and it'll be interesting to see how far he goes and if nothing else, it's a surprise talking point for most of us on here and I'd personally welcome more situations like this.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Monday 24th of December 2018 12:41:33 PM

Had to laugh at the holiday in Southampton bit. Maybe I should consider myself Irish now because I went there last year and had a pint of Guinness last week. Ridiculous to even speculate about how long he has spent in Southampton without knowing for certain.

Yes, we do have a lack of top rated talent and it is really said that people want the upper echelons of the rankings filled up with non Brits who have come here purely for career enhancements and not for their love of Cornish pasties, cream teas and Brighton rock etc.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Mark1968 wrote:
I certainly understand your points CD but I maintain that most players most the time do it for the reasons I have stated.

I think turning your back on the country of your birth / nurture and possibly even the tennis body that has supported you is a dreadful thing for anyone to do, a massive snub if ever there was one!

Nationality is far from irrelevant and is hugely important to the German people as as I know through first hand experience and
as for the dual passport thing, most people identify with where they have been raised. I know two English people that have duel passports because their mother / parents are American / Albanian. Neither feel any affinity to these countries at all and consider themselves to be British. This move will not go down to well in Germany.

Happy Christmas to all.

I agree with you, Mark, that personal interest might well be the reason.

But, as said, isn't that what we all do when we change jobs? It's no different.

And, again, re nationality, I didn't mean it's unimportant in general, simply that Jan might well have been dual German-British beforehand (indeed, maybe Polish too - his father is Polish, seemingly). And still has both nationalities. So he hasn't renounced his German nationality, simply decided to change tennis jobs to play for the LTA.

And, yes, it's a bit upsetting for the German federation if they've trained him up. But again, it's no different from leaving your first job when you went as a junior, and they invested in your training etc. and then, as soon as you're nicely qualified, you go and leave for a better paid job. It's not 'loyal' but everybody does it.....