Coup Droit wrote:

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Personally, I don't go with the people above who claim he'll be retiring by the end of the year.

I think Liam loves playing and he's still young enough to feel that the best is yet to come.

Also, he earned a decent amount last year - about £150k - so there's no instant problem of funds.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 24th of January 2019 04:45:51 PM

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Yep this 100%. Liam strikes me as if he'd be happy to play til he was 30 even ranked 300-400 in the world (or whatever the new equivalent is). So yeh unless his ranking continually drops off a cliff I can't see him retiring soon, especially as his career generally goes in peaks and troughs

Coup Droit wrote:

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QF: (1) Liam Broady & Arjun Kadhe (IND) ITF UNR (0+51) (ATP CR 400 [218+182]) def. Alexander Erler & Lenny Hampel ITF CR 685 (190+495) (ATP UNR [0+872]) 7-6 6-4


Liam and Arjun deserved that one, and Liam was playing pretty well for a non-doubles sort of player, from the 20 mins I saw.

Personally, I don't go with the people above who claim he'll be retiring by the end of the year.

I think Liam loves playing and he's still young enough to feel that the best is yet to come.

Also, he earned a decent amount last year - about £150k - so there's no instant problem of funds.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 24th of January 2019 04:45:51 PM

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I don't really know much about him, personal goals etc. and 150k is a good amount and if he could continue to make that, then all good. However, when you break that figure down, I've not got the official stats in front of me (is there a source anywhere?):

circa 40k came via Wimbledon MDWC

circa 40k came at Miami

Over 20k from qualifiers in the other 3 slams.

Live ranked 300, he's currently well out of the slam qualifying positions and then he'll have more than a third of his points total coming off at Miami in the coming months, so the chances are he'll be no higher by April, and in all likelihood, even lower - he'll also not get the opportunity to enter qualifying for these bigger ATP events like Miami. He's lost 9 of his last 11 matches and will he get a Wimbledon WC if he's out of the top 300 come June? You've got Clarke, Ward, Draper, potentially 3 grass challenger winners, maybe last years junior winner since he's now left the junior scene and will surely improve on his current ranking. Choinski if he shows better results and is in and around the top 200. They'd possibly rather give one to some of the other emerging youngsters as well, and we saw last year they're not afraid to send them back if they feel they are not warranted.

Coup Droit wrote:

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Oh, I agree Ace Ventura - this year looks to be far trickier financially for Liam than last.

He was also helped by being part of the Davis Cup squad and I don't know if that still applies.

The Wimbly wildcards (both singles and doubles) are mega in terms of earners and looking far less likely at the moment.

However, what I meant was that I don't see him retiring just because one year looks a little slim pickings ( assuming it doesn't pick up). As people have said, he's had cycles before. And I think he loves it and is young enough still to have hopes going forward. I also am not sure about his other options. And the relative financial stability from last year etc. means he's not running on fumes at the moment so can afford to ride out some time.

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Got you, so he's got a bit of a financial buffer and less pressure to make drastic decisions. 

As you and others say, his form is often patchy and who knows, maybe a Wimbledon QWC may be the next kickstarter to put a few wins together and get his confidence back. It must just be so demoralising though going from runs at St Peterburgs and Miami to this current streak and losing wide at this much lower level. Hopefully he gets an upturn soon.