British Tour - 2020

the addict · Tennis legend

British Tour - 2020

the addict · Tennis legend

I must say, it is great to see so much activity in this thread - normally only a few of us post. And I see that 551 users have visited the forum in the last 24 hours.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
I must say, it is great to see so much activity in this thread - normally only a few of us post. And I see that 551 users have visited the forum in the last 24 hours.

Up to 560 now!

I actually think they could do so much more with the British Tour and interest a lot more of us on an ongoing basis.

I have mentioned elsewhere, that I would be a big advocate of making the Challenger circuit for me and women much more regional, trying to get something close to the Golf circuit with the European Tour etc. I envisage a hierarchy (and forgive me as I am using ATP speak, but you will get the drift).

Slams and Masters 1000 events and 500 - global for the very elite and whereby just these events are used for the year end Race

ATP 250 events - effectively become large Challenger level events but organised on a global level by the ATP and contribute to rankings but not race

Challenger events as currently - develop a more formal regional structure, probably continental like Golf. Ranking points but also circuit points (eg the European Challenger Tour) contributing towards a year end regional Play offs and ranking and somehow feeding up via some sort of Tour card being awarded into the global circuit of 500/1000/Slams

ITF events - I see these as almost being sub regional ie country level and would love to see them go back to the old Satellite events. Having them globally is a drain on everyone and makes little sense - players should align to a specific regional structure and maybe have the right if they choose to play outside their region a set number of times a year. For every 32 player draw, maybe 4 or 8 could be set aside for outside of the region players.

British Tour - if the ITF circuit becomes national/sub regional and more events where put on (say 26 in the UK at ITF 15/25 level), then a clear link and play up from the British Tour could be eatablished, the British Tour event would always feed through rankings into the ITF event eg of a 32 player ITF event, as well as the 4 non regional players, maybe a guaranteed 4 or 8 spots would come from the British Tour.

The details are sketchy but the premise would be that a British player could play and fund most of their play at British Tour and ITF level in the UK with the occasional break out to European level or beyond to test themselves as they develop. The ITF events and British Tour events I dont think should link to World rankings, rather regional rankings with a tour card system providing a play up path into the ATP.

I suspect this latter rankings thing is sort of where the ITF and ATP/WTA aimed to get to a year or so back but made a mess of. the issue for me there was partly that two world ranking systems alongside each other made no sense - but a regional ranking process with a feed up and focused around national and regional tours might work better for everyone

Spireman · Club Coach

JonH comes home wrote:
the addict wrote:
I must say, it is great to see so much activity in this thread - normally only a few of us post. And I see that 551 users have visited the forum in the last 24 hours.
Up to 560 now!
I actually think they could do so much more with the British Tour and interest a lot more of us on an ongoing basis.
I have mentioned elsewhere, that I would be a big advocate of making the Challenger circuit for me and women much more regional, trying to get something close to the Golf circuit with the European Tour etc. I envisage a hierarchy (and forgive me as I am using ATP speak, but you will get the drift).
Slams and Masters 1000 events and 500 - global for the very elite and whereby just these events are used for the year end Race
ATP 250 events - effectively become large Challenger level events but organised on a global level by the ATP and contribute to rankings but not race
Challenger events as currently - develop a more formal regional structure, probably continental like Golf. Ranking points but also circuit points (eg the European Challenger Tour) contributing towards a year end regional Play offs and ranking and somehow feeding up via some sort of Tour card being awarded into the global circuit of 500/1000/Slams
ITF events - I see these as almost being sub regional ie country level and would love to see them go back to the old Satellite events. Having them globally is a drain on everyone and makes little sense - players should align to a specific regional structure and maybe have the right if they choose to play outside their region a set number of times a year. For every 32 player draw, maybe 4 or 8 could be set aside for outside of the region players.
British Tour - if the ITF circuit becomes national/sub regional and more events where put on (say 26 in the UK at ITF 15/25 level), then a clear link and play up from the British Tour could be eatablished, the British Tour event would always feed through rankings into the ITF event eg of a 32 player ITF event, as well as the 4 non regional players, maybe a guaranteed 4 or 8 spots would come from the British Tour.
The details are sketchy but the premise would be that a British player could play and fund most of their play at British Tour and ITF level in the UK with the occasional break out to European level or beyond to test themselves as they develop. The ITF events and British Tour events I dont think should link to World rankings, rather regional rankings with a tour card system providing a play up path into the ATP.
I suspect this latter rankings thing is sort of where the ITF and ATP/WTA aimed to get to a year or so back but made a mess of. the issue for me there was partly that two world ranking systems alongside each other made no sense - but a regional ranking process with a feed up and focused around national and regional tours might work better for everyone

Yes, I agree with this basic idea. These three events going on are good in one way as it gives everyone some sort of comparison between the British players, with quite a lot of overlap in standards between the events. This week with three on it is good that some more players get a chance to compete, as well. I know with lockdown some will have kept fitter than others, some will have add earlier access to courts, hitters etc as well which muddied the waters. In my opinion, having watched a lot of brit tours as well as lta national junior events the system doesn't help most players at all. The ones who can afford it, or who get some sort of financial support, are off doing tennis europe then itf juniors, then 15k all over the place all of which cost a lot, and also say a player of 16 or 17 is away for two or three weeks they also miss a lot of normal training. (Ok, if they do well,not so good if they lose monday or whatever). The temptation with tournament selection is clearly to cherry pick what look like easier ones to build ranking points but this may not be the best way to develop as a player. I also get the impression, understandable given the huge potential benefit of being really favoured by the lta, that players and theirs teams can be reluctant for them to compete against other british players. The brit tour have started to offer more wildcards into british pro tournaments which is good, but the idea of some sort of british 'survival of the fittest' tour feeding into some sort of european tour etc is a good idea. In the current situation a reduction in travel would also be a benefit.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
I must say, it is great to see so much activity in this thread - normally only a few of us post. And I see that 551 users have visited the forum in the last 24 hours.

I've literally no idea about user numbers. I assume 551/560 is significantly higher than normal?

the addict · Tennis legend

Ace Ventura wrote:
the addict wrote:
I must say, it is great to see so much activity in this thread - normally only a few of us post. And I see that 551 users have visited the forum in the last 24 hours.
I've literally no idea about user numbers. I assume 551/560 is significantly higher than normal?

I've seen figures some days in the 150 to 250 range (pre-pandemic). Higher during the bigger events of course. Considering the events going on this week, 500+ must be a good figure

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
Ace Ventura wrote:
the addict wrote:
I must say, it is great to see so much activity in this thread - normally only a few of us post. And I see that 551 users have visited the forum in the last 24 hours.
I've literally no idea about user numbers. I assume 551/560 is significantly higher than normal?
I've seen figures some days in the 150 to 250 range (pre-pandemic). Higher during the bigger events of course. Considering the events going on this week, 500+ must be a good figure

Cool. I wonder if there's more players viewing as guests, particularly the younger ones who normally wouldn't get this much exposure with all the streams being available.

the addict · Tennis legend

Now says 713 members in the last 24 hours. Around 20 new members since the start of lockdown

Spireman · Club Coach

Two more changes to the draw, Alicia D came out then later so did Erin. As far as I can see now no alts/reserves left on list.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Hmm, my interest was pretty low this week anyway, but that Alicia W/D might be the final nail. I was quite looking forward to Grace vs Alicia, and to see if the latter could back up last week, but it's pretty bare now. There could be a gem or two who I'm not aware of, and one or two with potential like TA has said above with Chloe, so I may check in at some point on the Sunday, especially as the Progres Tour will have ended by then, but certainly a huge contrast on paper to the prior two weeks.

Bagel · Lower Club Player

Ace Ventura wrote:
Hmm, my interest was pretty low this week anyway, but that Alicia W/D might be the final nail. I was quite looking forward to Grace vs Alicia, and to see if the latter could back up last week, but it's pretty bare now. There could be a gem or two who I'm not aware of, and one or two with potential like TA has said above with Chloe, so I may check in at some point on the Sunday, especially as the Progres Tour will have ended by then, but certainly a huge contrast on paper to the prior two weeks.

I expect the LTA are staggered about having such a poor quality field for their event. After all who could possibly have predicted that sanctioning three events at the same time might have this effect? How fortunate we are to have a governing body with such foresight!

indiana · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
Now says 713 members in the last 24 hours. Around 20 new members since the start of lockdown

Now 974 which continues a very peculiar sudden leap up of now about 400.

I'd say that it has been 500 odd most of the time in the last week or so and much less before that ( 2 to 300 odd when tennis had shut down ).

In 'normal' competitive times I'd say it has tended to range from about 700 through to 1300.

Enjoy, whoever you all are.

-- Edited by indiana on Friday 17th of July 2020 02:43:47 PM

the addict · Tennis legend

It had reached over a thousand when I looked first thing this morning, so must have been a peak yesterday morning

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Most of these are just names to me, but tomorrow's BT OOP:

Court 1 (from 9.30am)
Lauren B vs Indianna S (6)
Grace P (1) vs Oriana PG
Men
Men

Court 2 (from 9.30am)
Rhona C vs Michelle D
Hannah S vs Chloe E
Men
Men

Court 5 (from 9.30am)
Arabella M vs Esther A (3)
Sally P (5) vs Eleanor N
Men
Men

Court 6 (from 9.30am)
Emma W vs India R
Annabel D vs Olivia R
Men
Men

QF's in the afternoon as well, NB 2.30pm, and after suitable rest.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Some of the tennis in these first matches is. Well, interesting.