Am starting this thread in response to a comment by Rosamund on the Laura Robson individual thread, as the discussion there was becoming sidetracked by posters' various reminiscences about past players!
Whatever happened to Donald Watt, he was a top Scottish player late 70s I saw at ilkley. And anyone know anything of John Paish, Surrey player, similar era.
And whilst I am at it, where did Yorkshires Jason Goodall go on to?
Whatever happened to Donald Watt, he was a top Scottish player late 70s I saw at ilkley. And anyone know anything of John Paish, Surrey player, similar era.
And whilst I am at it, where did Yorkshires Jason Goodall go on to?
There's a Donald Watt on twitter, describes himself as ex-coach of Tim Henman, Jason Goodall is a tennis pundit; I'm sure I remember seeing him, as well as hearing him, on Eurosport and hearing him on BBC red button matches, a few years ago.
Whatever happened to Donald Watt, he was a top Scottish player late 70s I saw at ilkley. And anyone know anything of John Paish, Surrey player, similar era.
And whilst I am at it, where did Yorkshires Jason Goodall go on to?
There's a Donald Watt on twitter, describes himself as ex-coach of Tim Henman, Jason Goodall is a tennis pundit; I'm sure I remember seeing him, as well as hearing him, on Eurosport and hearing him on BBC red button matches, a few years ago.
Thats the guy, he played a few futures events as well. I see he says ex coach to Elton John and cliff richard as well on Twitter so not sure hes someone I want to follow , Ill leave him in peace !
yeah, I saw Jason Goodall, hes a big commentator in the USA I see now!
Three of our top female players of the 1980's and 1990's settled in America. Anne Hobbs became a tennis coach in New York City. Amanda Grunfeld Rosenfield is the Director of the Tennis Academy at the Windermere Prep. School in Florida. Valda Lake has forged a successful career as the owner and founder of the Wallspace Art Gallery in Los Angeles.
Lorna Woodroffe is now a Director of the WimX Tennis Academy and is based in Brentwood. She formed the academy with ex players Jo Ward, Helen Crook, Victoria Davies and Andrew Foster who reached the 4th round of Wimbledon in 1993.
Julie Pullin who qualified and won a round of the 2000 Australian Open became Mrs. Hobbs in 2004. She is Head Coach at the Pavilion and Avenue Tennis Club in Brighton.
Former junior champion Claire Taylor is now Racquets Manager at David Lloyd Leisure in Raynes Park, London. She played in the singles at Wimbledon 3 times making her debut in 1994 on Centre Court against Martina Navratilova who went on to reach the final. . She reached the 2nd round in 1996 beating fellow Brit Jo Ward before losing to Mary Pierce and also played in 1997.
Karen Cross is now a tennis coach at the Roehampton Club. She played in the singles at Wimbledon 8 times between 1993 and 2001. The highlight was 1997 where she qualified and reached the 3rd round. She then lost to the reigning French champion Iva Majoli having served for the match in the 2nd set. She again qualified for Wimbledon in 2001 losing in the 2nd round. One has to make allowances for wild cards but that was the last time that a British woman qualified for the Wimbledon singles .i.e. 20 years ago.
No woman has qualified for 20 years? Thats a shocking stat, hopefully that run ends soon
It's a wee bit of a shock. But as ROSAMUND says you have to make allowance for Wimbledon MD WCs. Just about any GB top 250 ranked player or really top class younger player has been awarded such a WC, leaving our qualifying contestants to be a!most entirely only in the qualifying competition as QWCs, often nowhere remotely near the qualifying draw cut-off. Stll, not one ...
No woman has qualified for 20 years? Thats a shocking stat, hopefully that run ends soon
It's a wee bit of a shock. But as ROSAMUND says you have to make allowance for Wimbledon MD WCs. Just about any GB top 250 ranked player or really top class younger player has been awarded such a WC, leaving our qualifying contestants to be a!most entirely only in the qualifying competition as QWCs, often nowhere remotely near the qualifying draw cut-off. Stll, not one ...
Until they revised the book in 2019 the annual Wimbledon Compendium gave a list of qualifiers going back to 1925 for the ladies singles. We can make allowances for wildcards but.... Karen Cross has been mentioned as the last qualifier in 1997 and 2001. Prior to that Mandy Wainwright who was mentioned before we moved the thread to general tennis discussion qualified in 1995. You have to go back to 1988 when Karen Hunter qualified and then Lesley Charles in 1979. Lesley Charles is in a select group of British women in the Open era having played in a Wimbledon final ,the mixed with Mark Farrell in 1973.However 5 qualifiers in 41 Wimbledon's is somewhat under whelming and is poor compared with men. In the 21st century Luke Milligan,Jaime Delgado(twice),Josh Goodall, Lee Childs, Chris Eaton, Marcus Willis and Alex Ward(now Heather's coach )have qualified.