2023 PLAYER OF THE SEASON VOTE - FINAL

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

2023 PLAYER OF THE SEASON VOTE - FINAL

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Their can be only one.

And that one is .... Billy.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Hard to know where to go with this one:

Katie and Liam and Billy have sort of achieved the same things - all have improved their rankings dramatically, achieved their great targets - Katie well into top 100 and playing WTA tour; Liam got to the top 100 and is placed for a proper push into it now; Billy has made the top 200 and has played more and worked harder than anyone.

Joe didnt have a good season for most of it and saw his ranking drop though, but he got two massive titles in a third straight US Open and the Tour Finals.

Three of them won Player of the Month in different months. All 4 of them had win loss records in the 62-67% range, remarkably quite similar; three of them won titles this year, maybe the biggest of each of their careers.

I have switched votes around this event, Liam was the only one of these I voted for in earlier votes.

So where to go - process of elimination. Can I vote for someone that hasnt won a title - it is hard to be player of the season without winning a title. So Billy gets put aside for me - but I hope he gets lots of votes. Can I vote for someone who hasnt been Player of the Month? Billy would get back in on that basis, but Liam didnt make it, hard to be player of the season without being player of at least 1 month?

These may be spurious reasons but in splitting players who are so close, I am going with them: So, it is down to Katie or Joe?

The difference is an all around good year for Katie versus winning a grand slam title and the tour finals, representing the pinnacle of the game he plays. Singles v doubles as well?

Joe has been our player of the season before, in 2020, and a finalist also in 2021, and he gets my vote to be player of the season again.

But all 4 would be great winners!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Bob in Spain wrote:
Their can be only one.

And that one is .... Billy.

Thanks Bob! Although I suspect you were torn a little between Billy and Liam?!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Reminded, anyone can vote at any time for any reason - no limits other than having a board account!

Peter too · Tennis legend

Katie has been out for long periods, holding back her progress for years but she kept trying and finally got a full year injury free. The result has been for her to race into the top 50 in the world rankings and to British number 1.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Peter too wrote:
Katie has been out for long periods, holding back her progress for years but she kept trying and finally got a full year injury free. The result has been for her to race into the top 50 in the world rankings and to British number 1.

Thanks Peter, I am assuming you voted for Katie? And she is well deserving, a great season. All 4 of these have achieved great things for them this year and would be well deserving of the title!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Hannah would also have been deserving, if her Orange Bowl record was included. There was some discussion on it, in so much as the cut off period for the voting season was really Dec 3rd and Hannah did great things thereafter, which probably boosted her vote.

I could and maybe should have said something about the cut off period but in reality it doesnt matter and Hannah just missed out to Liam. I hope Liam does her proud and gets a good number of votes in this final!

christ · Futures level

Ms Boulter for me.

I could use a lot more words, but it boils down to the same thing.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

10 votes in v quickly.

Remember, the all time voting record was achieved in the Semifinal group yesterday, 47 votes by the deadline, 48 if we include one that came in 5 mins after. But 47 officially.

We have never had 50 votes and it is sort of egotistical target of mine, so lets make it a great final and get 50 votes by 10 pm tomorrow if we can!!

To achieve that, I would reckon we need 30-35 by end of tonight, I would reckon maybe 20 in by end of the working day today, in line with how the semifinal profile went. Let's see!

emmsie69 · Top national player

Billy. I feel the others have underachieved previously so they've only really matched expectations whereas Billy has been an absolute revelation this year. You can see by how much looking at the predictions thread. He barely appears in anyone's year end top 10

Tanaqui · Club Coach

emmsie69 wrote:
Billy. I feel the others have underachieved previously so they've only really matched expectations whereas Billy has been an absolute revelation this year. You can see by how much looking at the predictions thread. He barely appears in anyone's year end top 10

I agree with Emmsie. As Peter said, Katie has finally hit the level we all expected of her once she got a full season of playing regularly and that's lovely for her, but that doesn't make her stand out for me. She's just where she should be. Joe had two great results in an otherwise indifferent season. Liam clearly had the potential for a long while to reach the top 100 and it's wondeful that all his hard work paid off and he was able to put it all together and get over the line, so he would be my second choice if I had one.

But Billy... Billy not only hit new heights but went on hitting them, over and over, achieving far more than probably anyone (himself included) expected at the start of the year. So Billy gets my vote.

-- Edited by Tanaqui on Tuesday 12th of December 2023 10:13:40 AM

Jan · Hall of fame

No point in pondering any more! As usual it's a difficult decision. For me it's between Joe and Billy.
I'll go with Billy.

the addict · Tennis legend

emmsie69 wrote:
Billy. I feel the others have underachieved previously so they've only really matched expectations whereas Billy has been an absolute revelation this year. You can see by how much looking at the predictions thread. He barely appears in anyone's year end top 10

Yes, just three people included hm in their top ten predictions, all as GB #10 with an average prediction of WR291 (268,300 and 304)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

It was only a couple of years ago that people were questioning whether Billy would ever make the Top 500. Having hovered in the 500 to 1000 range for several years - a period only interrupted by a 6-month period where he dropped out of the rankings completely because of injury, most people had given up on him.

But Billy didn't give up on himself. He hasn't had that 'big' win that some (understandably) use as a criteria, but his progress through dedication has been relentless over the last couple of years in particular and in the last 12 months, he has continued to prove people wrong - all of which has been done with very little help from within the LTA. You only have to look at the total number of matches he has played - 93 - to be impressed by his efforts.

It is true that others have had more spectacular 'moments', but for sheer determination to battle on and make so much relentless progress against the odds over the entire year, Billy has to be my vote.