Weeks 27 & 28 - The Championships, Wimbledon (grass) - men's singles

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

RE: Weeks 27 & 28 - The Championships, Wimbledon (grass) - men's singles

Danny1312 · Junior player

Great win could really be our only male through at this rate!

Mervatron2 · Challenger qualifying

Well done Jacob. That tiebreak was intense

Jan · Hall of fame

Great win for Jake!

Neil Gee · Club Coach

Sorry but to be the party pooper but Jack just lost his opening set 6-3.

Var · Pro player

Danny1312 wrote:
Great win could really be our only male through at this rate!

Dont say that! Much as I love to see our ladies progressing, would be sad if we didnt have more gentleman through!

Neil Gee · Club Coach

But Jack breaks serve in set two. Looking like he's getting into a rhythm now. Jack, come on!

Danny1312 · Junior player

Var wrote:
Danny1312 wrote:
Great win could really be our only male through at this rate!
Dont say that! Much as I love to see our ladies progressing, would be sad if we didnt have more gentleman through!

Ohh I agree and hope to be wrong! Watched all day today it's been a frustrating one. I'm hoping to be proven wrong.

9vicman · Satellite level

Elegant Point wrote:
another one bites the dust
Suggestion on another chat board that college tennis is great at developing players who can grind it out 700>200 level. Now seems harder to get past the 200 mark still have fingers X for the rest of the Brit men
and theres always the dubs

There were 30 college players in the men's and women's singles draws alone at Wimbledon, up from 23 last year. That's one in eight which I think is a pretty good ratio. And who's to say that other players haven't maxed out their rankings thanks to going to college even if not Top 200 level. And have a degree to boot.

Neil Gee · Club Coach

3-6, 6-3 Draper and a break in the opener of set 3. Looking good now.

SuperT · Futures level

I notice that play has finished on court 1 for the day. I wonder why they didn't move Dan's match there. With the match before his still in the early stages of the second set it's most unlikely he'll be able to finish tonight.

9vicman · Satellite level

gazzpash wrote:
I think sometimes its the occasion and I do wonder if the LTA really prepare our players for the bigger tournaments and the grind like they do elsewhere. It does seem to happen so much that with such a close eye on Wimbledon you see British players in great positions and then freezing up at the wrong moment. I'd say if we got more sport psychologists and fitness coaches in it would help massively with these players.

I think there needs to be some perspective here. The British men have outperformed their rankings throughout the grass court season, and just because they missed some chances here, it doesn't mean that they have suddenly become worse players. The fact that they are all wild cards means that they aren't used to competing at such a high level on a regular basis so natural for some nerves to creep in.

Paul Jubb saved a match point last week against Shelton, and missed a match point this week. It could have been the other way round. Arthur Fery is still recovering from his injury layoff and lacking match fitness. Charlie Broom was playing one of the all-time greats.

And let's not forget that many of our women have had upset wins this week so it's not all doom and gloom.

For me, the biggest issue is we still don't have enough players competing at the highest levels (though much better than 20 years ago), but I don't think we should look at a handful of Wimbledon results as a barometer of British tennis.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Var wrote:
Elegant Point wrote:
Danny1312 wrote:
Ohh Jan! Had it then didn't 2-2 are any men going to get one over the line?
The Times Wimbledon supplement has Cam 9/10, Paul 6/10, Jan 3/10, Jack 9/10, Dan 5/10, Henry 2/10
Surely by the law of averages, Cam is due a few wins now?

Possibly, but perhaps not in SW19: if he beats Díaz & Jack beats Ymer, they'll meet in the second round...

Neil Gee · Club Coach

JD is broken back but instantly regains the initiative with another break. I was quite impressed by that. It's all about winning big points and Jack is doing that.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

9vicman wrote:
gazzpash wrote:
I think sometimes its the occasion and I do wonder if the LTA really prepare our players for the bigger tournaments and the grind like they do elsewhere. It does seem to happen so much that with such a close eye on Wimbledon you see British players in great positions and then freezing up at the wrong moment. I'd say if we got more sport psychologists and fitness coaches in it would help massively with these players.
I think there needs to be some perspective here. The British men have outperformed their rankings throughout the grass court season, and just because they missed some chances here, it doesn't mean that they have suddenly become worse players. The fact that they are all wild cards means that they aren't used to competing at such a high level on a regular basis so natural for some nerves to creep in.
Paul Jubb saved a match point last week against Shelton, and missed a match point this week. It could have been the other way round. Arthur Fery is still recovering from his injury layoff and lacking match fitness. Charlie Broom was playing one of the all-time greats.
And let's not forget that many of our women have had upset wins this week so it's not all doom and gloom.
For me, the biggest issue is we still don't have enough players competing at the highest levels (though much better than 20 years ago), but I don't think we should look at a handful of Wimbledon results as a barometer of British tennis.

Yes, to me it's nothing to do with sports psychologists or whatever - after all, Paul Jubb will have had a whole ton of help with that during his three (?) years of college time where it's all part of the package - he's going to have had sports psychologists up the gazoo

To me, as you say, 9vicman, it's that they're all a lot lower ranked

This means they've never played at these type of events before, against top-100 players or whatever

And they've done fine for their ranking. And some have done miles better.

After all, look at all the wildcards at Roland Garros. Or any other Grand Slam. Did they do any better?

A fluke, or unexpected, win is great. And has a great feel good factor. But what is really needed is for them to be up there, in the top-100, as a regular thing. So that they're in with a shot, not just at Wimbly but other events too, so they're used to the stresses and pressures, and the quality of the opponents.