British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

GB women depth - should we be concerned?

Var · Futures level

Coup Droit wrote:
The whole idea of comparing all our girls to Iva, though, is a bit daft, IMO

Yes, Iva is doing great.

But choosing one out of a hundred isn't representative

In juniors, Iva lost to Glozman, Kostovic, Samson, Grant, Jones etc. etc. etc.

As well as Mika and Hannah

You can't put a finger on what made Iva zoom through but the others not

And, because you can't, I don't think it's worthwhile trying

Honestly, I don't really look at top-10

We haven't had a top-10 player for nearly 10 years, and then we only had one. (who also, conincidentally, took a lot longer than 2-3 years to reach her max, and be top-5) When was the one before that?

I honestly don't think you can set up a system to produce a top-10 player

To me, you need to set up a system that produces top-50 players (or even top-100) and then hope that the vagaries of life means one of those might come through. It's a numbers game - load the bases and some will score

I suppose maybe I cant help looking for some sort of correlation! So random it is CD!

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes CD, I've certainly been much more thinking general numbers.

And overall, you have indeed been far from reassuring! Unfortunately I have found your testmony the most convincing ( I am still a bit in High Court juror mode from last week ), outweighing such as possible quality recruits in numbers from US College, our junior ranks, and the injured - though I appreciate all who have been adding to the discussions.

It means we must hope for a large percentage of a limited number to make it ( we are arguably lucky just now to have 4 players in or around the top 100 which is good for now ), and also it is just less interesting having a smaller pool in say top 250 / top 500 women players to follow, and see make good runs, win titles, and move up the rankings.

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

Coup Droit wrote:
The whole idea of comparing all our girls to Iva, though, is a bit daft, IMO

Yes, Iva is doing great.

But choosing one out of a hundred isn't representative

In juniors, Iva lost to Glozman, Kostovic, Samson, Grant, Jones etc. etc. etc.

As well as Mika and Hannah

You can't put a finger on what made Iva zoom through but the others not

And, because you can't, I don't think it's worthwhile trying

Honestly, I don't really look at top-10

We haven't had a top-10 player for nearly 10 years, and then we only had one. (who also, conincidentally, took a lot longer than 2-3 years to reach her max, and be top-5) When was the one before that?

I honestly don't think you can set up a system to produce a top-10 player

To me, you need to set up a system that produces top-50 players (or even top-100) and then hope that the vagaries of life means one of those might come through. It's a numbers game - load the bases and some will score

Re the top 10 player before Jo Konta, I think that was Jo Durie back in 1983-84 only 43 years ago.

Peter too · Tennis legend

Injury has held a lot of our girls back, remember Laura Robson, won junior Wimbledon at age 14, beat Jo Konta as a junior rising to 38 in the world after beating a former Grand Slam winner, then had wrist operations and was never the same player again. Katie B. held back through injury, same for Emma, Fran and Katie S. Is something in our training leading to injuries or are girls from other countries protected more by training/playing on clay rather than hard courts in their early years.