British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

This year's Wimbledon dashed hopes - the latest inquest has already begun

Var · Challenger qualifying

Stircrazy wrote:
Jonathan Jurejko has thrown his cap in the ring for the Beeb.

Too much emphasis on junior tournaments?

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Yet again Tim Henman shows he's no idea what he's talking about:

"Players like Billy Harris, Ollie Tarvet and Toby Samuel came through qualifying at Wimbledon," said Henman.

"Others are pushing from the top 250 towards the top 100. That's where I'm optimistic. That pipeline is much stronger than it used to be."

indiana · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Yet again Tim Henman shows he's no idea what he's talking about:

"Players like Billy Harris, Ollie Tarvet and Toby Samuel came through qualifying at Wimbledon," said Henman.

"Others are pushing from the top 250 towards the top 100. That's where I'm optimistic. That pipeline is much stronger than it used to be."

His basic message was what I was immediately thinking about re the increasingly healthy state on the men's side below the top 100, with a generally good age profile and upward momentum ( the women's side is another matter ).

Detail as to who actually got WCs may not be his thing ( isn't he on the WC committee?! ) and mate, don't even mention Billy ( helped the qualifying stats putting him in there, not sure it helped his MD prep ).

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 1st of July 2026 10:15:31 AM

christ · Challenger qualifying

The clue is in the lede for me: "For many, Wimbledon is the highlight of a British sporting summer, with those flocking to SW19 - or following elsewhere - desperate to cheer home players to victory." This has nothing really to do with the "health" of the game in the UK, and everything to do with the passing fad amongst the general population that is "Wimbledon fortnight".

The draw determined that "seventeen of the 19 home players faced opponents ranked inside the world's top 55, with only Cameron Norrie - a semi-finalist here in 2022 - ranked higher than his first-round opponent." So according to ranking getting four through outperformed (what should have been) the expectation.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

christ wrote:
The clue is in the lede for me: "For many, Wimbledon is the highlight of a British sporting summer, with those flocking to SW19 - or following elsewhere - desperate to cheer home players to victory." This has nothing really to do with the "health" of the game in the UK, and everything to do with the passing fad amongst the general population that is "Wimbledon fortnight".

The draw determined that "seventeen of the 19 home players faced opponents ranked inside the world's top 55, with only Cameron Norrie - a semi-finalist here in 2022 - ranked higher than his first-round opponent." So according to ranking getting four through outperformed (what should have been) the expectation.

Well, Katie Boulter was a lot higher ranked than her first-round opponent

So that's not completely right

But I agree with the point - only two losses were 'disappointing'

More interesting, to me, is that, of the four who won, three of them are not really a product of the LTA at all anyway

Jan is 'Made in Germany'

Arthur Féry's parents organised and ran his tennis training largely independently of the LTA

Katie Swan was an LTA girl but then moved to Texas (at 16?) and was/is based there for all her tennis

Only Jake is an LTA product, and even that I'm not too sure about (as in where on the support list he came)