Somebody remind me of the date of this tie? Does it clash with any ATP tournaments?

I'm pleased that John Lloyd says he's going to give chances to young players like Josh Goodall and Jamie Baker. I know it's really important for GB to win this tie but I'd rather see one of them play alongside Andy Murray rather than Rusedski. Greg's going to be 33 in September and he's going to be around for 2 more years at most. It's time to give the younger upcoming players a chance in a live singles rubber and see who rises to the challenge, they have to build from somewhere and it's better to do it against the Ukraine than in a harder tie next year. Bates should have done that in April for the Serbia tie and played someone like Bloomfield, Lee or Baker instead of picking Arvind Parmar. Ok, Parmar did well in Rotterdam but he was never going to beat Djokovic and it was a good chance to give one of the younger ones a chance.

However, I think the way that Lloyd and the entire LTA have treated Boggo is dreadful, in the last two years he's made himself available to play DC at the expense at gaining ranking points and afterwards they've given him a real bashing in the press and have not missed an opportunity to make a snide remark about Boggo being symbolic of everything which is wrong with British tennis. No one seemed to take into account the fact that he was badly injured v Okun at Eastbourne - he actually ripped a hip muscle. The fact that he's been out for 3 weeks since then and is not certain to play USO qualies shows how bad the injury was. Instead of supporting Alex after his losses in the DC, they've deliberately made him a scapegoat for British tennis. Andy Murray played a bad match v Wawrinka in Switzerland last year but the LTA didn't have a go at him in the press afterwards. I would love to see Boggo prove himself in DC but when the LTA next offer him a DC place I'd like him to just tell them to stuff it after all he's had to put up with from them. It'll probably be better for him to play the 125K+H challenger in Poland as he'll be returning to his fav surface of indoor hard.

I think that Lloyd also really needs to give a chance to one of our many upcoming doubles pairs in DC, starting with the Ukraine tie. In coming years we don't want the situation for Andy which Tim had to cope with over the past decade, ie: having to play on all 3 days and be tired out for the reverse singles. Given that we've got so many quality doubles players starting to progress through the rankings and win challengers, it'd be stupid to allow that to occur. It'd be great if Lloyd gives one of them a chance against the Ukraine and there are 4 quality pairs who could win the rubber for us: Auckland/Delgado, Fleming/Murray, Goodall/Hutchins and Lee/Marray. All are in the top 200 and have had fantastic results in challengers, atps and in the case of Auckland/Delgado and Goodall/Hutchins, they've had experience of grand slam success this year.

I was so disappointed when I heard Lloyd's statement about approaching Henman, I really hope that Tim says no, that would be a big step backwards and contradicts what Lloyd said back in July about giving new players a chance.

mkkreuk wrote:

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Great post, UFF. 100% agree. Greg probably won't continue next year especially after slipping out of the top 100 (and not really looking potent enough to challenge most players in the top 100 and certainly not the top 50 - unless he has a really good day). I think you summed up the boggo situation quite nicely as well.

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Thanks mkk Yeah, it's pointless playing Greg in the singles alongside Andy now as we won't have any chance of getting back in the world group until 2008 [or is is 2009 ?] by which time Greg will surely have retired. The youngsters need to chance to play live rubbers and given that we're almost as low as we can possibly get in the competition, now is the ideal time, they have to build from somewhere.

I have an unfortunate feeling though that like his predecessor, Lloydy won't have the guts to drop Greg if he's available and if fit we'll probably see him and Andy playing all 3 days

Congrats on 2000 posts, by the way

Count Zero wrote:

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According to lloyd no WAGs will be allowed on the ukraine trip so the players can focus.

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Where did you read that ?

Slightly bizarre move from Lloyd, I thought it was only the footballer WAGs who caused problems or have there been cases with tennis WAGs aswell in the past

henmans not coming back and boggo wont be in the team.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/5259098.stm

When will the team get released ?

Team should be...

Andy, Greg, Auckland, Baker...if Gregs not playing then Bloomfield ?

Drew wrote:

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When will the team get released ?

Team should be...

Andy, Greg, Auckland, Baker...if Gregs not playing then Bloomfield ?

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Team will probably get released the week after the US Open.

I'd pick Andy, Josh Goodall, Fleming and Murray. Although Lee, Bloomers and Jamie Baker have also done really well this year, I think that Josh is playing the best out of all of them at the moment.

I'm sure you can guess why I've chosen Fleming and Murray but I would be quite happy if instead Lloyd picked Auckland and Delgado or Lee and Marray or Goodall and Hutchins. Each of those teams are capable of winning the doubles rubber and each deserve to be selected. I really want a specialist GB doubles team to be given the chance to play DC as we've got so many good prospects at the moment.

I know Lloyd won't do this but I'd drop Greg as it's time for one of the younger ones to be given a chance and the Ukraine tie is the perfect time for this.

Why did Lloyd have to make such a big issue about not picking Boggo, releasing a specific statement to the press over a month before the team will be selected. He could have just told Alex in private, didn't have to make it public. Has he done the same to Parmar who has a worse record in DC ?