Today the LTA announced the nominations for the player of the year awards. They are as follows:
Player of the year:
Andy Murray Josh Goodall Mel South Naomi Cavaday
Junior player of the year:
Jennifer Ren Jessica Ren Naomi Cavaday Dan Evans
Disabled player of the year:
Peter Norfolk Lucy Shuker Peter Wilcox
Thoughts:
Naomi must surely be a lock for junior player of the year. I'm no expert on wheelchair tennis but Peter Norfolk claiming his 4th US Open and completely dominating the quads game must surely see him claim that award.
In the main player of the year award, I can't see any of them nominated players beating Andy Murray. However, the big surprise to me and the reasoning behind this thread title is the absence of Alex Bogdanovic. Is this some sort of swipe at him by the LTA who we already know are hardly his best friends. Shocking absence from the list imo. Opinions?
Note: I wasn't quite sure where to put this thread. I figured it kind of fell under "General tennis discussion". If I've put it in the wrong place, feel free to move it.
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Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive.... those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience
they should have put Graeme Dyce ahead of the Ren sisters after his exploits at the Grade 1 tournament that lead him to no.99 in the junior rankings. (cant remember the tournament)
i agree bogdanovic should be up as well, but doesnt it depends on when the 'nominatons' closes? Also, i think they should at players closely who got goals to achieve(d).
In the Player of the Year:
Murray - top 20
Goodall - qualified in 2 GS
Mel South - Top 200 status
Cavaday - to be in top 400
Boggo - 2 challengers wins, ATP QF, 2nd rd Nottingham ATP, Mons finalist, 2nd round Thailand. Close to the top 100; surely that justify his 'nomination'
Juniors:
Ren sisters - have no idea other than being displayed on BBC and winning tournies from last year, ok top 10 in u14 european rankings, but that nothing compared to:
Dyce - achieved top 100 status in junior rankings after his final run in a G1 tournie
Dan Evans - heard about him in the Brits section, so cant really comment other than doing well this year
Yasmin Clarke - reached a future final in USA and nearing the top 100 in the juniors (thats a guess!)
Thanks for that, I knew there was some other reason why the nominations looked a little wierd. Think the Ren sisters must only be in there for some sort of publicity, to generate interest in them or something. I mean, do you even know which one is which and what they have achieved?? Anyone who has heard of them knows of them as the Ren sisters. If I wanted to vote for them I certainly couldn't differentiate between them lol. Wonder who came up with these nominations. They're very strange. I remember looking at them trying to work out what these had done to be up for nomination and thinking that surely we have players who have achieved more.
Maybe we should all start emailing the LTA asking how they can justify Goodall ahead of Bogdanovic.
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Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive.... those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience
Andy Murray of course is going to be the runaway winner of the main title and it's good to see Naomi Cavaday getting recognition for her achievements, but I agree, it's absolutely ridiculous that Boggo isn't in there considering his achievements. Goodall's improved his ranking 160 places and qualified for 2 slams but he hasn't reached 3 challenger finals and an ATP quarter-final. I am hardly surprised though given that it's the "LTA" player of the year vote, the feud with Boggo goes back 4 years.
Also, I would have thought that James Auckland and Jamie Murray should have been nominated. Both have made massive leaps in doubles this year, Jamie came from outside the top 250 - he's reached 2 ATP finals and 5 challenger finals to make the top 100.
Maybe John Lloyd did the nominations We all know his dislike of Boggo and how he keeps turning a blind eye towards the GB success in doubles this year !
I agree, Naomi Cavaday is a certainty for the junior title. I can't see why Evans has been nominated over Cox, I don't think they've checked the stats for that one. Evans has won two G5 titles in GB and became Europe no 1 in the U16s but Cox won a G4 on clay in Morocco, a G5 in Spain and reached another G5 final in GB. He also has those outstanding results during the grass court season and this is not even considering his exploits in the seniors. The only thing Evans has over Cox is that he won the U16 nationals, maybe that's the defining criteria for nomination in this category. It must be as I can't see otherwise how they can leave out Dyce [didn't compete in the nationals] with him breaking the junior top 100 and reaching a GA [!!] final.
The Ren sisters are in the world's top 10 in their age groups. both won their respective national titles, Jennifer won the prestigious Orange Bowl title in autumn 2005. The sisters won the U14 doubles title in the nationals, they didn't win the singles titles in their age groups. I don't think it's enough to be nominated ahead of Dyce and Cox
We all know his dislike of Boggo and how he keeps turning a blind eye towards the GB success in doubles this year !
