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Sheddie


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Martin Lee: "I was on the road to nowhere"
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Martin Lee looked across the grounds of the Bisham Abbey national sports centre, where his tennis career began, and savoured fond memories of travelling the globe in a desperate, eventually fruitless, attempt to reach the top.

He has been jetlagged in Japan, ill in India, too exhausted in Egypt to take a 10-minute drive to the Pyramids, terrified by a rottweiler in San Francisco,smashed so many rackets in New York that he had to buy some himself for a tournament — and celebrated his loneliest Christmas with Kentucky Fried Chicken out of a cardboard carton in a deserted Miami.

As he reflected on his eventful life, the former world junior No 1 offered a simple explanation as to why Britain struggles so badly compared with countries such as Spain and France to provide a regular supply of players for the world's top 100.

For all the annual £30 million donation from Wimbledon, the five-year plans, coaching initiatives and this month's expensive revolution at the Lawn Tennis Association under new chief executive Roger Draper,one essential element is lacking; too few British teenagers want to give up 10 years of their life to reach the big time.

"The hard thing is to keep kids playing past 15 or 16," says Lee, now 28. "Of the group I grew up with, only a couple are left. They see friends going out drinking, going to university, having a good time and they don't fancy making the sacrifices."

Lee has certainly made those. Like the time he arrived at the address of his hotel, two hours' drive from Bangalore, to discover it had not been built. He located another nearby for £2 a night, with no hot water, a hard bed and a basement restaurant serving rice and naan bread.

After checking in, the young tennis player set off in search of the tournament venue, weaving his way through the cattle roaming the main street, only to find that the courts had not been finished, either. Some 300 labourers were toiling diligently in 95-degree heat to make the site ready. After a troubled night, Lee returned to discover that the workmen had not only laid the courts but erected temporary grandstands. The only problem was the surface, made of dried cow dung.

To read the full article go to
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/sport/article-23378550-details/I+was+on+the+road+to+nowhere/article.do

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Salmon


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RE: Martin Lee: "I was on the road to nowhere"
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Magical stuff. Makes a great reading.


Lovely experiences he had in India..... hmmm...

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johnnylad


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It really is an eye opener to hear about what players have to do to keep a living on tour is all about.


I just wonder if all this round robin rubbish is going to filter down and force platers to quit earlier. The tennis bosses are making tennis even more elitist than it already is



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RobC


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johnnylad wrote:


It really is an eye opener to hear about what players have to do to keep a living on tour is all about.


I just wonder if all this round robin rubbish is going to filter down and force platers to quit earlier. The tennis bosses are making tennis even more elitist than it already is




I don't know about the round-  robins, but what will be interesting is how the "zero points for a first round loss" rule affects things:


It's now going to be better to reach R2 of a Challenger than to go out in R1 of an ATP.


So we'll see a lot more 50 - 100 players opting for Challengers, rather than filling up their 10th- 20th scores with 5s from ATP R1s....Which will mean that the ATP direct entry lists will probably extend down into the low 100s.


Similarly, we'll see a lot more movement between 150 and 50, as there won't be that annoying glut of players who were on form 18 months ago and then have lost in R1 every week since and so hang around in the 70s-110s with a load of "5"s in their points list until that one big ATP score comes off again....


All this will be repeated in the 300s- 400s, as more players stick to futures rather than going for the guaranteed 1 point from a Challenger R1 loss, and so more lower ranked players get a chance to do Challengers.


The interesting thing will be qualies: Arguably, in points terms Boggo will be better off with the chance of getting R2, Qualy round and qualifying points for the AO, than he would have been if he'd been a DA and drawn a seed in R1. so will we see players going for qualies rather than DA places??



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Count Zero


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are they event aking away GS round 1 points? thats a bit harsh, it is a slam after all.

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johnnylad


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I suppose it rewards consistency as you say.


AM has "blasted" the round robin system on teletext...


I'm just concerned it means less players get the opportunity to make main draws



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RobC


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I've checked: You're right. the compulsory events (Grand Slam/MAsters Series) still give you 5 points for a first round loss. Makes sense. If you have to play, you should get something.


Category             Commitment  W   F   SF  QF R16 R32 R64 R128 Q points
Grand Slam                     1000 700 450 250 150  75  35    5     15
ATP Masters Series              500 350 225 125  75  35 5(20) (5)   *15
Int’l Series Gold    $1,000,000 300 210 135  75  25  15             *10
Int’l Series Gold      $800,000 250 175 110  60  25  15             *10
International Series $1,000,000 250 175 110  60  25  15             *10
International Series   $800,000 225 155 100  55  20  10             *10
International Series   $600,000 200 140  90  50 15(20)(10 )           5
International Series   $400,000 175 120  75  40  15                   5
Challenger           $150,000+H 100  70  45  23  10                   3
Challenger             $150,000  90  63  40  21   9                   3
Challenger             $125,000  80  56  36  19   8                   3
Challenger             $100,000  70  49  31  16   7                   3
Challenger              $75,000  60  42  27  14   6                   3
Challenger              $50,000  55  38  24  13   5                   2
Challenger            $35,000+H  55  38  24  13   5                   2
Challenger            $25,000+H  50  35  22  12   5                   2
Futures**             $15,000+H  24  16   8   4   1
Futures**               $15,000  18  12   6   3   1
Futures**               $10,000  12   8   4   2   1



-- Edited by RobC at 12:51, 2006-12-22

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Salmon


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So Surbiton will give more points this year, phew!

We should have a few 35K+Hs this year.

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Sheddie


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Exclusive, just for this site:

The LTA are making all British challengers in 2007, 35K+Hs. After 2007, I think they're going to scrap the 35K+Hs and make all GB challengers 75Ks at least.

This seems like good news for the higher ranked British players but not so good for the lower ranked guys

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Sheddie


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Greenleaf wrote:


Lovely experiences he had in India..... hmmm...


Haha I wonder if they're playing on cow pat this week ?

Have you ever seen cow pat courts Arka ?

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Salmon


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ultimateshedman wrote:

Exclusive, just for this site:

The LTA are making all British challengers in 2007, 35K+Hs. After 2007, I think they're going to scrap the 35K+Hs and make all GB challengers 75Ks at least.

This seems like good news for the higher ranked British players but not so good for the lower ranked guys


Very good. I think that they should keep the post Wimbly grass Challengers as 35K+Hs.


ultimateshedman wrote:


Have you ever seen cow pat courts Arka ?


Never heard of it.

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 13:30, 2006-12-22

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johnnylad


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RE: Martin Lee: "I was on the road to nowhere"
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ultimateshedman wrote:

Exclusive, just for this site:

The LTA are making all British challengers in 2007, 35K+Hs. After 2007, I think they're going to scrap the 35K+Hs and make all GB challengers 75Ks at least.

This seems like good news for the higher ranked British players but not so good for the lower ranked guys


Why not keep a mix of different level tournaments like other countries


Good that 35K + H will be our lowest type of tournament though!



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Sheddie


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The Nottingham and Manchester challengers will be 35K+H this summer and then I think they're going to be 75K the following year which is about right I think.


Greenleaf wrote:

ultimateshedman wrote:

Exclusive, just for this site:

The LTA are making all British challengers in 2007, 35K+Hs. After 2007, I think they're going to scrap the 35K+Hs and make all GB challengers 75Ks at least.

This seems like good news for the higher ranked British players but not so good for the lower ranked guys


Very good. I think that they should keep the post Wimbly grass Challengers as 35K+Hs.


ultimateshedman wrote:


Have you ever seen cow pat courts Arka ?


Never heard of it.

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 13:30, 2006-12-22


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Sheddie


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johnnylad wrote:

ultimateshedman wrote:

Exclusive, just for this site:

The LTA are making all British challengers in 2007, 35K+Hs. After 2007, I think they're going to scrap the 35K+Hs and make all GB challengers 75Ks at least.

This seems like good news for the higher ranked British players but not so good for the lower ranked guys


Why not keep a mix of different level tournaments like other countries


Good that 35K + H will be our lowest type of tournament though!




I'm not sure why they've decided to change, I think it's the theory that bigger points on offer will give the British players more chance to move up the ranking faster and also more chance for the younger players to compete against much higher ranked opposition

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Sheddie


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Just re-read the Martin Lee article, and the bit about racket smashing at the US Open. That incidentally was what held Martin back for a number of years, he had the talent but not the temperament, when things started to go wrong he'd get more and more frustrated and lose his concentration.

I think he did some anger management courses in 2000 and it really paid off in the 2001 and 2002 seasons.

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