Team AEGON 2010

indiana · Tennis legend

Team AEGON 2010

Count Zero · Tennis legend

did anyone post this link to times article yet?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article6965471.ece

seems that josh is still getting some limited funding. and i presume others are too.

tennisfan84 · Junior player

Can I suggest that there maybe other factors that have led to players losing their status as fully funded. For example, we are all well aware that Noami Broady has more than likely chosen not to take any LTA funding offered. Perhaps other reasons have resulted in Joss and Lisa not making the cut. I suggest that a reason such as they may plan to go to college or university may be a reason for the LTA not fully funding them. It happens all too often that players are given significant LTA funding and then bound off to University. Look at this years 1991 birthdays - Alistair Barnes, Dave Thompson and James Turbervil have gone off to the states with I'm sure many more will follow.

The fact that Heather Watson was seriously thinking about going off to college after winning the US open juniors shows that the LTA need to confirm that players are ready to commit 4-5 years of their lives trying to make it professionally before pumping any money into them.

I think Chris Eaton would be best served following the likes of Richard Irwin off to university!

philwrig · Hall of fame

Yep I got my Alex's mixed up but lack of funding could make players more hungry so not all bad. It is often said that Russian players are strong because they don't get the funding and have to fight there way up the rankings themselves without much funding help.
Is it just me or are there alot of average boy juniors on the list. It seems to me that the LTA are so desperate to have Davis Cup success that they are concentrating more of their resources on the boys side in preference to the girls.
It also fair to say that there are different levels of funding. So eventhough many players have been dropped they will still most likely get significant help with their travelling expenses.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

philwrig wrote:

Is it just me or are there alot of average boy juniors on the list

Yeh for a second i was gonna have a go at you but then i saw the list and guys like Farquharson, Hewitt and Gabb certainly stand out as very lucky to be on the funding list. I think you could maybe say the same thing about Allen, Marselek and Burton but Allen at least is the highest ranked 1992 and the other two probably get funding for making the national junior finals.

I think though Golding, Bettles, Morgan, Bambridge and Edmund, you have to say fair enough.

philwrig wrote:

It seems to me that the LTA are so desperate to have Davis Cup success that they are concentrating more of their resources on the boys side in preference to the girls.

This is probably a generational thing having grown up with Tim and Greg and very little success on the girl's side but im slightly inclined to want success on the men's side more than the women's. I guess the LTA can defend their policy by saying the ATP tour is more competitive than the WTA tour at the moment so that justifies giving more attention to the boys

philwrig · Hall of fame

I've heard that before that there is more strength in depth in the mens game and that a ranking of say 300 in the mens game is equivalent to a much higher ranking on the WTA tour. But how can that be proved ?

tennisfan84 · Junior player

I think the comments about Hewitt and Gabb are a little unfair (don't know Farq'). You have to remember that Ashley Hewitt and Richard Gabb haven't been playing at this level for very long and have been pretty late to develop in comparison to a lot of the previous top lads in their age group. Both have only been training nationally for the last year or two. It was only 4 years ago that I took a tour of players down to Millfield School where one of them played Richard (who at the time was just starting to take his tennis seriously and was a 7.1 rating). Four years on, he is a 2.2 and has a men's world ranking. I think that's pretty good going and arguably why the LTA have decided to fund him next year. He's also pretty focus and very hard working from what I've seen in the past so I think his funding is fully justified.

There are a few older players on the list that maybe need to be a bit more focused. There is a reason why you have to respect the likes of Chris Lewis and Richard Bloomfield. Although not have the talent of a top 100 player, both worked bloody hard, were focused solely on their tennis and didn't go out partying on their days off (similar to a certain Andy Murray) and as a result reached their true potential.

-- Edited by tennisfan84 on Wednesday 23rd of December 2009 10:36:40 PM

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

tennisfan84 i wasn't having a go at Gabb/Farq/Hewitt personally, im sure they have a good attitude and are better at what they do than any of us will ever be but the fact is that we're comparing them with the people who are on the list/were left off the list. Im not sure you could say Gabb or Farquharson were as good potentially as Morgan or Golding, and as has been suggested elsewhere you couldn't really say they were as good as Whybourn or Rae either

Hewitt though i will give some credit too, his results at both senior and junior level have improved markably during recent times - in the big Futures trip to Spain he completely outplayed all the other juniors and showed some guts

RedCabbage · Club Coach

philwrig wrote:

I've heard that before that there is more strength in depth in the mens game and that a ranking of say 300 in the mens game is equivalent to a much higher ranking on the WTA tour. But how can that be proved ?

To prove that I guess you would have to compare the results of matches between top 50 men/women versus players in the 250-300 range. If the theory is sound then the underdogs should have a better record for men than women.

I suspect much of the reason for the perceived (accurately or otherwise) difference is that the serve is less of a factor in women's tennis. In men's even a seriously outclassed player would be expected to win the odd game on serve; but in the women's game the favourite would probably bagel the outsider.

steven · Tennis legend

This seems like as good a thread as any to report the news that Luke Bambridge has been signed up by Lagardere (who represent Duckboy, Gonzo, Dammit and le Monf, among others) - from http://twitter.com/tenniswire:

"After drawn-out battle between management co's, Britain's Luke Bambridge signed multi-year deal with Lagardere. He was UK #1 junior in 2009."

Drawn-out battle, huh?

philwrig · Hall of fame

I suspect now that he is based in France he chose to go with a French company. Clearly Luke has a bright future how bright we'll just have to wait and see.

steven · Tennis legend

Press release @ http://www.lagardere.com/press-room/press-releases/press-releases-363.html&idpress=4589

Rising British Tennis Star, Luke Bambridge, Signs a Multi-Year Representation Agreement with Lagardère Unlimited Lagardère Unlimited announced today that it has signed a world exclusive representation agreement with the British tennis player Luke Bambridge.

Luke Bambridge is born on the 21st of January, 1995. Lagardère Unlimited team came after a long, and competitive, recruiting battle with some of the industry's leading management agencies. Luke Bambridge will be managed on a daily basis by Lagardère Unlimited UK agent Lawrence Frankopan.

Luke Bambridge, who currently resides in Nottingham, UK, has already had a tremendous junior tennis career. Starting at just four-years-old, he quickly became one of the best junior tennis players in UK.

Luke Bambridge was #1 in the UK in 2009 Under 14's and got to the final of the British national Championships in singles.

In addition to this, Bambridge has been very successful in international competition winning the prestigious Eddie Herr Championships Boy's 14 & Under and Prince Cup in the same month end of 2009.

Lagardère Unlimited is the talent management business unit of the Lagardère Group. With its headquarters in Paris, the company operates around the world. Currently, Lagardère Unlimited represents some of the best players including Andy Roddick, Fernando Gonzalez, Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils and Justine Henin.

wolf · Tennis legend

TaraMoore92 Funding decided today, need it and am so nervous!!!

philwrig · Hall of fame

Be interesting to see the list when it comes out, might be a few surprises. Tara should defo get the full funding this year, surely.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, will be interesting to see the list. I can imagine there might be quite a few difficult calls.

On purely tennis result related matters, Tara of course should not be a close call.