Entries Week 22 - 27/05/2013

Josh · Challenger level

RE: Entries Week 22 - 27/05/2013

korriban · Challenger level

After having won 2 GB clay court $10ks in April and May time in 2012, he just hasn't pushed on.

He seemed to play well at Queen's and Wimbledon with his WCs without really breaking through, and I recall had 1 or 2 more $10k finals later in 2012 which helped his ranking peak at 418, although he seemed to peter out as the season went on. He had a week's training with Andy/Lendl in Miami as part of his winter block, but picked up a nasty injury which delayed the start of his 2013 until late Feb/March. Since then, his comeback has not taken off at all. After 9 tournaments in a number of countries, just a couple of $10k QFs so far on the plus side.

Frankly, I don't think any of us have a clue how his 2013 will pan out? Although I'm sure Oli (and his corporate sponsors) would have expected things to be in a VERY different place in terms of his tournament successes and ranking by now, perhaps he is one of those players who come later to the party.......

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

He was injured at the start of the year Helen and to be honest I'd be surprised to see Oli break the top 300.

Anna Fitzy has withdrawn from Egypt

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Jaggy1876 wrote:
He was injured at the start of the year Helen and to be honest I'd be surprised to see Oli break the top 300.

At all or this year?

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

At all. Same for the other hype prospects Liam Broady and George Morgan. We have better prospects in my opinion in Kyle Edmund Luke Bambridge JWH and Tom Farquharson,

RJA · Hall of fame

Jaggy1876 wrote:
At all. Same for the other hype prospects Liam Broady and George Morgan. We have better prospects in my opinion in Kyle Edmund Luke Bambridge JWH and Tom Farquharson,

I think Oli will make top 300, maybe top 200, but I am not sure if he will go much further. Broady has raw talent but I am increasingly worried about him. I have never seen anything from Morgan to make me think that he will come close to a decent career.

Edmund and Bambridge are certainly good prospects, not so sure about JWH and while I could see Farquharson moving up the rankings further I do think their is a clear upper ceiling for him.

Spectator · All-time great

A genuine question to those whom I'll assume to be more knowledgeable more than I (which isn't hard): why the lack of enthusiasm for Mr Golding? The few times I've seen him (admittedly on the screen, not in person) playing, I thought he had quite a lot of potential. Temperament-wise he clearly isn't fully mature, but I would have thought that a ceiling of 300 was a bit low.

-- Edited by Spectator on Wednesday 22nd of May 2013 12:17:48 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

Oli will be a top 100 player at some stage during his career, there you go. He has too big a game for it not to happen at some stage, I am still very excited about the prospects of our current crop of juniors.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Oli is a very capable player and has the ability to go quite high in the game. A lot will depend on fitness, temperment and desire, but i agree with Phil that he could make top 100 at some stage in his career, but not immediately.

He'll struggle to make top 300 this year,but should be next year's goal.

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

There has been little evidence for me of a top 100 player regarding Oli. I think his ceiling is like many of our top 25 250-300.

indiana · Tennis legend

I do think Oli has a lot of maturing to do and his results in general have been disappointing even allowing for his injury issues of a little while ago.

However his game looks big enough and the way he seems to up his game against better opposition encourging, so that I would still be very surprised if he isn't top 200 in time and possibly top 100.

seagull · Hall of fame

Josh Goodall decided against staying in Greece for a week on clay and hopefully off to get some grass practise. Dan Cox out of Portugal.

Bob the Ball Boy · Junior player

I can't say I'm speaking for everyone but I think the lack of enthusiasm reflects solely on his attitute. Not that he isn't professional, but on court he has a lot to work on mentally. It doesn't matter how big your game is if you can't hack it.

That's not to say he won't get there, mind, it's just that it's hard to predict anyones future in sport and I'd say his temperament & other psychological issues are harder to fix than someone with a dodgy second serve, say. I don't think the environment he is in helps him.. he is one of those people that needs to be brought back to earth & stop acting like a spoilt brat (am I allowed to say that on here)... and the treatment he has always got from the LTA plus his extremely pushy mother don't help in my opinion. Hence the lack of confidence on my part.

And it's a shame because, as everyone has noted, he does have a great game and I don't think there are many physical hinderances either. As you can tell I'm not his biggest fan, but of course I do hope he irons out these problems and proves me wrong.

korriban · Challenger level

BTBB. You are obviously closer to the coal face than probably all of us, but your viewpoint is precisely the one I have formed from Oli's on court demeanor (swearing, racket throwing, hangdog look), his his off-court behaviour (aggressive twitter rants and/or ill-judged comments), and above all his average performances in the last 12 months on the tennis court, compared to all of his main junior peers at world level. His backing from the LTA appears to have been unreserved, and I suspect he's one of the best funded and supported teenage players in the world. His Wimbledon effort convinced me he has "good game" at a pro level, but clearly that is not enough.

Sometimes individuals need a "shock" to change their attitudes, sometimes it just takes time, sometimes it can't be changed.

Interestingly Mr Harman writes about Golding, Broady and Edmund in his book (in the LTA section). The rather, err, "odd" result last year in an Israeli $10k tournament [close to incoming missiles], when Oli lost 2-6 0-6 to a much lower ranked player (the last set was farcical, with DFs galore - 3 or 4 in a row at one stage) was actually discussed, and blamed on an injury (so why not retire?) and his tennis shoes splitting. Right. The contrast with Kyle couldn't be bigger - who once again comes across in the book as very hard working, humble, realistic and a real student of the game.

Everyone is different, i suppose.

RJA · Hall of fame

I do tend to agree with BTBB. If we think back two years Tim Henman was rather critical of both Golding and Broady in terms of their attitude. At the time many of us, myself included, thought that Henman was being unfair. It would however be churlish in the extreme to not point out that Henman has been totally vindicated. At the same time that he was criticising Golding and Broady he said how impressed he was with Jiri Vesely, mostly in terms of attitude, and the intervening two years has seen Vesely's career motor forward at in impressive speed. He is now up to WR 127 and has a shot of breaking the top 100 before he turns 20.