Wakey wrote:

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steven wrote:

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It's ridiculous, you wouldn't catch any other slams holding back wild cards and although they tend to have more players in the top 250, the French, for example, think nothing of giving wild cards to players way beyond the age the LTA would have written them off at or to promising juniors ranked way below Jay.

While the wild card system persists, the LTA should follow the other slams, stop being cowardly about this and do the right thing for their players whatever the potential media reaction. After all, if the media don't have wild cards to make a pseudo-scandal of, they'll just make a pseudo-scandal out of something else instead.

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 I suspect the other grand slams don't see them get slammed in the press for handing their players 'free' money which then gets the governmental agencies on their back which no-doubt makes it easier. For some reason our press and then in turn the public and then the government seem to think because a player is British they should be winning their match even when its against a player hundreds of places higher than them.

The whole situation in this country is crazy as we want our players to be at the top of the game but only think they should be funded once they have made it

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 In France, for instance, tennis is seen as a much more community based sport. Unfortunately here it is not so widely perceived that way (even if it is the only way you can actually start playing realistically), and I think that makes a difference in the attitudes of the press and public towards players, which take a much more individualistic (and jingoistic) approach. So if you can't win, you're of no value to the media. It's unfortunate.