Hi guys I'm a long time lurker that has taken Jaggy's bait but what a snobby and elitist comment to make. Sunderland is not unlike a lot of places across the post-industrial north - it has nice areas and not so nice areas (like everywhere). Yes the town centre isn't great partly due to a lack of investment over many years and partly due to a downturn in footfall that's been seen across many towns and cities caused by a rise of online shopping, as well as out of town retail parks. Sunderland has many lovely neighbourhoods with nice parks, old pubs and it benefits from being by the sea with a couple lovely sandy beaches, so to generalise it as 'a bit of a dump' is really unfair and quite rude. The city has hosted an ITF tournament at least since 2002 with many of the players having competed here in the past couple of years so if it was such a bad venue presumably their license to host the event wouldn't be renewed and players wouldn't return. Of course there are far more glamorous and tropical places to be playing but I suspect the majority of people are happy to see a series of high level UK tournaments with the opportunity to earn bigger points instead of having to venture abroad for those points and likely spend much more money (especially those not funded by the LTA) etc.

Sadly there has been leaks on and off in the roof for at least 3-4 years although I'm not sure who would be responsible for fixing this, the local council or the LTA? Regardless, it's not ideal for the athletes or the casual players that play there week in week out but the tournament organisers seem to be managing. I can't imagine leaks being in the roof this long on had the centre been in London or the home counties (maybe I'm wrong) but there's obviously a lack of investment there. Echoing Coup's comments in the women's thread - it's normal for it to be cold inside during the winter, just wear an extra base layer and you soon warm up once you get started (or there's a gym to use to warm up). Yes it may not have top notch facilities akin to the national tennis centres or alike but it's nice for the region to host the tournament and promote the sport especially in an area where there are so few courts/tennis centres. Apologies if this comes across as a bit of a rant but I've just been a bit shocked at the level of vitriol from a number of users jumping on the Appleton's comments when I'm sure all the staff involved are making the best of the situation with the resources they have. On another note it is lovely to see 5 of our lower ranked players come through qualifying and win a round, fingers crossed they can keep going and win a few more.