British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Only just caught up with the doubles - great watch champs 

Haven't watched the singles 

In terms of the calendar, the main events for the second half of the year are: as you will see, the USA in September is where it is at before the main tour largely moves back to Europe and specifically a series of the bigger events in France

July

WC500 $45,000 Swiss Open 14-18 July
WC500 $35,000 Hamburg Open 23-26 July

August

No events at the 500/1000 level

September

WC500 $32,000 College Park USA) 1-6 Sept
GS c. $1.5m US Open 8-12 Sept (biggest prizemoney event of the season by far!)
Junior GS US Junior Open 9-11 Sept
BNP Paribas World Team Cup Orlando 16-19 Sept
WC1000 $80,000 BIOT 29 Sept - 4 Oct (this is at the Mouratoglou Academy near to Nice)

October

WC500 $37,000 Open Tennis du Loiret Fleury les Aubrais (near Paris) 13-17 Oct

November

WC500 $tbc Rolex Paris Masters 6-8 Nov (alongside the ATP 1000 event in Paris)

The NEC Wheelchair Masters dates and venue haven't been announced yet but last year took place in mid November and in China.

Gordon Reid reached the final of the Swiss Open against De La Puente, it was played yesterday but I cant find any result. Will search again later but if anyone does see it, let us know!

Sometimes it is easy to forget these players have often been through an awful lot. Andrew Penney, one of Britains top players:

In terms of my wider journey, this all means so much because it is the next stepping stone for me. At first it was about the experience, but now I hope this can be more impactful.

Getting over the line was a huge relief because of what it means. Only people who know me well know what I am going through and feeling right now. It does feel like a massive achievement.

Penney began using a wheelchair after suffering severe neurological and physiological complications following what was supposed to be a routine and minor operation to remove two ingrowing toenails in October 2018.

Neurological trauma meant he completely forgot how to walk, talk, read and write and over the ensuing years he was forced to entirely relearn these skills from scratch while using a wheelchair for permanent mobility.

I have been through a lot on my journey, said Penney. Memory loss, losing the ability to walk I have come so far. My journey stretches back far beyond that but I have had experiences and challenges that many people would struggle with.

I have been told that I didnt have a place in this sport, told to look for a different sport and told I was not good enough. This is an example of me silencing my doubters. I have performed at my best in one of my biggest matches in one of the biggest settings.

There is only one problem to now solve. I need to sort my coachs accommodation out because it was only booked until tomorrow," concluded Penney.

indiana wrote:

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Thanks, Jon, truly tough for Andrew. Ingrowing toenails for pete's sake.

Particuiarly those that have suffered really sudden life setbacks on the way to where they are now, I am sure there are many horrible experiences that whewlchair players have been through to varying degrees.

I don't particularly follow wheelchair tennis ( though read some of your uodates, Jon, more parricularly around Slam time ). Nor do I watch it, having watched a little in the past. But I have never doubted that most will have been through a lot.

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 I know, that is shocking. I don't know if he got damages for that but I truly hope he got something, albeit he would rather not be in the place he is now.

For wheelchair players, there is clearly quite a range of actual levels of disability, and not all on a level playing field, partly why the quad category is there for the more severely disabled. But they will, as you say, largely have been through a lot.

I try to follow it year round and do these updates but like you, follow it more around the slams. It is an interesting one given the ongoing debate on doubles and singles. Wheelchair tennis is now more and more aligned as a strategy to ATP/WTA events and they try to play them alongside those where possible. There are some standalone bigger wheelchair only events, these tend to have more players as the event isnt constrained in terms of numbers of playing attendees. 

But they wouldnt survive commercially at all in their own right - either at the slams, at ATP events or on their own. The money isnt as big as doubles, but the USO has a prize fund of $1.5m for wheelchair events, with 48 total players, so that event gives decent earnings. They will draw spectators there and get on TV and show courts at most slams. But they can't standalone. 

But the funding is there to provide probably the top 20 or so players in each of mens, womens and quad events with a career and livelihood and the top players like Oda, Hewett, etc will probably earn several hundred k a year with sponsorship thrown in  

Tennpar wrote:

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Tennpar wrote:

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Well worth a watch - Andrew Penney and his journey to date - the youngster was a wild card at Wimbledon this year and got a 1st round win. Hard working and keen to make his mark 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY6iOWrGppE

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 Bumping - short film about Andrew Penney

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 Thanks Tennpar, I missed your post with it above - I will watch that for sure!

Entry lists for the US Open Wheelchair events are out:

Mens singles - Alfie Hewett, Gordon Reid

Quad singles - Andy Lapthorne, Greg Slade

No entrants in womens singles

As the doubles have the same 16 players as singles, we can assume that Alfie and Gordon will play together in doubles and Andy and Greg will most likely pair up in doubles (although that is not 100% certain)