Seriously, I hope our big Slam qualifying group of late can be an inspiration to our players in say the 250 to 350 range to keep on pushing, thinking I can compete with some of these guys, I can be on these stages, so players like Max through to Anton.
100%. I definitely think that players like Harry W and Felix should be big inspirations for all of those guys. Harry spent many years plugging away in the futures ranked 500-600 before enjoying a remarkable past 12 months, and now taking his chances at the higher level, in GS qualies and qualifying for Queen's in June.
No reason why someone like Anton couldn't do the same, while Max and Oli T have already shown at Wimbledon that they've got the level to compete in slams. JoMo, George, Ali G, Ryan and Charlie have all been up there in slam qualies in the past as well.
Seriously, I hope our big Slam qualifying group of late can be an inspiration to our players in say the 250 to 350 range to keep on pushing, thinking I can compete with some of these guys, I can be on these stages, so players like Max through to Anton.
Yes
And it's interesting that there are various different pathways in the current group - so different potential grand slam quali players can relate to different groups
i.e. you have the college players, like Toby and Jack PJ, who will - hopefully - be inspirational for players like Will Jansen, Oli Bonding, Luca Pow, not to mention Charlie, Billy etc, as well as more obvious candidates like Ollie Tarvet - after all, Will Jansen and cohort, for instance, are in a pretty similar position now to Toby et al a few years back
And then you have Felix Gill, Harry Wendelken, etc - players of pretty much the same age who have ground it out more on tour rather than go via uni. Which is more similar to players like George Loffhagen.
Henry struggling to keep the ball in court. Trails 4-0
Henry looks 'over-excited'
He often has that hyped-up problem - and the balls go flying
That said the odds were ridiculous this morning - no idea why Henry was SUCH a strong favourite - Antonious is not chopped liver - I think I'll cash out soon - and let Henry get his act together for his comeback :)
Henry struggling to keep the ball in court. Trails 4-0
Henry looks 'over-excited'
He often has that hyped-up problem - and the balls go flying
That said the odds were ridiculous this morning - no idea why Henry was SUCH a strong favourite - Antonious is not chopped liver - I think I'll cash out soon - and let Henry get his act together for his comeback :)
His ranking suggested he IS chopped liver. Who the hell is this guy?
Henry struggling to keep the ball in court. Trails 4-0
Henry looks 'over-excited'
He often has that hyped-up problem - and the balls go flying
That said the odds were ridiculous this morning - no idea why Henry was SUCH a strong favourite - Antonious is not chopped liver - I think I'll cash out soon - and let Henry get his act together for his comeback :)
His ranking suggested he IS chopped liver. Who the hell is this guy?
He's a kid, it's true
Age 16, I think
But he's #3 in the world in juniors. And made the finals, I think, in RG this year
Ouch. To be fair though, Henry's only played a couple of tournaments on the hard courts after his impressive run on the grass, and this was his first slam appearance outside of Wimbledon in the pros, so always a bit of a learning curve.
There only appears to be 7 Americans in the QR2 stage, in the mens, 6 womens. We arent actually far behind, havent counted but we must be close to top representation after the Americans?
To be honest, Henry played a stupid match, rather than a bad match, if anybody buys off on the difference
He was over-pumped up, obviously very excited to be playing a youngster, a match he 'should' win
And, unlike Harriet who came out to make it hard for the youngster she's playing, Henry came out, all swinging, going for broke - and just got broken
Is Evo out there with him? Interested to see how long that collaboration lasts.
Last time I saw an Evo post he was playing padel. Maybe Henry would be better taking th college route, although a bit late for this year. I think it would really help him.
I don't think Henry necessarily needs to take the college route. He's only 20 and nearly in the top 200, so he's not doing badly! And the guy's just won two challengers in the last couple of months.
Bit of a blip here, but he's got nothing much to defend for the rest of the year. He'll be a threat in the indoor challengers with his game, so very possible that he's in the top 150 by the time the Aussie Open rolls along, plus he'll be better prepared for it after this experience.
But yes, with Henry being a player with top 50 potential at the very least, the LTA should pay whatever it takes to have Evo as his travelling coach for a few years