They can ban whatever they want, but no one can stop a rich guy from giving money to anyone :shrug: There is always a way :lol:
No, it's just for WTA...I doubt any ITF ever payed appearance fee...
I remember reading an article a few years back where the parents of a Northern girl were complaining about the LTA, apparently they basically offer no support to Northern Irish tennis, so it ends up getting rolled in with Tennis Ireland which has far worse funding and facilities available.
A WTA event might have been feasible back in the boom years as some millionaire's vanity project but no chance of it now. I honestly think tennis is getting even worse here - Wimbledon doesn't seem to generate as much hype and media attention as it used to and the one crop of semi-promising players we had for a while (Bowtell/Barry/Morrisey) don't seem to be amounting to anything with basically nobody else coming along behind them.
Tennis like most sports (excl. soccer) is organised on the island level.
Those parents should send the kid to Barcelona, Paris or Florida if she has any potential. Not just moan about it. They knew how Tennis Ireland was constructed from the start.
Or they could just move to the UK, that useless Claire Curran did :lol: Like GB wanted her crappy ability.
Yes irish tennis is struggling atm, no one breaking through and no sign of anyone new to follow. I looked at the results in the g5 junior events in ireland and there wasnt even anyone who could win at that level.
Anyone read james mcgee's blog? He says that if we had some more tournaments we might have some more players. One futures event per year is very poor indeed
Firstly on some level players need to take responsibility for themselves, no major players are heavily reliant on the national body, look at Wozniacki, she is only at the top because of herself and her father. Danish tennis is pretty similar to Irish tennis, not strong or overly well funded. Badminton is much more popular in Denmark. Same with most players who come from non-powerhouse nations.
Secondly James McGee played college tennis didn't he? Then his career was over the minute he elected to do that. :shrug:
Finally Tennis Ireland needs to go see how the Irish Amateur Boxing Association is run (actually all Irish governing bodies do) and follow a similar model but a tennis based one.
I think college tennis can actually be good for some players.They get to play tennis regularly and at a high level plus free coaching and education. Look at John Isner for example and Conor Niland had a great career after going to college.
You can have a reasonable career but realistically challengers for guys and the ITF for women is where you'll remain for your career. I mean for a female I think college tennis truly is the kiss of death to a career, whereas it isn't so damaging for men.
Also had he been playing the tour earlier rather than in college I wonder if Niland making slams would have happened earlier in his career. :shrug:
I remember Rachel Dillon had ok results and now disappeared off the face of the earth. I think she went to Stanford and popped up in qualies there one year as a WC.
Frankly I'd be happy if Ireland just had a couple of journey men and women, I'm not even looking for a slam winner. Really the only way I see that happening at the moment would be doing a Kazakhstan and basically buying the likes of Sirotkina and Rodionova Jnr. who are signed to an Irish management company. :shrug:
I think we would need to get after the richest people here in ireland like jp mcmanus, dermot desmond,etc to buy the likes of siritkina, rodionova, or even to sponsor tournaments
bowtell is only starting out, still 18 yrs of age, will be 19 in a few wks, so plenty of yrs left in her, nothing to worry about there! then we have sinead lohan, georgia drummy who got to the semi finals of the under 12's bressuire in april of this year and jennifer timotin who won an under 14 tennis europe event this summer
also just wondering if a group of us got a petition going for next year to get a womens professional tournament in ireland, even if it was only a €10,000 event
Just thinking about it Auckland has a tournament in a country the same size as Ireland with little tennis pedigree either. It does however have the advantage of being close to the first slam of the year in a rather remote area of the world. :shrug:
hellooo we just held an american football match in dublin yesterday, with up to 50,000 americans in attendance, it will be worth up to €100million euro to the economy. we also have held ryder and solheim cups over the last few years
hellooo we just held an american football match in dublin yesterday, with up to 50,000 americans in attendance, it will be worth up to €100million euro to the economy. we also have held ryder and solheim cups over the last few years
The key thing is sponsorship - both to run a couple of tournaments and to fund player development, as a package. There's no reason why this shouldn't happen - there is money in Ireland - but unfortunately tied up in too few hands, and they seem to prefer golf and horse-racing as outlets for their corporate munificence from what I can see.
I hope when Wimbledon will be played one week later, then they can restore former Irish Open on grass in Dublin. Sounds great, didn't know there was such a tournament!
Irish Open on grass was a very decent tournament for over 50 years - even without a local star. Be nice if it could happen again with extra week on grass in a coupla years.
There was an exhibition tournament in the RDS in the mid 90s which featured Navratilova, Sanchez Vicario and Mary Joe Fernandez. It was sold out every day and night so if they get good players people would go.