USTA: Junior #1 Townsend too fat to play on our dime

erschloy214 said:

I can see both points of view. I think it's awful they did not grant any of her wildcard requests being that she is the number one junior in the world. She obviously has had good results, so it confuses me.

Conversely, if the USTA is funding her training, coaching, etc., I can see where they think it is justified to push her in the direction they feel is necessary. She's an investment and if she doesn't want the help, she has the talent to go it alone I'm sure. I do feel at her age, the comments McEnroe made are a bit much.

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I can see your point of view.



However, refuse her a WC into qualified draws spelled prejudice, especially when they did give out WCs to other white girls who were in similar shapes before. I doubt they love Taylor that much over other girls. At the AO years ago, a local girl named Adamzack (?) was handed a WC into both Main Draws and Junior draws despite showing little promises. She was double bagelled by Justine in the MD, then again double bagelled by Peer in both of her first matches. That was what other countries did for their junior players and they were far away from being the number one Junior in the world. If we think about that, then there will be no proper explaination. A Wc could be an opportunity to break through for her. You never know. Just look at what Serena did when she was about the same age ( Not to say she is the new Serena, but still you can't shoot your own soldiers).




If they are really concern about her fitness, then after she won the AO junior, they could tell her if she get toned up by the time the US Open coming, then they will give her a MDWC. Now that would be the right thing to do, not finding excuses to block people out just right before the games.

sammy01 said:

Of course there are several posters in this thread who will totally ignore this and are already talking about her colour.

anyway, I'm not sure why people are shocked. I'm sure the USTA have said to her get fit or they will cut/stop her funding and she obviously hasn't. Yes she is 16, but these people are investing money into her and she has to show willing back. Being number 1 at 16 means nothing, careers can go either way from there.

At 16 in the UK a person has finished school and if they haven't got supportive parents they might be out there in the real world having to earn a living. Here is a girl being given money to have a career and the people giving her the money may very well feel she isn't pulling her weight (no pun intended) to keep up her end of it.

If she has to pay her own travel, expenses ect for a while she may well soon realise that the money from the USTA is not only invaluable but a not a given. Yes it may well be a harsh lesson to learn at 16 but when has tennis ever been a soft sport?

If the talk in the inner circle of british tennis i have heard is true, laura robson (who is only 18 herself) her and her team asked to work with zelko a while before he started working with her and he said he wouldn't until she had lost a certain amount of weight.

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Perhaps you assume that the funding for US players is as generous as in England to draw such conclusion.





First, Donald Young was hyped up for a few years at a time when American men tennis was in drought of promising youngsters while Roddick already showed signs of decline. As soon as John Ishner,Querrey, Harrison came up and the resurgence of Fish, Young is now totally ignored. ( It's not like Young is my favorite player at all. I personally really dislike Young and his antics). And no, there weren't millions put in Young. He was given MDWCs though. One thing to remember, racism is not the only problem in America society, there is also another things called Sexism. The combination of these two is deadly.






Second, most tennis players are relying heavily on their families on financial matter. Even in gymnastics, swimming, are sports that make little money in tournaments comparing to tennis, Gabby Douglas and Ryan Lochte had their families gone bankrupted in order to support for them to compete for their country's fame. And those sportmen don't have the chance to make money from tournaments, unlike tennis players. Yet they have to use their own money for their training and expenses.




The add from the Federation wasn't as much as you like to think. In this case, Taylor's mom offered to carry all her expenses at the US Open in order to get her a Qualy WC, but her request was still denied, just because they think Taylor is too fat to play and CoCo Vanderweghe is thin enough to play in the main draws. How could you explain that?