[Sombrerero loco]

Originally Posted by Topspindoctor

I'd rather the money went to worthy causes.

tennis australia should put the money they earn from australia open and other events into tennis, not into other things so....

[Looner]

Originally Posted by scoobs

You could point to these facts and wonder if this is contributing to the decline in Australian tennis at the moment in terms of post-Rafter and Hewitt replacements.

I was thinking exactly the same.

[Topspindoctor]

Originally Posted by Action Jackson

Stick to topic Doc and not your political manifesto.

Okay.

In any case, I think the government should do more to promote sports here, a promising athlete tennis or otherwise should get assistance if he can't afford training, expenses etc. The potential for gain if he makes it big is great IMO.

[moon language]

Two challengers for an entire continent is absurd, I didn't realize it was this bad. What a shame.

[Dmitry Verdasco]

Tennis Australia is solely to blame for the fucked up mess that is Australian tennis right now.

I don't agree with making more futures and challengers solely, because that just leads to inflated rankings IMO. I know more about the womens ITF circuit in Australia, and it's just stupid.

$25,000 Cairns (Aug 27-Sep 2) >>>>>>>> nth qld
$25,000 Rockhampton (Sep 3-9) >>>>>>>> central qld (about 1000km south of Cairns)
$10,000 Salisbury (Sep 10-16) >>>>>>>> north of adelaide in SOUTH AUSTRALIA, and wtf a $10K?
$25,000 Port Pirie (Sep 17-23) >>>>>>> SA again, near adelaide. makes sense
$25,000 Esperance (Oct 1-7) >>>>>>>>>> WA
$25,000 Margaret River (Oct 8-14) >>>> WA
$25,000 Traralgon (Oct 22-28) >>>>>>>> back across SA to VIC
$25,000 Bendigo (Oct 29-Nov 4) >>>>>>> VIC

It's just DUMB. Imagine the costs for players to do this? It'd be better like this.....

$10,000 Rockhampton
$25,000 Mackay
$25,000 Townsville
$50,000 Cairns
$25,000 Katherine
$50,000 Darwin

$10,000 Margaret River
$25,000 Esperence
$25,000 Port Pirie
$25,000 Salisbury
$50,000 Adelaide
$25,000 Traralgon
$50,000 Bendigo

Have one series occur post US Open, leading up to the Australian summer, and the other post Australian Open. $50,000 events just need to happen, and they need to happen at the end of these series so the series as a whole is stronger.

And honestly, if this were the schedule - it wouldn't cost Tennis Australia much at all to cover all transport from event to event for all ranked players and AIS/TA juniors. Buy a few buses, contract a few drivers. It's only 1000km from Rockhampton > Mackay > Townsville > Cairns

[Sombrerero loco]

Originally Posted by moon language

Two challengers for an entire continent is absurd, I didn't realize it was this bad. What a shame.

and they are playing to remove 1 of these 2 according to millman´s blog

[Looner]

Soon Australia will host more slams than challenger events. Unique.

[Action Jackson]

Originally Posted by Topspindoctor

Okay.

In any case, I think the government should do more to promote sports here, a promising athlete tennis or otherwise should get assistance if he can't afford training, expenses etc. The potential for gain if he makes it big is great IMO.

You mean at grassroots level that's where the problems are. Then again with Australia got the various football codes, cricket which tend to take a lot of the funding. If there were enough lower level tournaments here initially that would help.

TA is definitely one of the richest federations around that they could have more Challengers. Not sure where to put them at the end of the season or have one in Week 1 of the tennis season, maybe a few more after the Aus Open.

In South America they used to have the circuit which was sponsored by Ericsson and Petrobras where many players could stay in the region play some hard and competitive tennis, get points then step up to the main tour. There is no major sponsor in Australia that will do it.

[Wing Man Frank]

I'd almost feel sorry for him were he currently not losing to the mighty Mao-Xin Gong.

[Sombrerero loco]

Originally Posted by Wing Man Frank

I'd almost feel sorry for him were he currently not losing to the mighty Mao-Xin Gong.

that was cheap, what the fuck do you mean with that?
btw, its irrelevant, but he ended up winning the match

[Action Jackson]

Originally Posted by Wing Man Frank

I'd almost feel sorry for him were he currently not losing to the mighty Mao-Xin Gong.

He won.

[Wing Man Frank]

Originally Posted by Action Jackson

He won.

In the end, thankfully! Was my attempt at a reverse jinx as I had rather a lot of money on him.

I had two posts prepared but as he won all I can say is:

I feel sorry for you John, you are being treated poorly! Best of luck.

[Wing Man Frank]

Originally Posted by Action Jackson

Need to talk about the bets in the Gamblers section sir.

Don't think I was discussing it (you need more than one person to have a discussion), merely mentioning it.

In any case, his blog post is nothing new. Tennis needs to have a serious rethink regarding the distribution of its wealth. It's unacceptable that players ranked where Millman are, are making a loss at an event despite reach the quarter finals.

Too much is won by too few.

[coolfish1103]

If this goes sticky for a while with decent discussion it might do good for some Australians in tennis.

[Sombrerero loco]

Originally Posted by Wing Man Frank

Don't think I was discussing it (you need more than one person to have a discussion), merely mentioning it.

In any case, his blog post is nothing new. Tennis needs to have a serious rethink regarding the distribution of its wealth. It's unacceptable that players ranked where Millman are, are making a loss at an event despite reach the quarter finals.

Too much is won by too few.

this summarizes it so good