Great thread jonty, and nice to see your updates with regards to our british girls at this point in their careers

Your thread is also refreshing in as much as it should be difficult for the "five" moro'ns to turn it into a rafa nadal bashing thread?

Keep up the good updates bud

Jonty,

what's your verdict on British women being so pathetic compared to German, Russian Serbian French, Italian etc...
It's got to be the way they are trained here, or do you think they are all daddies princesses with no inner grit?

Chest, I think we're at beginning of good period for British tennis over next 10 years as these juniors come through, will try and cha,motion British success here.

Nitb, right now we do have a couple of girls who are starting to challenge, give them 18 months injury free and I believe well see them regularly in 2nd week of Slams.

There are lots of potential factors but these are probably key ones from my experience:

Lack of top quality academies (watson for example trains at bollitieri)
Not enough affordable indoor tennis facilities
Lta efforts very geographically skewed

I think also there is a lack somehow of fight.

Elena baltachas coach is niño severing. He is a martial artist who helps her with movement, conditions and nutrition, but has also inspired a never give up attitude.

She fights for everything and that alone can give you an edge.

James ward who gave Marcy fish such a scare took on Diego visatzky as his coach just over a year ago. Diego is a cage fighter and has instilled a new grit which has reflected a years worth of better performance.

I love the kids who get upset when they lose, they are the ones who want to know how to do it better and like Murray hiring Lendl are desperate to try and find an edge.

I don't always see coaches recognising this though, they focus on agility, balance control and speed and maybe we should be looking also for this trait as a specific one.

I admire you optimism jonty. All I ever see is our girls getting hammered by anybody who remotely knows how to play tennis at a decent level

I will keep on cheering them on ( they are after all British) but am not sure any of this lot will amount to much as their careers fall apart lol.

Watson and Robson are starting to beat higher ranked opponents.

I believe both could reach top 20 within 2 years.

Keep watching!

Here you go, Robson not getting hammered:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/18823509

I am here with you mate Not holding my breath but still hoping

hehe Roberta Vinci? Still far from convinced but will be around for a few years yet, god willing so will definitely be following our girls progress Thanks to you that is lol

Beating number 27 in the world on clay ain't bad!

Robson progresses from her first ever WTA quarter final to her first semi by beating 5th seeded spaniard Suarez Navarro on clay in Sicily!

Seeing that and am impressed with Laura. These victories are going to do her wonders in the future. Long may this continue and good to see that we don't only have one good player trying to be a star. Let's hope our girls can push each other along?

Will really help her self belief, confidence and ranking.

Hopefully she improves her movement and then she could potentially beat anyone.

Laura Robson just lost brave fight in her semi v Strycova 6-2 5-7 2-6

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/robson-dream-ends-palermo-185945699.html


2 and half hour match where she was a few points away from winning but eventually her second serve let her down.

However, her form at this tournament means she should now move back into top 100 and therefore qualify for US Open by right.

I think the fact Watson and Robson are good friends and doing well helps take pressure of each other and they feed off each other, something Murray could do with on Men's tour if another Brit can get up there.

Congratulations Laura Robson on a great year so far!

I have only seen Robson of al lBritish women and manybe a tiny bit of Watson when she was losing to someonein Wimbledon.
Robson's ok , has good powerful forehand, just nos sure whether either of them has any guile and grit, you've got to have those at the top.

Robson I think has more potential I think but both have potential and a lot of great attributes.

Watson seems grittier to me.

Both of them can go toe to toe with some of the best at the moment for a set, but they;re young, give it 2 years or less and I'm hoping they can match the best over full 3 sets.

Remember Robson is just 18.

Just 18 means more among men than women. Women are physically formed by 15 , men are not.
She doesn't come across as the brightest cookie, either.

18 means a lot when you're coming up against a 23 year olds with 10 times more experience of tour match situations than yourself.

Sharp people pick things up fast.

Although Watson is a little older, they're both in very early stages on senior tour and both in learning stage, think we'll see them keep rising up the rankings quickly in next 2 years.

there's nothing stopping them, is there?

Sharp people pick things up fast.
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They're young, give them a chance.

18 is not young in my books. My personal view is that they are all spoilt and immature.

Women are generally a complete package at 18 if they are brought up properly.
The rest is just experience.

Don't know where you get that view from, sounds a bit bitter to me.

Of course in the Nanny Britain, they keep the in nappies till 30