My mate' s kid

Mick Sawyer wrote:

And, considering what you've just said Mick - absolutely no disgrace in the loss either. Many wouldn't have taken a single game off the champ, let alone lose the opening set to a single break of serve. Well done to the young man.

aye & cheers Growler.

The first set was a terrific peformance. It seems that his serve caved in after that. Nevertheless, a massive lift for John's confidence. It should also make shelling out the dollars to fund everything a little less painful for his dad, for a while anyway.

I'll tell you what ...... John is a few years off his prime yet, and you say has already won $26K. Young lads get attacks of nerves now and then when they come across gnarled old pros - look no further than young Hughes in the Ashes. Before a ball was bowled Fred told him "I'm going to be all over you for 5 Tests ....... IF you play all five. The rest is history - Fred dismissed him two out of three innings and destroyed his confidence to the point he's just been recalled this week.

John will improve his ranking I'm sure - and with it will come increased prize money. I've a suspicion that he'll remember who funded his development, and that his ol dad won't have to worry about paying the bills in his dotage

I'll tell you what ...... John is a few years off his prime yet, and you say has already won $26K. Young lads get attacks of nerves now and then when they come across gnarled old pros - look no further than young Hughes in the Ashes. Before a ball was bowled Fred told him "I'm going to be all over you for 5 Tests ....... IF you play all five. The rest is history - Fred dismissed him two out of three innings and destroyed his confidence to the point he's just been recalled this week.

John will improve his ranking I'm sure - and with it will come increased prize money. I've a suspicion that he'll remember who funded his development, and that his ol dad won't have to worry about paying the bills in his dotage

Cheers again Growler. I just got to thinking about the money thing. We all presume that upper level sports people make gazillions. Many of them do, of course, but can you think of a profession where the 300th best practitioner in the world has turned over only $26k but has spent (guessing here) 5 times that much to earn it.

True - but if in a couple of years time he were to go up even to 80 or 90 odd in the world, he'll be able to qualify for the grand slams. First round losers at Wimbledon walked off with £10,000.

If he never quite reached GS standard, he'll make a better than average living reaching latter stages of smaller tournaments not graced by the top 30 or so.

I hope you'll revisit this thread as he progresses.

Growler wrote:True - but if in a couple of years time he were to go up even to 80 or 90 odd in the world, he'll be able to qualify for the grand slams. First round losers at Wimbledon walked off with £10,000.

If he never quite reached GS standard, he'll make a better than average living reaching latter stages of smaller tournaments not graced by the top 30 or so.

I hope you'll revisit this thread as he progresses.

Absolutely correct. There's plenty to look forward to & yes I'll post some updates from time to time.