It’s a rich kid’s game in Australia. Child prodigy’s like L Hewitt had the benefit of brilliance supported by parents with means. There would be loads of kids who could have been something had everything come together for them.
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Isn’t most sport + elite coaching expensive in Australia? I think we have a good structure of clubs, competitions and regular underage tournaments, but that’s more social than elite.
We are isolated. I think you are right that to get regular exposure under the best international coaches and play against the best players of your age, then that does require a considerable investment.
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Have noticed around Adelaide that millions has been invested in new courts everywhere. Seems there is a real push to get our infrastructure back to where it should be. Still a rich kids sport though with it costing bucket loads to train a promising junior
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To me tennis has always been too elitist, I mean in country towns (and assume in metro also) you needed to be a tennis club member to use the (usually) council owned facilities. Cricket, football, basketball could be played pretty much at will on the local oval, courts etc.
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We’re lucky that the City of Joondalup over here have been gracious enough to make all council run tennis courts available free of charge. It’s brilliant as locals can have a hit without the hassle of per-arranging access + forking out $20 odd per hour. How a talented kid gets from there to the notice of TA is still clouded by $$$ (or lack of it) but it helps build passion at the ground level.
On a related subject, I bought a ball-launcher about 4x years ago off a family who were moving to Melbourne to be closer to the the elite tennis infrastructure + more suitable regular competition. They were selling their house and everything to give their kid a shot. They were a middle class family with no job prospects lined up but they felt they didn’t really have a choice as although their kid was ranked highly for his age group (he was 15 at the time) they weren’t getting any help from TA in the form of travel/accommodation support or subsidisation or assistance with specialist coaching. Tennis WA weren’t much help either. Unfortunately I can’t recall the kid’s name but I can’t say anything rings a bell when up n coming talent gets mentioned. Anyway, point of the story is I got the impression that because their kid wasn’t from suitable tennis family, they were effectively on their own.
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Tennis and Hockey got into the realms of ridiculous at some points.
12 year old kids with 300-400 dollar racquets. 4-500 sticks. heaven forbid you were the goalie in hockey. you wanted decent shin pads too because ■■■■ getting hit by that ball.
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Add MAG (gymnastics) to the list of the ridiculous. The fee for Jnr diggers #1 is $4800 per year, not including clothing, accessories (guards, tape etc) and comp fees. Jnr diggers #2 comes in a little less at $4500. If both keep progressing they should qualify for national competition within a year or two. GWA helps out a little with travel + accommodation but the family will contribute most. This isn’t a whinge mind you as our lads displayed some ability in the sport so it’s our responsibility to fund them but despite significant lobbying by the sport for government and private investment to assist the athletes, we get bugger all but you can guarantee the sport minister will turn up for a photo op if an athlete happens to do well.
We mock AFL for good reason but their efforts in supporting junior participation is brilliant. So many talented athletes don’t make it in gymnastics not because of a lack of talent, rather a lack of finance. Would be the same for tennis and hockey + a number of other lower profile endeavours.
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Its like 500? a season at local clubs.
boots are 1-200
mouthguard 50 bucks?
compare to some sports its a bargain.
Some clubs are really well run and sponsored so you don’t have to buy your own uniform.
Juniors at my club was $180 last year and that included a pair of club socks and footy shorts.
A local sports store is one of our sponsors so being a member gets you a 20% discount card to buy boots, mouth guard etc. White shorts for away games need to be purchased aswell. Still good value as my nephews play soccer and they pay over $2000 each per year in fees
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Wow and when I played under 13 footy my Mum had to scrounge around to find the 2 shillings each week for the umpire.
Us Baby Boomers sure had it easy.
Where does that $2000 go. It’s ridiculous. Junior sport should be cheap and affordable for every kid. I played cricket, tennis, football and basketball from 10 onwards. We were dirt poor but we were still able to pay as the fees were all affordable. What has happened to junior sport.
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Fair chunk goes to the FFA and the local state FA I believe
I had friends who consistently used to beat Hewitt and the scud. They traveled global and won junior tournaments in the US and Europe.
However when it came to give sponsorships they never got any due to their parents not being in the inner sanctum.
Their dad vented to Newcombe one day and that was the end of both kids careers.
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There was a huge increase in tennis courts In west Europe staring In the seventies including some state of the art indoor courts. but the top courts were really expensive in joining fees and hiring costs. European friends visiting Australia were amazed at our long breaks between sets ( social tennis)
until we explained we were paying peanuts for membership and court hire .
Hewitt was winning atp events at 16. I doubt any australian was beating him consistently as a junior. And l assume you mean two different friends beat these two as the scud is five years older so to beat both your friend would have had to beat both as pro’s. Or was playing lleyton when hewitt was 11and he was 16.
I don’t doubt that your friends may have had some talent that could have warranted some extra funding or that there’s an inner sanctum but l doubt your friends were beating either consistently.
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2 brothers. Both champion junior players.
Don’t want to make accusations, but Tennis Australia was a very racist industry back then.
Apart from the scud, how many players with ethnic parents did we have on circuit in the 90’s early 2000’s.
Parents of these brothers spent hundreds and thousands on them. Had racquet and shoe sponsors, only to be told by TA that their behaviour didn’t fit in with what they wanted. Maybe they would not have made it as good as Hewitt, but the younger brother definitely deserved a contract and support
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She makes me smile. She was probably lucky to win Wimbledon and she’s probably been out of the game for too long, and is now too old, for thecomeback to be a success, but I hope she has fun and does okay.
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Crazy’s stiff will crack his screen when he reads that.
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Saw Roger play last night. His serving at N Osaka and Y Sugita bordered on cruel at times. On Naomi Osaka, reckon we’ll hear more from her in the years to come. She has a lot to work with.