ISLAND tennis must up its game to attract more world-class players to future big-money tournaments in Jersey, says Channel Islands Lawn Tennis Association manager Hugh Raymond.
Following the success of last week’s Caversham ATP Men’s 30,000 euros and ITF ladies’ $10,000 challengers at Les Ormes, tournament director Raymond says more professionalism is required to ensure that standards continue to rise.
He said: ‘We tend to be very friendly over here – it’s easy to forget that these men are earning a living from tennis. Andreas Beck lost to Nadal in the first round of Wimbledon, where the tournament is run and structured to a very high level, and the players are very well looked after. But when they come to these events, trying to improve their rankings, they still expect a similar sort of thing.’
In March, Les Ormes will host a 50,000 euros ATP men’s challenger, as well as an ITF ladies’ $25,000 tournament, which is likely to attract better and more familiar players. Raymond said: ‘From what we saw last week there is no question that the ATP approach to tennis is very different to the ITF approach, in that the men took precedence, but that’s something we will have to look at very closely for March when the ladies jumps to $25,000.’
