Isabelle Wallace

PockyTastic · Futures level

RE: Isabelle Wallace

steven · Tennis legend

She's certainly having a good week this week - she just recovered from a set and 3-5 down to oust the 3rd seed, a top 350 player!

skibbarriz · Strong Club Player

I think no ill of her for changing countries. Consider:

Family A is very wealthy. The parents of this girl are executives in the corporate world, they are well connected and get involved in societal functions. They are confident and assured when it comes to engaging with an organisation such as the LTA, feel no financial dependency on the LTA and thus no sense of anxiety or dissatisfaction when it comes to LTA financial support policy. These parents, by their own independent means, have every option at their disposal regarding the circumstances and provisions for their tennis playing daughter. Whether their daughter is in school full time, being home schooled, or at a foreign academy, it's completely their show. Any financial aid they receive from the LTA acts more as endorsement and support than a neccessary provision of funds.

Family B is not any of the above.

-- Edited by skibbarriz on Friday 20th of November 2015 07:45:51 PM

Spectator · All-time great

Having read the various comments and the BBC article, I'd have to say that I don't feel Ms Wallace's family showed a particular sense of entitlement. They just seemed to be putting an extraordinary amount of money into their daughter's "career" and felt that they weren't getting much guidance. It's a thoroughly reasonable position - and given that the kind of advice and mentoring they seemed to feel was lacking wouldn't cost that much if spread over a number of players, one has to wonder why it's not forthcoming. Of course, there may be more to things than that - but one does feel a certain sympathy.

TheTraveller2 · Lower Club Player

skibbarriz wrote:
I think no ill of her for changing countries. Consider:

Family A is very wealthy. The parents of this girl are executives in the corporate world, they are well connected and get involved in societal functions. They are confident and assured when it comes to engaging with an organisation such as the LTA, feel no financial dependency on the LTA and thus no sense of anxiety or dissatisfaction when it comes to LTA financial support policy. These parents, by their own independent means, have every option at their disposal regarding the circumstances and provisions for their tennis playing daughter. Whether their daughter is in school full time, being home schooled, or at a foreign academy, it's completely their show. Any financial aid they receive from the LTA acts more as endorsement and support than a neccessary provision of funds.

Family B is not any of the above.

-- Edited by skibbarriz on Friday 20th of November 2015 07:45:51 PM

Agree completely. Doesn't even need to be a very wealthy family.

Slightly different track: corporations generally (of which the LTA is one) are far from perfect. If you are exposed to that regularly you have lower expectations of decision making and thinking from an LTA type entity. If you have less or no exposure, you may have unrealistic expectations of how the organization and its employees perform. Underperformance by employees of large organizations is just as likely as high performance - including leaders.

So I don't think the LTA is any worse or any better than most. The belief for many (not me by the way), I believe, is that their duty of care should some how be higher because their funding and stakeholders are different from a for profit organization. I think this is unrealistic.

-- Edited by TheTraveller2 on Friday 20th of November 2015 09:30:57 PM

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Becoming a touring tennis pro is phenomenally difficult and expensive, unless you are a truly elite junior and your federation falling over itself to help you have to carve a way, good luck to her.

steven · Tennis legend

Izzy picks quite a week to make her first 10K singles final, thrashing the 5th seed 1 & 1 in the semis in Castellón this morning!

scottie1 · Futures level

I see Izzy's ranking has went up to 282 she was stagnating in the 600's when the LTA were involved now playing for Australia higher ranked now than some of our highly thought of younger players.

nickw811 · Social player

I've just spoken to Izzy Wallace on what she's been up to since she switched to represent Australia. Do British fans still follow her? From this thread, interestingly the last post was made back in 2015 (not sure if there's another thread devoted to her elsewhere), but it's worth noting she is in the top 300 and playing some really good tennis.

Check out the interview if you're interested: https://thebigracket.org/2017/12/05/aussie-rules-for-scot-isabelle-wallace/

:) Nick

Would love to know what you think, as ever! Also, if you have any topic you'd like me to explore let me know! I blog about all aspects of tennis, with a British twist. I have an article coming up after an interview with a player who is the number one from a country which doesn't even have its own Fed Cup team they're that small!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Thanks, Nick. I'm sure people note Izzy's wins when they see her name, and wish her well.
But now she's Aussie (again?!?) there's no specific focus on her here any longer.
I'll check out your interview though. Cheers.

blob · All-time great

I had noted and tracked her considerable progress in a thread in the 'General Tennis' section
But, as the search function is awful, I can't find it again.
Scottie also did in the 'Individual Player' section in October - britishtennis.activeboard.com/t64052884/isabelle-wallace/
Still pleased when she does well... providing it's not against a Brit!

Interview with a big fish in a very small pond sounds interesting.

indiana · Tennis legend

I have merged all the above with Scottie's post in the 'Individual Player' section.

indiana · Tennis legend

Izzy's tennis certainly seems to be in a good place. She has won the Nules, Spain 25K, her second 25K title in four months.

She will move up to a new CH ( 253 currently showing in live rankings ). That would be GB #6 if ...

scottie1 · Futures level

An article in todays sport in the Aberdeen Press and Journal re Izzy
She has moved up over 400 places in 2017
She had lived in Australia for 6 years and felt she was getting more support from the Aussie tennis than the LTA
Izzy is ranked 250 or so next step she says is top 200

FriendofLouieG · Lower Club Player

I officiated her QR2 match in Brisbane this year. Shes a decent young player but not quite the finished article as yet.