'TROPHY HUNTING' ( THIS ONE IS FOR YOU )

The following post is dedicated to the five 'tennis players' who were more intent on playing 'down' than up all those years ago. Possibly one of the most embarrassing things I have ever been involved with in 38 years of tennis.
All for the sake of a trophy.
Someone told me a while back that certain 'people' read this site to see if they can find content to sue me. I find that amusing. Good luck with that.
This post is for YOU, yep you know who you are, you read this site often as you look for certain things that may offend your small mind. 
I am currently writing a book, don't know when it will be finished but YOU will be in it as you have given me plenty of dialogue over the years on how the game SHOULD NOT BE PLAYED.
THIS ONE IS FOR YOU.
Regards GT

TROPHY HUNTING 
If I didn't include this topic in my long list of tennis frustrations then it would be an injustice of epic proportions. 
Trophy hunting, it's rife in tennis though usually only really seen in lower level events at obscure venues, for personal fulfillment or financial gain, perhaps both. I have witnessed some unusual things over the years.
Firstly, let's look at 'Trophy Hunting' for the local Club player. Nothing wrong with it if a local 'hot shot' turns up at an event with all guns blazing in his or her's 'appropriate' grade and takes out the title with ease. 
If no one else turns up then stiff cheese, that player was THE BEST, no argument. You can't stop a player from putting their name down at a 'Back of Burke' event, it's simply the luck of the draw as to who turns up. If the field is weak then the hot shot will take home the chocolates, end of story. 
That's not really trophy hunting, that's simply being too good for the opposition.
Let's look at a different scenario.
An 'A Grade' player enters a B Grade Mens Doubles event with a 'B Grade' partner and no one really knows who the A grader is at the 'Back of Burke Open'. The title is won easily, eyebrows are raised. The Committee makes a mental note of who the A grader is and will not accept their entry the following year in B Grade.
That player is an A GRADE player, therefor should play A Grade. Agree ?
Fair enough. 
But that's trophy hunting in a nutshell, playing 'down' when you should be playing in your appropriate division, all for an ego boost and maybe a few dollars prize money. 
In any mans language, weak as piss.
In 38 years or so of playing and coaching tennis I have seen some classic examples of trophy hunting, here's one for you and admittedly I did go home with a trophy, well, not really home, out of the presentation area anyhow.
In my Region of Western Australia several years ago we were lucky enough to have some reasonably talented tennis players. We were also lucky enough to be able to compete in an event in the City where Country teams could compete against each other in a weekend of tennis competition. 
Town versus town, bragging rights a plenty up for grabs, used to be a must on the local tennis calendar when we were all a bit younger and fitter.
One particular year I believed that we had a team to go far in the event, problem however was this, only three of us thought so, the other five players didn't, so in a nutshell we were outvoted as far as what grade we wished to play.
Myself and my two mates wanted A grade, naturally, the other five players wanted B grade. The excuse we received was ' A grade is just too tough'.
Yep that was the excuse we were given, though all players who nominated had in fact played A grade local tennis tournaments in the past, so what really was the issue ? 
Perhaps finishing middle of the field as opposed to winning was not appealing, a trophy was more important obviously. Either way we were forced to play B Division or not play at all. 
A few beers were consumed in the weeks leading up to the event deadline after practice and many phone calls were made between myself and my two 'A Grade' buddies. 
'Mate we are A graders, what the fuck is their problem' ?? 
Yeah mate I know, we will talk em around, it's ok the Tournament Committee will see our names and put us in A grade anyhow, trust me.
Didn't happen, we didn't talk em around, we were put into B Grade. I considered wearing a disguise but I reckon I would have been found out eventually.
At the presentation ( we won without dropping a match, maybe not a set either for that matter ) one of the five players who refused to play A grade whispered in my ear 'It's OK Glenn we will play A grade next year'.
Yep fair dinkum, that's what they said to me. Lucky I didn't belt them over the head with my B grade trophy. I did in fact place mine in a bin on the way out of the stadium, totally embarrassed for even agreeing to play that division. 
So why did I play ?
I honestly thought that we would be promoted, we had a good team, I thought there was no way in the World that the Tournament Committee would allow us to play B grade as we had played A grade previously. I was expecting the other five players to be mouthing off on tournament day as to why we had been 'promoted' to A grade. 
I hadn't played B Grade since I was 12, fact.
The ensuing newspaper article said it all in our local paper.
It printed our names, but wait for it, the Division we won was rather conveniently described as 'THEIR DIVISION'. 
What, no B Grade guys ??! C'mon tell it like it really was.
So whoever put the details into the local paper, ( who was obviously a player from our team ) was no doubt embarrassed about the whole ridiculous situation themselves. 
How else do you describe the words used in the local rag for winning B Grade ?
'The team consisting of ( our names ) won 'THEIR DIVISION'.
Hmmmm, who wrote that ? 
A Journalist or someone hiding from the real facts who was more intent on getting their name in the paper rather than testing their ability on a tennis court ??!!
Do the sums on that one.
So let's look at it, why did we, sorry, THEY nominate for B Grade ? Simple, trophy hunting at it's absolute finest. No thought of testing themselves, just the personal requirement of getting their names put in the local newspaper and another trophy placed on the mantle piece.
The whole affair lead to a few posts on my Blog. Even Andy Roddick agrees with me, sort of......

BLOG EXTRACT, Written JULY 2017

The following is by Andy Roddick. You just have to love his honesty as far as his trophy cabinet is concerned. It seems he doesn't own one that is visible to his friends. That to me is possibly one of the most humble things I have ever read.

"Honestly, let's break it down to the simplest moment: Most people who are in my house probably know that I played tennis at some point. So I don't know that I need shiny objects to try to enforce the fact that I played tennis at some point."
ANDY RODDICK

BLOG EXTRACT, 2017 Glenn Thompson Tennis
MORE PERSPECTIVE

I am 48, I am old as far as a tennis player is concerned. I reckon that I have played perhaps 200 tennis tournaments in my time on court since I was 12 years of age. That's just a rough guess, I may have played a lot more.
I won a few, lost a lot, gained some friends, played some people who I would rather forget. I have done a lot of talking both out loud and in my mind and I have sworn on many occasions that I hate the sport.
I can understand where Andre is coming from, tennis makes you question your own intelligence whether it is on court or off it.
One thing I have never, ever done however is own a false sense of who I am. I am a tennis nobody.
When people walk into my house they see a lot of photos of my kids on the wall and above the fire place, my kids give me perspective in life.
I place just one tennis trophy with the photo frames. It is a trophy that has the words ' La Valette' engraved on it.
La Valette-du-Var is in the same Region as Gareoult, a town in the French Countryside where my touring buddy Peter Gerrans and I won a Doubles event in 1991.
It is the only trophy that I consider to be worth anything, the only trophy in 36 years of hitting tennis balls. It means something to me because it was won against opponents who could play tennis, guys who were trying to make a living from the sport. 
Over the years I have seen many trophy cabinets and mantle pieces laden with dozens of plastic and metal figurines that depict a tennis player in full flight, usually the one that resembles a server, you know the pose, the 'perfect' serve. 
That pose I have been trying to master for years but have fallen well short as mine is something that looks more like a 'frog in a blender' type of delivery.
So to those cabinets and mantle pieces full of figurines. I have often wondered why we put them out for people to see and is it to create a talking point of sorts ? Is it all about swaying the conversation towards you, the one that revolves around your sporting 'expertise' ?
Mine certainly isn't. 
I place that one trophy next to a photo I took of Monte Carlo, the ONE place I wanted so badly to visit when I was a kid all due to my hero Bjorn Borg inspiring me to play. Borg won in Monte Carlo and he lived there, I owned a dream as a kid to replicate that.
That's why I took the trip.
I came away from that tour with just one tournament win but it handed me a tennis education.
Part of me wishes I never took that trip in 1991 because it destroyed my personal view that I was a reasonably good tennis player but that's not how life works. If you go through life with that sort of attitude, the one that has you believing that you are a whole lot better than you actually are it will bite you on the arse eventually, no risk.

We are all different but self justification and self importance in tennis may just be one of the biggest issues the sport owns.
I don't begrudge anyone who wants to place a trophy in full view but be honest with yourself as to where you won it.


A QUOTE FROM YOURS TRULY
"You can win all the local events that you like and place all of those trophies on your mantle piece for all to see and create a talking point or you can get your head outa your own arse and be honest with yourself as to who you actually beat."
Glenn T