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Post Info TOPIC: Shrieky grass wildcards.


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Shrieky grass wildcards.


I hate the message it sends out about drugs cheats. I thought we were better than that.

My only argument for giving her WCs (although not into GSs) would be that if she were to trounce everybody at 15k or so level, it might wreck some of her opponent's weeks. Imagine going all the way to Japan and then being drawn against Shrieky in your first match. The girls at this level need all the points and prize money they can get.

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I'll predict she doesn't get a Wimby MDWC, knowing Mr Jarrett I don't think he's the type of person to ignore public consensus and what is the right thing to do morally, of course there are lots of others who will contribute to the decision, but that's my best guess. Wimby won't be any better off financially with Sharapova in the lineup with a WC, and I'd say she's a dead cert to come through qualies anyway. I'm sort of Ok with the Brum WC just about.

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Kenneth wrote:

Hope she plays in as many UK events as possible, great player and always good to watch. She's made mistakes but hey who hasn't? Wasn't Agassi on coke at some point?
Great to have her at Edgbaston, which has always been a good event but know it's tier 1 (or is it 2?) then the draw has been great last couple of years.


 I like watching her play too.  In fact I saw her play at Birmingham a few years back on an outside court that was more sand than grass, the centre court being waterlogged at the time.  The tournament seems to be plagued by poor weather.



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Yes, like goldfish and others, in spite of my thoughts on Sharapova ( currently more her attitude now that she has served her time ) and that I personally in sport put performance inhancing drugs in a very different league to social drugs, there's mistakes and mistakes ( Hingis was one who seemed extremely harshly treated which is no excuse whatever for the blind eye re such as Agassi ), I do find her a big draw. Bah ...



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The point about her being a draw is just not true: exactly.
In 2016, in which she was largely absent, accounting for all other factors, the WTA saw by far it's laregest ever increase in social media, and all media interaction, across all channels.
More page views
More video views (+1,263.28%)
More retweets & 'likes' (+65.29%)
More commentary/engagement (+199.35%)
More new subscribers to streaming services (+20.23%)
8/10 of the top videos ever produced by the WTA were in the latter half if 2016

and so on. See: https://soundcloud.com/wta-insider/state-of-the-tour-address-w-wta-ceo-steve-simon

Now, I suppose you could argue that it would have been even *more* with Sharapova there. But that's entirely unprovable. What is true is that the WTA had it's best year in terms of the popularity of the tour since the start of the soical media age - and that is by no means a given consequence of time (just ask FriendsReunited or MySpace).

Even the Stuttgart tournament, her secondary home in some senses, had it's best ever year financially, last year. Aided no doubt by the status of Angie Kerber at that time, but so did IW, and many of the large events that would actually have this player supposedly boosting their sales.

Yes, she probably sells tickets to some degree, and now, there is almost an additional rubbernecking premium to boot; but the effect, which seems so obvious on the surface, and is almost taken for granted, is not borne out by much evidence outside of hagiographic coverage.



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I had to look up 'hagiographic' - good word biggrin



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Julia Carrot wrote:

I had to look up 'hagiographic' - good word biggrin


 You learn something new every day (so did I!)



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She beat Christina McHale by 4 & 2 in the first round in Rome, so she's moved into the top 200 & is guaranteed at least a place in Wimbledon qualies.  cry



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Stircrazy wrote:

She beat Christina McHale by 4 & 2 in the first round in Rome, so she's moved into the top 200 & is guaranteed at least a place in Wimbledon qualies.  cry


 

She needs 3 more wins to reach the SF here and thus make the Wimbledon main draw on her ranking in this the last counting week. Just the QF won't get that job done.

Standing in her way are initially Lucic-Baroni and then possibly Kerber and Halep.



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Stuart Fraser on Twitter..

"The FFT will announce on Facebook Live whether Sharapova has been given a French Open wild card half an hour before her match at 6pm UK..."

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Hmm, interesting timing.

And is this a specifically Sharapova WC announcement  ( why would you ? ) or a more general WC announcement ?



-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 16th of May 2017 02:51:41 AM

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indiana wrote:
Stircrazy wrote:

She beat Christina McHale by 4 & 2 in the first round in Rome, so she's moved into the top 200 & is guaranteed at least a place in Wimbledon qualies.  cry


 

She needs 3 more wins to reach the SF here and thus make the Wimbledon main draw on her ranking in this the last counting week. Just the QF won't get that job done.

Standing in her way are initially Lucic-Baroni and then possibly Kerber and Halep.


 Now she's got into qualies by right, I'd be tempted to give her a MDWC just so she doesn't bash all the genuine journeywomen in her wake.



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Somewhat reluctantly on reflection I agree, Helen. There's a slight difference between coming up against say a normal #1 qualifying seed and Sharapova.

She's back, she's clearly playing easily to main draw standard so given we do have Slam main draw WCs in this instance I'd give her one if she falls short of the necessary points.



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Yes - that's a good point Helen - and probably the lesser of two evils.

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Who cant wait for the RG announcement at 6pm - whew !!!!

(I am being ironic, just in case anyone cant tell...)

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