They surely can't have given Evo a main draw WC over Slabba and Wardy.
Not that anything would really surprise me any more.
Sorry, just realised my outburst could be more appropriate and off to change it ...
Who knows what they've done?
All we know is that Kunitsyn is currently taking up 2 of the 128 spots in the main draw, so either Peter Luczak or an AELTC awarded wild card will take one of the spots.
I'm saying 90% it will be Luczak, but maybe they will hold it back for Slabba/Ward if they win a match this week.
And if it goes to Evans? I'd be delighted to see him in the main draw, but it will be a shocking decision
I was following the LTA's logic for a while (not necessarily agreeing with it) but now there appear to be too many inconsistencies for it to hold. The only explanation I am left with is organisational incompetence. I think they've confused themselves.
The Kunitsyn situation is cleared up by the latest update to the entry list.
The AELTC have given over the WC to the ITF again and entry goes to the next player on the list, who is Brian Dabul (as Luczak decided to pull out)
Although they aren't officially wild cards, it will be seen that the AELTC gave 3 wild cards to this event to Martin Vassallo Argunello, Roko Karanusic and Brian Dabul.
Genius... as neither of them will win a set between them
So we now have effective WCs for. among others ...
- Kunitsyn (has won a few matches on grass but stuffed unceremoniously by Boggo at the weekend) - Vass. Arg (grass court record = played 10 sets, lost the lot) - Dabul (grass court record = played 1 singles & 1 doubles match, lost them both 3 & 2)
... yet still Wardy, Slabba, Bloomers, Josh, etc don't warrant one even though they are home players with infinitely better grass court records by far than either of the last two, and even though if the number of grass court tournaments were increased and the number of clay court tournaments decreased until they balanced out, our boys would probably be ranked ahead of them.
I hope the media's actually going to pick up on this monumental face-saving screw-up at some stage. (cough, cough ... are you watching?!)
Be thankful for small mercies, I guess - at least they haven't given them to any of the Austrian DC team yet like they gave one to Cilic last year ...
-- Edited by steven at 16:58, 2008-06-16
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
So we now have effective WCs for. among others ...
- Kunitsyn (has won a few matches on grass but stuffed unceremoniously by Boggo at the weekend) - Vass. Arg (grass court record = played 10 sets, lost the lot) - Dabul (grass court record = played 1 singles & 1 doubles match, lost them both 3 & 2)
Dabul is a clay-court specialist who has NEVER played a singles match at ATP level!
I'm amazed nobody's yet come up with a conspiracy theory about the Argentinians 'agreeing' to let us avoid a DC whitewash if we'd give two of their players Wimby WCs. LOL
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Of course, the dream scenario from our point of view would be for Bloomers, Josh or Chris to qualify and thrash one of these players in straight sets in R1, but I'm sure we won't get that lucky with the draw!
Looking at the Net Post (a nice innovation and always a good read) today, I think Neil Harman seems to agree with the LTA's tough love approach (see http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article4146589.ece) but he also questions the giving of a WC to Kunitsyn, one of the less questionable ones (relatively at least) and seemed very anti Josh being given one.
I'd be fascinated to know (and I'm not being facetious about this, I really would be fascinated) to whom he would have given them. Personally, I'm not against 'tough love', but I don't think limiting our players' chances to play at the top level gratuitously is a clever form of it.
Also in the Times, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article4150714.ece Tigger has his annual dig at the Brits in general. No doubt he's right about some of them - I'm all for individuals taking responsibiity and I certainly wouldn't question how big his own commitment was.
However, we know there are players working desperately hard to succeed and doing anything they can to fund themselves. If a player is giving of their best and has made it to the top 500, it's not really their fault if there aren't enough more talented players filling in the gap above them - that's where the real problem lies, i.e. there aren't enough players being attracted into tennis (and can you blame them?) to pyramid more out at the top and in a country with so much money to put into tennis, it's a failing that can't be blamed on all of the players individually.
-- Edited by steven at 17:44, 2008-06-16
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
I've changed the title back because I'm a bit unsure whether the w/ds that let Vass. Arg. and Dabul in occurred too late for additional WCs to be named.
I think if that had been the case, the w/ds would have created LL places in the draw instead, but I'm not sure.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
"Wild cards Wild cards are players without a high enough world ranking who are accepted directly into "the main Championship draws at the discretion of the Committee.
Wild cards are usually offered on the basis of past performance at Wimbledon or to increase British interest."
Well, Roger Draper suceeded in getting AELTC to ignore both of these principles and to ensure that dubious foreign players are assisted in their funding for the rest of the year in preference to British players - He should be ashamed but I guess he is too out of touch with reality to understand! (He actually believes the LTA pays for players travel expenses - I wonder who actually gets it?)
And the AELTC committee are too spineless to stand up to him.