Sheddie wrote:

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As Ward said in Monday's interview, the average age for breaking top 100 is 24
 

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Agree with all of it barring the age part. Mean age of breaking the top 100 must be around 21.5 these days (last three years or so), I think. Can't prove it now but this'll be one of my projects after my exams are over!


Obviously you can get there at 24, 25 or whenever you want if you work hard enough.

wouldnt that be a bit harsh on the players who didnt get to take part tho like josh and rich?

yes, i wonder what they will do. i guess we will have some idea today when we see who is at notts. i am 99.9% certain boggo hasnt got a notts WC, so that leaves 2 to give out. maybe josh can still get a wimby wc?

i know the lta say dont give them to the brits, but then who should get them? the next in the alt list?

That sounds like a good plan, but I think the LTA would feel they were losing face if that happened, and that always seems to be the primary consideration these days.

Another good plan (which would also, in a sense, involve giving the WCs to winners) might be to tell the Brits that they are welcome to try to qualify for Nottingham and if they do qualify, they'll get one of the remaining Wimby WCs too, since otherwise qualifying for Nottingham would mean missing Wimby Q.

However, the risk with that plan is if it rains this weekend and Nottingham qualifying overruns so that the qualifiers are not known by the time of Wimby Q sign in. Having said that, if they've got through a couple of qualifying rounds by then, I doubt there would be more than three Brits left (!), so the plan could still work. Not that it would seem fair on Bloomers and Wardy, who probably had to play far better in Queen's Q than is likely to be necessary to qualify in Nottingham.

I don't really see how they could justify giving a main draw WC to the winner of the playoffs when those already given qualifying WCs didn't have the option to take part in the playoffs.

One qualies WC could go to Willis/Pauffley depending on how well they do at Queen's Juniors.

Looks like there is going to be a huge problem with the wild cards at Nottingham as with all the other Brits going to Wimbledon qualifying, we are going to be short of who to give the WC's too.

Boggo isn't getting one we think, while we know that Baker is (even though he needs matches), leaving 2 wild cards available, but no British players to give one too - unless they give it to the Eaton/Bamford/Phillps type players who aren't in Wimbledon qualies and just hope they don't get embarassed.

The other option is to give it to Jamie Murray who I'm sure would love another chance to play singles and see whether or not he can win a match at ATP level, or give it to a foreigner (and with Clement, the runner-up last year, still alternate 3, I think we could see him given the WC)

And Wimbledon? Well they have to find someone to give the WC's do, and it's not like last year with someone making a great run at Queens to deserve it, as the QF line up is possibly the best seen in any tournament so far this season, while the same has happened in Halle.

Just having a look at who's in the qualifying list to see who stands out, but Spadea is the only one who I'd say could get a WC, unless they give it to Mirnyi so we doesn't have to play qualifying and can partner Jamie at Nottingam.

Going to say that the 3 WC's will go to Max Mirnyi, Jamie Murray (on the basis Rusedski still thinks he's going to get one, and he's inside the system and some must have been told something to think that) and then 1 of Goodall or Bloomfield.... but I'm prepared to be very wrong!