Wimbledon WC's

Shhh · Challenger level

RE: Wimbledon WC's

steven · Tennis legend

I can hardly believe what I'm seeing here furious

- can Wardy and Slabba really be happy that the LTA have given them Nottingham WCs only to deny them any chance of playing at Wimby? Sounds like a dire trade-off to me. cry

As for giving a WC to Spadea - now they're just taking the p***!! furious

They'd better have got USO and RG WC trades out of this ...

Yorkie · Lower Club Player

I want Jonny Kinsella to get one into the qualies

i know its a long shot but he's a decent enough player

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Spadea, Kunitsyn and Ascione??? Well that's a surprise, and to be honest a very strange set of wild cards, especially given the ability that Kunitsyn and Ascione have on a grass court and the fact Spadea has done nothing since the Aussie Open this year.

Presumably they're hoping that a couple of these get a direct entry so they can give the WC to someone else, maybe Slabba and Ward who are playing Nottingham, given that they no longer have a qualifying wild card, but if not then a very strange decision as unlike the other 3 foreign wild cards I don't see any of the 3 winning a match

Presuming Hutchins/Huss made the doubles cut then given that they've lost their WC, which is good news as it allows Eaton/Slabba and Boggo/Marray to play doubles and take the first round money, and nice to see Morgan and Eaton get a quali WC.

Guessing the other 2 will go to Willis plus 1 other, maybe Bamford, but we'll have to wait and see

Salmon · Tennis legend

Actually, barring Chardy and X Man, all the non-Brits can go into the main draw through their ranking. What will they do if that happens?

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 19:49, 2008-06-13

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

steven wrote:

I can hardly believe what I'm seeing here - can Wardy and Slabba really be happy that the LTA have given them Nottingham WCs only to deny them any chance of playing at Wimby? Sounds like a dire trade-off to me.

As for giving a WC to Spadea - now they're just taking the p***!! They'd better have got USO and RG WC trades out of this ...

Trust me.... Spadea has a much better chance of winning a match than Ascione and Kunitsyn do, even though I'm sure he'll lose in round 1 (but having Vinny Ice at Wimbledon makes the event so much better)

Maybe the LTA asked Ward and Slabba if they'd rather play Nottingham or Wimbledon qualifying and they chose to play Nottingham, with the condition that they get the Wimbledon WC if Spadea and co make the cut?

I know insulting the LTA is the given thing around here (and I do it a lot), but it wouldn't surprise me if Ward and Slabba made this choice rather than being forced to play Nottingham (and being forced to play an ATP event isn't that bad a punishment anyway)

steven · Tennis legend

Maybe you're right, but that would be a bit over-complicated, wouldn't it?

Do you think maybe the sub-plot is that they want to give WCs to Slabba and Ward, don't want to do it upfront because they think they'll lose face over the top 250 thing but are virtually certain that Spadea (the reason I got most mad at that one is because they can't even claim he's a young up-and-coming player!) and perhaps one other will be DAs for qualifying by Sunday evening and they can then say "well, we'll have to give the remaining WCs to these two Brits because there's nobody else we can give them to at such short notice." (even as write it, it doesn't make sense, though it would be the least worst outcome!)

Anyway, maybe we should hold back with comments until everything is finally set in stone, and of course we don't know what may or may not have been said to (or by) any of the players involved, it just has such a whiff of 'only in GB could they screw their own players over so badly' about it.

-- Edited by steven at 19:53, 2008-06-13

Bladetiger · Pro player

Greenleaf wrote:

Gentlemens Singles

Jamie Baker (GBR)
Alex Bogdanovic (GBR)
Jeremy Chardy (FRA)
Frank Dancevic (CAN)
Xavier Malisse (BEL)
Igor Kunitsyn (RUS)
Vincent Spadea (USA)
Thierry Ascione (FRA)

Mens Doubles

James Auckland (GBR) and Jamie Delgado (GBR)
Neil Bamford (GBR) and Joshua Goodall (GBR)
Richard Bloomfield (GBR) and Kenneth Skupski (GBR)
Alex Bogdanovic (GBR) and Jonathan Marray (GBR)
Chris Eaton (GBR) and Alexander Slabinsky

Qualifying Gentlemen's Singles

Richard Bloomfield (GBR)
Edward Seator (GBR)
Kenneth Skupski (GBR)
Jonathan Marray (GBR)
Daniel Cox (GBR)
Morgan Phillips (GBR)
Chris Eaton (GBR)
To be announced
To be announced

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 19:24, 2008-06-13

I am amazed by this, where's Josh Goodall, is he in as a DA to qualies?

Why on earth are Slabba and James Ward not in wimby, surely they could have played first round matches at Nottingham on Monday and gone to wimby on Tuesday if they lost (Which is perfectly possible / likely).

You can guarantee the LTA wont have traded these WC's that would be far too sensible, and would have given a British player a hand up which is not what they are there to do.

And what was the point of the whole Wild card play offs if the semi finalists were going to get one anyway?

Utterly bizarre.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

steven wrote:

Maybe you're right, but that would be a bit over-complicated, wouldn't it?

Do you think maybe the sub-plot is that they want to give WCs to Slabba and Ward, don't want to do it upfront because they think they'll lose face over the top 250 thing but are virtually certain that Spadea (the reason I got most mad at that one is because they can't even claim he's a young up-and-coming player!) and perhaps one other will be DAs for qualifying by Sunday evening and they can then say "well, we'll have to give the remaining WCs to these two Brits because there's nobody else we can give them to at such short notice." (even as write it, it doesn't make sense, though it would be the least worst outcome!)

Yeah, that's exactly what I think the plan is smile

Problem is finding someone to withdraw, as all those with injuries like Ferrero will wait until as late as possible before withdrawing - guessing they're hoping someone like Pashanski or Fognini won't fancy getting thrashed in the first round and so will withdraw, but I'd expect them to show up and take the prize money without showing any effort at all

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Bladetiger wrote:

Greenleaf wrote:

Gentlemens Singles

Jamie Baker (GBR)
Alex Bogdanovic (GBR)
Jeremy Chardy (FRA)
Frank Dancevic (CAN)
Xavier Malisse (BEL)
Igor Kunitsyn (RUS)
Vincent Spadea (USA)
Thierry Ascione (FRA)

Mens Doubles

James Auckland (GBR) and Jamie Delgado (GBR)
Neil Bamford (GBR) and Joshua Goodall (GBR)
Richard Bloomfield (GBR) and Kenneth Skupski (GBR)
Alex Bogdanovic (GBR) and Jonathan Marray (GBR)
Chris Eaton (GBR) and Alexander Slabinsky

Qualifying Gentlemen's Singles

Richard Bloomfield (GBR)
Edward Seator (GBR)
Kenneth Skupski (GBR)
Jonathan Marray (GBR)
Daniel Cox (GBR)
Morgan Phillips (GBR)
Chris Eaton (GBR)
To be announced
To be announced

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 19:24, 2008-06-13

I am amazed by this, where's Josh Goodall, is he in as a DA to qualies?

Why on earth are Slabba and James Ward not in wimby, surely they could have played first round matches at Nottingham on Monday and gone to wimby on Tuesday if they lost (Which is perfectly possible / likely).

You can guarantee the LTA wont have traded these WC's that would be far too sensible, and would have given a British player a hand up which is not what they are there to do.

And what was the point of the whole Wild card play offs if the semi finalists were going to get one anyway?

Utterly bizarre.

Goodall is a DE to qualifying - cut is currently 291 with Rui Machado

You have to be out of the Nottingham main draw in order to play Wimbledon qualifying (I think this is the case anyway) when the draw is made, so even if they lost on the Monday, the draw is made on Sunday and so can't play both - and even so, I think all the 1st round men's matches are being played on Monday so can't do both, as they wouldn't be allowed to hold their matches back, and if they did win at Nottingham, then they'd face a fine for a late withdrawal.

And of course, Slabba and Ward could have chosen a WC to Nottingham over Wimbledon qualifying.

The WC play-off has always been like that though, with most of the field getting a WC in the end

Salmon · Tennis legend

So who are the players who may withdraw and get the four non-Brits till Dancevic into the main draw? Of course, I am not wishing injury or persistence of already existing injuries on anyone! I hope everyone gets fit and people withdraw because of other reasons, example - Federer with boredom, etc.

Fish, Llodra, HT Lee, Dancevic, Grosjean, Starace, Odesnik and Murray have retired/given walkovers this week. Of them, Grosjean, HT Lee and Fish have withdrawn from next week's tourneys, so whathever caused their injuries is not very simple.

JCF may not play as he was injured in RG and has withdrawn from Rosmalen.

Acasuso hasn't played on grass for three years now and withdrew from Liverpool, so there's a good chance of him not turning up for the 10K.

Who else is left?

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Grosjean, Lee, Fish and Llodra all won't withdraw until as late as possible as they all have good chances of winning matches, and I think their withdrawals are precautionary.

Starace and Odesnik are the ones most likely to pull out as they won't win a round, as could the likes of Acasuso who hates grass and Pashanski who is truly awful on it. Unfortunately the likes of Hernandez, Montanes etc happen to be tryers in the sense they will show up and try to play on grass, even though they'll get hammered, when in the past these clay court types would just withdraw

Salmon · Tennis legend

I guess it's quite sensible for the non top 60 grass haters to play here as 10K is a lot to them and London is a nice place to visit!

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Greenleaf wrote:

I guess it's quite sensible for the non top 60 grass haters to play here as 10K is a lot to them and London is a nice place to visit!

Yeah, they come and have a holiday in London, then get at least 10K for turning up on a tennis court, and will often play doubles as well to get another 2/3K for that, and then go back to clay the following week

wolf · Tennis legend

ForeverDelayed wrote:
Trust me.... Spadea has a much better chance of winning a match than Ascione and Kunitsyn do, even though I'm sure he'll lose in round 1 (but having Vinny Ice at Wimbledon makes the event so much better)

I have to disagree with that, I have only saw Kunitsyn once but he looked a much better player than Spadea!